ICC Will Likely Need to Address Issues Related to Municipal Aggregation

The Illinois Commerce Commission will likely need to "work through" several issues related to opt-out municipal electric aggregation, ICC Chairman Doug Scott said in addressing the National Energy Marketers Association Restructuring Conference.

In particular, Scott cited the misalignment between the Illinois Planning Agency delivery year for default service (beginning each June 1) and the start date and term lengths of municipal aggregation programs as an area which may require review.

Municipal aggregation has been permitted for several years in Illinois but has only recently attracted interest from municipalities and suppliers. Scott reported that about 20 municipalities have passed resolutions approving aggregation programs. Scott noted that it will likely be a few months before these municipalities receive pricing in response to their RFPs, and any price benefits of aggregation are known.

Varying proposed bills at the legislature would address several municipal aggregation issues, including allowing customers to leave a municipal aggregation without a termination fee, limiting the aggregation to customers taking fixed price default service (excluding competitive supply customers), prohibiting inclusion of small commercial customers on an opt-out basis until 2013, and allowing municipal aggregators to access customer account numbers (see 3/24).