Why are Illinois municipalities putting fees ahead of their residents?
If your electric bill is too high, you might want to call City Hall and opt OUT of their aggregation offer.
Municipal aggregation in Illinois allowed municipalities to enter into deals with energy marketers to serve as their residents power supplier replacing COMED or other competitive energy marketers. The concept was that municipal aggregation would lower costs; the reality was that municipalities saw it as a way of increasing tax payments. See previous article: http://realgyenergyservices.com/chicago-electric-bills-rise-18-june/
The result: under municipal aggregation residents have paid about 8% more than they would have under COMED!
That is: you paid more than the local Utility, however, the municipalities earned more in fees.
During the same time; Realgy customers paid about 5% LESS THAN COMED.
Competition works in energy like everything else. However, you must pick an energy supplier directly and not one that serves the municipality in collecting fees.
Realgy Energy Services is a registered Retail Energy Marketer in the states of Illinois, Michigan and Indiana. We offer Service Plans that will provide electric and natural gas at wholesale pricing direct to customers without any utility markup. Our Service Plans work with the local utility to provide seamless service and annual energy savings. Service Plans include Guaranteed SavingsTM, ManagedPriceTM, ManagedGreenTM and Index, Fixed pricing.
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“I am NOT a crook!”
If you recall President Nixon’s infamous quote…. I am reminded of it when WEC Energy denies any culpability in Peoples Gas ‘misinformation’ case.
As life goes in a circle, let’s recall the other adage of that time…follow the money, so lets.
In 2014 Illinois Commerce Commission approved $4,600,000,000 ($4.6 billion) for Peoples Gas to replace gas mains.
June 24, 2015 WEC Energy buys Peoples Gas for $9,100,000,000 ($9.1 billion)
July 7, 2015 Peoples Gas updates its estimate for gas main replacement to $8,200,000,000 ($8.2 billion)
So NO one in Peoples Gas was aware that the gas main replacement, the largest project Peoples has undertaking in some time, was costing X2 what it was approved to spend. Yet, about 2 weeks later they had detailed information of what those costs were and asked the ICC for approval to spend it.
The Attorney General’s Office is investigating Peoples Gas executives for what they knew and when they knew it……as I said the circle goes round and round.
Recall: Peoples as a regulated monopoly can only earn money when it spends on expenses approved by the ICC. If they are not approved by the ICC, Peoples gas runs the risk of having to have their investors pay for it.
Realgy Energy Services is a registered Retail Energy Marketer in the states of Illinois, Michigan and Indiana. We offer Service Plans that will provide electric and natural gas at wholesale pricing direct to customers without any utility markup. Our Service Plans work with the local utility to provide seamless service and annual energy savings. Service Plans include Guaranteed SavingsTM, ManagedPriceTM, ManagedGreenTM and Index, Fixed pricing.
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The Supreme Court explains our electricity system
We all know the electric system isn’t rocket science….but explaining how our electric system operates sounds well….confusing.
Enter the US Supreme Court, yep that one.
The court entered a ruling in which they had to understand and rule on the economic and structure of our electric system (from utilities, power marketers, wholesale market, demand response, etc.)
Here is a quick review of their explanation/finds:
- ….understand demand response, you first need to grasp a key detail: You and I generally pay the same price for every kilowatt hour of electricity that we use at home, but that’s an artificial arrangement that protects us from shifts in electricity’s true price on wholesale markets. This price varies greatly based on the demand for it, and that demand fluctuates constantly — even if we tend to be individually insulated from these market shifts by our utility company, its regulators, and so on.
- wholesale electricity markets….suppose that at 9 a.m. on August 15 four plants serving Washington, D. C. can each produce some amount of electricity for, respectively, $10/unit, $20/unit, $30/unit, and $40/unit. And suppose that LSEs’ [load serving entities, aka utility companies] demand at that time and place is met after the operator accepts the three cheapest bids. The first three generators would then all receive $30/unit. That amount is (think back to Econ 101) the marginal cost—i.e., the added cost of meeting another unit of demand—which is the price an efficient market would produce. FERC calls that cost (in jargon that will soon become oddly familiar) the locational marginal price, or LMP.
- What happens during extreme days when power demands surges (think days of “polar vortex” and 100F/95% humidity). To keep providing power to their customers, utilities and energy marketers must ask their market operator for more electricity. To meet that spike in demand, the operator will have to accept more expensive bids from suppliers. The operator, that is, will have to agree to the $40 bid that it spurned before—and maybe, beyond that, to bids of $50 or $60 or $70. In such periods, operators often must call on extremely inefficient generators whose high costs of production cause them to sit idle most of the time….As that happens, LMP—the price paid by all LSEs to all suppliers—climbs ever higher. And meanwhile, the increased flow of electricity through the grid threatens to overload transmission lines…..
- “real time pricing” — electricity rate schemes in which individuals will pay more (or — and here’s the big opportunity — considerably less) depending on how they behave during periods of peak demand.
