Glencoe hosts meetings on competitive electric supply

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Updated: March 10, 2012 8:33AM

The Village of Glencoe will host public hearings at 7 p.m. Feb. 16 and March 15 in the Council Chambers of the Glencoe Village Hall, 675 Village Court, on a plan for a multi-town consortium to negotiate for electric power rates for homes and businesses.

Glencoe trustees created the necessity for the hearings when they voted Oct. 20, 2011, to put a referendum question on the March 20 primary ballot that, if passed, would allow the village to hire a consultant to bargain with dozens of power providers to get the best deal. Then, if any customers want to stay with ComEd — or cut their own deal — they’d be allowed to “opt-out.”

In late 2011, Glencoe joined the nascent North Shore Electricity Aggregation Consortium, a collection of towns that would split the pre- and post- referendum costs.

The group: Deerfield, Highland Park, Lake Bluff, Lake Forest, Northbrook, Skokie, Park Ridge and Glencoe.

The hearings are required by the state law that created the municipal bargaining opportunity.

As of late last year, at least 20 Illinois towns had already passed referendums, 13 of which had new suppliers.