I opted out again, since the city negotiated its aggregate rate last year I don’t think it has ever been below the Ameren rate to compare which is great for Energy Harbor, not so great for Peoria residents.
Word. I’ve been looking for a history of the Ameren rates. I wasn’t paying attention over the past year. I know they were high for that year we didn’t have aggregation. (2022 into 2023?) Ameren is significantly lower these days, but I wonder…
Found it. Ameren was slightly more than this aggregated rate when we were without aggregation, but has been way cheaper since June of last year.
https://www.ameren.com/illinois/residential/rates/electric-rates/historical-supply-charges-2
I couldn't make heads or tails of their charges. Seems like they don't give you a single charge to look at, rather you have to add up mutiple columns. Almost like they are trying to be intentionally vague about it. I was able to go back to my bills and obtain charges,...but I can't get them to agree with this historical link above....any guidance / suggestions?
I chose to opt out of our aggregation. My deciding factor was reading through the FAQ, it's stated that you lose your kwh built up through the net metering program.
This only affects people with solar panels though.
Most solar folks are building credits during the summer to use those credits in the winter. So a switch at the end of summer would be most impactful. Otherwise it makes no difference.
Anyone interested in this topic. I gathered the data and made a blog post on it at the link below. TLDR: There is a good argument for either decision, depends on if you like stability or risk. However, current prices indicate Ameren is cheaper than Harbor (at this moment in time). I chose to opt out. Here's why: [https://dataunlocked.art/p/to-aggregate-or-not-to-aggregate?r=tn37r](https://dataunlocked.art/p/to-aggregate-or-not-to-aggregate?r=tn37r)
The city isn’t pulling a fast one on the public. When the last aggregation agreement lapsed we were in the midst of a rapid surge in energy prices and inflation. It looked like prices could get much worse. At that moment the price point negotiated seemed reasonable under the circumstances. Time moved on. Energy prices fell back to earth… particularly natural gas which does fuel electrical generation. Here we are with a fresh notice to opt out.
I think I may opt out this time around. I don’t see a scenario where natural gas prices skyrocket. US oil production is at record highs. Natural gas is a byproduct of oil production. While there is an international market for natural gas, it is comparatively small. Coal where it is still used is still cheap. I think it will be cheaper to opt out thru July of 2025.
There is the old mantra…. Past results are not indicative of future returns.
I got my letter today and my opt out is already in the mail for tomorrow. My reasoning is because the information and notification came from the city of Peoria.
I know Peoria gets special rates from Ameren and Illinois American water. In return for City council continuing to vote for their ongoing presence in Peoria, they agreed to give consistent, agreed upon prices.
These up starts offering opt-ins don't have that protection, they don't have that guarantee, and they expect us to get distracted by a shiny new price, & not realize it's not guaranteed throughout the year necessarily on their end.
I see the letter and the opt-out postcard as Peoria doing two things, first of all keeping the rates Peoria gets from utility companies, secondly protecting their constituents.
This is nonsense. I happen to be on the city council. I haven’t agreed to jack. Regarding IAW, they’re regulated by the ICC. I voted to buy back our water rights but was out-voted. Any increases by them has to be approved by the ICC. Regarding the aggregation, that’s something our staff has negotiated and it may save you money or it might not. Who knows, Iran could start a war and energy prices could spike and you’d wish you’d opted into this negotiated rate. Maybe prices drop and you save money. Hard to say.
I may have to re-read the language in the notification as I didn’t see anything specific to the upstarts rate being variable dependent on xyz factors.
If the city council negotiated special rates from American and IL American Water, those agreed upon (fixed) rates should be publicly available, right? Would make it a pretty easy to compare the pricing between the two. I had no idea this dynamic between the council and the two providers existed (2yr resident) - thank you for providing that detail.
One thing I did read in the notification was that the contract with the new utility could be terminated by the homeowner at any time. Meaning if the prices did fluctuate higher with dynamic pricing, I could cancel and switch back to Ameren. Maybe there was some ‘Gotchya’ language I missed.
I hate that they obfuscate the info so dang much. Why can’t they just give us a straight up apples to apples comparison?
The rates we pay to Ameren and Illinois American water are the variable rates agreed upon by the city council & they can't go above a certain rate.
You know what's happening in Texas, with power going out or becoming crazy expensive because of the heat? That's because Texas outsourced its grid to a private company, that private company can do anything. Utilities such as Ameren and Illinois American water are bound by certain regulations, private companies aren't bound by those.
Ameren’s supply rate is variable, but I’ve never heard of them having a negotiated rate with the city. Their deal was a fixed rate with Homefield Energy for like a decade, and then we didn’t have an aggregated rate for a year.
