Written by Michael Vrtis President of Realgy Energy Services in response to Chicago can’t beat ComEd price. So raise it?

Realgy DOES NOT support changing how the Illinois Power Agency buys power, so that our prices can be more competitive.

We already are:

  • Realgy has been below ComEd monthly pricing since January 2012, Twenty-one straight months in a row!
  • Our average commercial customer has saved $3,741.41
  • Our average residential customer has saved $90.02

We compete in serving our customers, not just with lower priced energy but smarter buying strategies.

This price question is a result of municipal aggregation, where cities like Chicago want to be able to raise money by adding a surcharge onto the electric rate customers pay, and still show savings compared to the utility!

Municipalities select an energy marketer as their preferred vendor and require they add a surcharge to their cost which they pay to the city. The surcharge provides no value to the customer or the energy marketer.

Perhaps instead of looking to raise everyone’s price of power they should just get out of the aggregation business or look to actually add value for their surcharge.

Check out Crain’s article: “Chicago can’t beat ComEd price. So raise it?”