- “time demand pricing” – electricity rate schemes in which individuals will pay different amounts during different times of the day more (say; 8am-8pm is morning vs. 8pm-8am night)
- …how demand response can effect LMP….. what would happen if wholesale market operators could induce consumers to refrain from using electricity during peak periods? Whenever doing that costs less than adding more power, an operator could bring electricity supply and demand into balance at a lower price. And simultaneously, the operator could ease pressure on the grid, thus protecting against system failures. That is the idea behind the practice at issue here: Wholesale demand response, as it is called, pays consumers for commitments to curtail their use of power, so as to curb wholesale rates and prevent grid breakdowns.
So the court waded through and came to an understanding that this is all legal and the system it being operated fairly. It sound complicated but it’s supply and demand economics with price incentives to reduce consumption when it gets too expensive to generate or deliver.
Realgy Energy Services is a registered Retail Energy Marketer in the states of Illinois, Michigan and Indiana. We offer Service Plans that will provide electric and natural gas at wholesale pricing direct to customers without any utility markup. Our Service Plans work with the local utility to provide seamless service and annual energy savings. Service Plans include Guaranteed SavingsTM, ManagedPriceTM, ManagedGreenTM and Index, Fixed pricing.
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A mammoth new power plant is on tap despite a power glut
So what happens when natural gas pricing decline into 1980 prices?
Well, of course you propose to use more….and nothing uses more natural gas than a BIG natural gas power plant.
A company is proposing to construct an 1,100-megawatt plant fueled by natural gas in Grundy County, about 50 miles southwest of Chicago, near Exelon’s existing Dresden nuclear plant. Enough for over 600,000 homes.
Natural gas power; in Illinois which has been dominated by coal and nuclear power plants. Coal plants require reinvestment to reduce emissions, the decision will either make an opening for such a new power plant or make a new competitor.
The proposed natural gas plant would compete in the wholesale market, where utilities and energy marketers buy power. More competition, will reduce the price of electricity and cleaner power is better for us all.
Realgy Energy Services is a registered Retail Energy Marketer in the states of Illinois, Michigan and Indiana. We offer Service Plans that will provide electric and natural gas at wholesale pricing direct to customers without any utility markup. Our Service Plans work with the local utility to provide seamless service and annual energy savings. Service Plans include Guaranteed SavingsTM, ManagedPriceTM, ManagedGreenTM and Index, Fixed pricing.
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Obama to propose $10-a-barrel oil tax to fund rail and highway projects
Not a political question; but why not?
Such a tax could provide funding for:
- new rail corridors
- highway projects
- pilot projects for self-driving cars
- other technologies it said fall under the goal of a “clean transportation” system
It’s interesting to consider this in light of:
- the gasoline tax hasn’t increased in 25 years, during the Eisenhower era (the president on the “big” $1 coin)
- Obama is not running for reelection (ever again)
- technology is creating more changes in cars and the way they will be driven, ever
- domestic oil production would NOT be taxed
Investment in the future of transportation is necessary, combining that with decreasing imported oil…(near) perfect!
Realgy Energy Services is a registered Retail Energy Marketer in the states of Illinois, Michigan and Indiana. We offer Service Plans that will provide electric and natural gas at wholesale pricing direct to customers without any utility markup. Our Service Plans work with the local utility to provide seamless service and annual energy savings. Service Plans include Guaranteed SavingsTM, ManagedPriceTM, ManagedGreenTM and Index, Fixed pricing.
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Peoples Gas Officials ‘Misled’ Regulators About Cost Overruns
“KNOWING MISLED.” ….this is like hearing from your kid’s teacher that homework wasn’t turned it on time because your house was flooded, and they were calling to check on you….. (you have to inform the teacher that no flooding occurred, but thanks for checking on us). So the teacher was misled.
Let’s recall; Regulators like the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) are responsible for ensuring that utilities, which are monopolies, spend and recover money ONLY for what is useful to provide their monopoly service. That is; expenditures by COMED that improve service, increase efficiency or improve services are approved while expenditures for mahogany desks, trips to Hawaii for a conference should not be asked for or approved. It is a mutual relationship, however, it becomes adversarial only when costs or misinformation is involved.
So, Peoples Gas received approval for improvements to their gas lines. HOWEVER, after the program was approved, Peoples Gas started to get reports back on the progress and cost of those improvements.
Guess what; it was costing more than they expected and taking longer…..they didn’t tell the ICC this. THIS IS REQUIRED by monopolies. The ICC requires monopolies to report back material changes; either good or bad. The ICC counts on the monopolies to be honest; after all they will recover the cost if they get it approved!
So now it’s adversarial; misleading a regulatory means the same thing as with your kid; they lose credibility (at least for a while) and EVERYTHING must now be proven.
The ICC needs to oversee Peoples Gas very closely. They are spending $$$$ Billions on this program and its costs will be recovered in their rates if approved. HOWEVER, if they misled or committed fraud then the utility shareholders will have to pay.
Realgy Energy Services is a registered Retail Energy Marketer in the states of Illinois, Michigan and Indiana. We offer Service Plans that will provide electric and natural gas at wholesale pricing direct to customers without any utility markup. Our Service Plans work with the local utility to provide seamless service and annual energy savings. Service Plans include Guaranteed SavingsTM, ManagedPriceTM, ManagedGreenTM and Index, Fixed pricing.
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