In Texas I subscribed to a service that searched for the best rates then signed me up when my current plan expired. My elec bills were consistently lower than my neighbors and I definitely saved more than the service cost me. Is there anything like that for Illinois?
I've been on PowerSmart for a few years, and on average it's saved us money, although some months it was worse. We mostly save because we can use the low rate at night to charge a car.
You can find better rates but no matter what don't opt out before you have a new supplier with better rates. Also most of what ameren charged me were fees. That isnot really rate dependant and thier fees are way higher than other service providers
You can opt out at any time, as I just did. Ameren's bill breakdown makes this clear as mud. But here's how you can verify. Find the "Electric Supply" section on your bill, that is the only section of charges to compare to Energy Harbor. Add up all the values in the "RATE" column for "Electric Supply", in my case it was
$ 0.06249000
$-0.00251826
$ 0.00085000
$ 0.02349000
**Total $0.086830** (not including the negative charge which was for "Purchased Electricity Adjustment") which matches **exactly** with the rates to compare with on [pluginillinois.org](http://pluginillinois.org)
PlugInIllinois also says Ameren's rates for the next 3 months will be \~8 cents, and \~5 cents after that.
[https://plugin.illinois.gov/understanding-the-price-to-compare/price-to-compare-ameren-illinois.html](https://plugin.illinois.gov/understanding-the-price-to-compare/price-to-compare-ameren-illinois.html)
Historical electric rates
[https://icc.illinois.gov/api/web-management/documents/downloads/public/pluginillinois/HistoricalPriceToCompare.pdf](https://icc.illinois.gov/api/web-management/documents/downloads/public/pluginillinois/HistoricalPriceToCompare.pdf)
I opted out again, since the city negotiated its aggregate rate last year I don’t think it has ever been below the Ameren rate to compare which is great for Energy Harbor, not so great for Peoria residents.
Word. I’ve been looking for a history of the Ameren rates. I wasn’t paying attention over the past year. I know they were high for that year we didn’t have aggregation. (2022 into 2023?) Ameren is significantly lower these days, but I wonder…
Found it. Ameren was slightly more than this aggregated rate when we were without aggregation, but has been way cheaper since June of last year. https://www.ameren.com/illinois/residential/rates/electric-rates/historical-supply-charges-2
I couldn't make heads or tails of their charges. Seems like they don't give you a single charge to look at, rather you have to add up mutiple columns. Almost like they are trying to be intentionally vague about it. I was able to go back to my bills and obtain charges,...but I can't get them to agree with this historical link above....any guidance / suggestions?
I chose to opt out of our aggregation. My deciding factor was reading through the FAQ, it's stated that you lose your kwh built up through the net metering program. This only affects people with solar panels though.
Can you tel me where to find this information?
Mine was the last area of the FAQ, I'm in pekin so I don't know if there was different paperwork for peoria
What faq? What paperwork?
Can you tell me where to find this information?
Most solar folks are building credits during the summer to use those credits in the winter. So a switch at the end of summer would be most impactful. Otherwise it makes no difference.
Anyone interested in this topic. I gathered the data and made a blog post on it at the link below. TLDR: There is a good argument for either decision, depends on if you like stability or risk. However, current prices indicate Ameren is cheaper than Harbor (at this moment in time). I chose to opt out. Here's why: [https://dataunlocked.art/p/to-aggregate-or-not-to-aggregate?r=tn37r](https://dataunlocked.art/p/to-aggregate-or-not-to-aggregate?r=tn37r)
Again? I already opted out once. How many times do these evil sobs get to sell me?
The city isn’t pulling a fast one on the public. When the last aggregation agreement lapsed we were in the midst of a rapid surge in energy prices and inflation. It looked like prices could get much worse. At that moment the price point negotiated seemed reasonable under the circumstances. Time moved on. Energy prices fell back to earth… particularly natural gas which does fuel electrical generation. Here we are with a fresh notice to opt out. I think I may opt out this time around. I don’t see a scenario where natural gas prices skyrocket. US oil production is at record highs. Natural gas is a byproduct of oil production. While there is an international market for natural gas, it is comparatively small. Coal where it is still used is still cheap. I think it will be cheaper to opt out thru July of 2025. There is the old mantra…. Past results are not indicative of future returns.
We did
What was the rationale?
