The Naperville Department of Public Utilities – Electric is located at 1392 Aurora Avenue, a brief walk from the Public Safety Center along the trail around Lake Osborne. Note, however, that the next Public Utilities Advisory Board meeting will be held in Council Chambers at the Naperville Municipal Center, 400 S. Eagle Street.
Dear PN Readers,
Too many times lately the image of Goldilocks tasting porridge to find the one that’s “just right” in the cottage of a bear family comes to mind while trying to make decisions to find one that’s just right.
As an admitted information wonk and policy junkie, I’m fascinated by the knowledge that’s presented during meetings of public boards, commissions, city council, park district and on and on.
For the past few years, the City of Naperville has been trying to find a solution to its energy contract with IMEA that’s just right.
Naperville’s municipally-owned Electric Utility is locally controlled and managed, providing rates that are among the lowest in the state.
The Naperville Department of Public Utilities – Electric is located at 1392 Aurora Avenue, a brief walk along the trail from the Public Safety Center.
Here’s a link to information about the City of Naperville’s commitment to IMEA.
www.naperville.il.us/services/electric-utility/your-electric-service/imea/
As referenced on the City’s website, “The Public Utilities Advisory Board serves in an advisory capacity to the City Council on rates, budgets and capital improvements for the electric, water and wastewater systems. The board also reviews plans for facilities expansion and system improvements. The role of the board also includes hearing complaints from City of Naperville utility customers regarding claims of violations of their right to privacy and addressing such complaints as appropriate.”
Currently, City Councilman Nate Wilson serves on the PUAB. And currently the City Council is faced with considering the IMEA contract.
As the City determines how it will procure energy and the necessary services beyond 2035, the Naperville City Council and Public Utility Advisory Board will be engaged in the process and all standard procurement policies and procedures will be in place with the public’s ability to provide comment at public meetings.
In addition to trying to comprehend what’s “just right,” the Naperville Environment and Sustainability Task Force, aka “NEST,” is a group of “concerned citizens working to enhance environmental sustainability by creating a climate action plan that will keep Naperville at the forefront of sustainability and climate action.” For years, the group’s members regularly have presented information about its initiatives, and for the past two years their advocates have called their presentations “Three minutes with NEST” during the public comment portion of City Council meetings.
At any rate, life goes on, and during City Council forums during this Consolidated Election, the topic of IMEA has come up more than a few times. Undeniably, it’s solution is not a sound-bite answer.
During the March 18 City Council meeting, Councilman Wilson urged everyone to watch the presentation at the Public Utilities Advisory Board meeting held on March 6.
We listened to Councilman Wilson, watched the meeting and became highly enlightened by the thorough presentation. What’s more, we were reminded of the exceptional quality of volunteers who give their time and questioning to important issues in our City.
The community is invited to attend the next Public Utilities Advisory Board Meeting. It begins promptly at 5PM Tues., April 8, in Council Chambers at the Naperville Municipal Center, 400 S. Eagle Street.
—Stephanie Penick
Special Letter to PN
In the next month or so, the Naperville City Council will be deciding whether to renew the Illinois Municipal Electric Agency (IMEA) contract that has been in effect for decades and expires in 2035.
If Naperville terminates our contract, my experience tells me we’ll need to set up an equivalent arrangement with another energy supplier, likely at higher prices. Or the City will have to establish its own version of IMEA to manage our electricity supplies. That means juggling power sources every five minutes for decades and performing electricity resource planning for the decades ahead to guarantee peak power capacity and frequency and voltage control.
At this time, the Naperville Electric Utility (NEU) does a fine job as a distribution utility, but it is not staffed to do more. It will take roughly ten additional employees because the electricity grid is the most complicated human machine ever devised. Currently, IMEA does all this, and Naperville’s share of the cost for these services is about 30% of the total from all the member utilities.
IMEA currently also provides Naperville with power that is less expensive than the competing alternatives. The main argument for leaving is that we can replace its steady-producing coal plants with erratic wind and solar generation augmented with batteries. Without Naperville, the coal plants supplying some of our electricity via IMEA likely will sell it to other customers, so there won’t be much or any emissions reductions.
Note also that leaving IMEA may increase our costs dramatically. To see why, consider the following facts listed in the JPMorgan Chase 15th Annual Energy Paper (assets.jpmprivatebank.com/content/dam/jpm-pb-aem/global/en/documents/eotm/heliocentrism.pdf#page=13), about the U.S. as a whole, paraphrased here.
- Wind and solar costs: Roughly doubled since 2019, in spite of predictions of a continual decline in costs.
- Battery costs: Coming down somewhat after a recent surge. But at the scale needed to back up wind and solar (they are off most of the time), they will be prohibitively expensive for a very long time. Batteries are storage only; they generate zero electricity themselves.
- Erratic wind and solar: “On” only when the weather cooperates; and solar is always “off” between dinner time and morning rush hour. From season to season, average wind power varies by a factor of three or so and sunshine by a factor of four. Electricity storage to make up for this would cost astronomical sums.
- Fragile electricity grids: Due to replacement of coal plants with wind and solar, the PJM and MISO grids that feed IMEA electricity to Naperville are very vulnerable to supply interruptions. The map below shows the risks for grids in the lower 48. Note that Chicagoland is at elevated risk, but we are surrounded by the MISO grid, which is at high risk. The amount of reserve power is projected to fall by a factor of about 5 to dangerously low levels in the next eight years. And power outages won’t be the localized “squirrel on the power lines” kind of blackouts that can be repaired in under an hour. Outages from insufficient supplies will be widespread, and eventually last for days, possibly longer. The tragic Texas blackout of February, 2021, is an example of a supply outage.
- Most of the time, the weather gods are not smiling on wind and solar. On average, a one-megawatt wind turbine will require two megawatts from a CO2-emitting gas turbine to produce steady electricity.
In Illinois, these backup gas turbines will be shut down between 2030 and 2038 because The Illinois Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA) mandates it. The grid’s condition will then be dire, but without much reduction in CO2 emissions.
These facts all point to increasing and increasingly erratic electricity market prices by the time the IMEA contract expires. Leaving IMEA means NEU will have to buy power on the PJM market in 2035, when we fear market prices will be much higher. The size of the increase depends on energy markets, government regulation, etc., all of which are quite uncertain. Higher costs will hurt all Naperville families and businesses, but especially those who are economically struggling.
IMEA’s coal costs are unlikely to increase very rapidly because it owns much of the coal it uses. And the IMEA bonds constituting roughly half of the price of IMEA power (IMEA said our power bill will decrease by 25% in 2035 when the bonds are paid off) will be retired in 2035.
The question before the city is whether the thin benefits, if any, of leaving IMEA justify setting up our own IMEA or gambling on volatile and higher-priced electricity markets 10-30 years from now.
Recommendations to Naperville City Council, election candidates and voters:
- Listen to/read/watch the independent consultant report commissioned by NEU, which details much of this information, at naperville.granicus.com/player/clip/1688?view_id=4&redirect=true.
- By April 8, when the PUAB the City appoints to study such matters will have reached their conclusions, consult with them. This information can be boring stuff, but it is really important.
- One reason our city is so prosperous and livable is the long-term planning and wisdom of our City Council predecessors. This is a similar opportunity to secure Naperville’s future based on a sober, realistic assessment of the options available to us.
Respectfully,
Roger Blomquist, PhD
Captain, U.S. Navy (retired)
Naperville Resident since 1987