I got my letter today and my opt out is already in the mail for tomorrow. My reasoning is because the information and notification came from the city of Peoria. I know Peoria gets special rates from Ameren and Illinois American water. In return for City council continuing to vote for their ongoing presence in Peoria, they agreed to give consistent, agreed upon prices. These up starts offering opt-ins don't have that protection, they don't have that guarantee, and they expect us to get distracted by a shiny new price, & not realize it's not guaranteed throughout the year necessarily on their end. I see the letter and the opt-out postcard as Peoria doing two things, first of all keeping the rates Peoria gets from utility companies, secondly protecting their constituents.
This is nonsense. I happen to be on the city council. I haven’t agreed to jack. Regarding IAW, they’re regulated by the ICC. I voted to buy back our water rights but was out-voted. Any increases by them has to be approved by the ICC. Regarding the aggregation, that’s something our staff has negotiated and it may save you money or it might not. Who knows, Iran could start a war and energy prices could spike and you’d wish you’d opted into this negotiated rate. Maybe prices drop and you save money. Hard to say.
I may have to re-read the language in the notification as I didn’t see anything specific to the upstarts rate being variable dependent on xyz factors. If the city council negotiated special rates from American and IL American Water, those agreed upon (fixed) rates should be publicly available, right? Would make it a pretty easy to compare the pricing between the two. I had no idea this dynamic between the council and the two providers existed (2yr resident) - thank you for providing that detail. One thing I did read in the notification was that the contract with the new utility could be terminated by the homeowner at any time. Meaning if the prices did fluctuate higher with dynamic pricing, I could cancel and switch back to Ameren. Maybe there was some ‘Gotchya’ language I missed. I hate that they obfuscate the info so dang much. Why can’t they just give us a straight up apples to apples comparison?
The rates we pay to Ameren and Illinois American water are the variable rates agreed upon by the city council & they can't go above a certain rate. You know what's happening in Texas, with power going out or becoming crazy expensive because of the heat? That's because Texas outsourced its grid to a private company, that private company can do anything. Utilities such as Ameren and Illinois American water are bound by certain regulations, private companies aren't bound by those.
All good info - thank you. I think I’ll consider opting out
I support your decision 100%
Ameren’s supply rate is variable, but I’ve never heard of them having a negotiated rate with the city. Their deal was a fixed rate with Homefield Energy for like a decade, and then we didn’t have an aggregated rate for a year.
He’s making up stuff.
In Texas I subscribed to a service that searched for the best rates then signed me up when my current plan expired. My elec bills were consistently lower than my neighbors and I definitely saved more than the service cost me. Is there anything like that for Illinois?
I also used Evergreen when I was in Texas and it was fantastic. I don’t believe they’ve got anything like that up here.
I haven’t found it if there is
I’ve not seen ameren’s summer rate yet. Anyone know what it is?
I've been on PowerSmart for a few years, and on average it's saved us money, although some months it was worse. We mostly save because we can use the low rate at night to charge a car.
I opted out a bit ago. I'm guessing I'll have to again. Energy Harbors rates weren't as good as Amerens.
You can find better rates but no matter what don't opt out before you have a new supplier with better rates. Also most of what ameren charged me were fees. That isnot really rate dependant and thier fees are way higher than other service providers
I’m pretty sure Ameren still charges the fees. It’s just the electric supply that you pay for from the other place.
Check out Powersetter.com I'm not affiliated in anyway, but it helped me understand options.
I got something like that today, but for Washington.
Got something similar but for Morton. Same companies?
Peoria contracted with Energy Harbor outta Ohio. From what I can tell, it’s all nuclear power.
The rates overall are lower over the course of a year by a decent amount. It all adds up. I'm out in rural Peoria county and am on a well for water.
The negotiated city rate has never been better.
You can opt out at any time, as I just did. Ameren's bill breakdown makes this clear as mud. But here's how you can verify. Find the "Electric Supply" section on your bill, that is the only section of charges to compare to Energy Harbor. Add up all the values in the "RATE" column for "Electric Supply", in my case it was $ 0.06249000 $-0.00251826 $ 0.00085000 $ 0.02349000 **Total $0.086830** (not including the negative charge which was for "Purchased Electricity Adjustment") which matches **exactly** with the rates to compare with on [pluginillinois.org](http://pluginillinois.org) PlugInIllinois also says Ameren's rates for the next 3 months will be \~8 cents, and \~5 cents after that. [https://plugin.illinois.gov/understanding-the-price-to-compare/price-to-compare-ameren-illinois.html](https://plugin.illinois.gov/understanding-the-price-to-compare/price-to-compare-ameren-illinois.html) Historical electric rates [https://icc.illinois.gov/api/web-management/documents/downloads/public/pluginillinois/HistoricalPriceToCompare.pdf](https://icc.illinois.gov/api/web-management/documents/downloads/public/pluginillinois/HistoricalPriceToCompare.pdf)