Environmentalists worry that aggregation will hurt renewables

Nov 8 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Julie Wernau Chicago Tribune

 

The exodus of customers from Commonwealth Edison has environmental groups clamoring to change a law that requires ComEd customers to pay for renewable energy development.

By law, 25 percent of Illinois' electricity must come from wind, solar and other renewable resources by 2025. But the customer base expected to help pay for energy from those sources is shrinking dramatically as a result of aggregation.

When the first long-term renewable contracts were signed in 2010, ComEd supplied 99 percent of the residential customers in the Chicago region. ComEd expects that figure to drop to 28 percent by mid-2013.

With fewer customers, ComEd says it may have to cut back the amount of power from the wind and solar farms it committed to under long-term contracts. Otherwise, the utility claims, bills could spike by more than 2 percent, which is disallowed under the law. What's more, the dwindling customer base would shoulder a larger share of the cost burden.

Alternative suppliers pay into a separate fund established in 2010 to pay for long-term renewable energy contracts. The state has borrowed from that fund, and as a result, the agency that procures electricity has not tapped it to add renewable power to its purchases.

On Wednesday, the agency said the state has paid back its borrowings, and that it intends to use that money in the coming year as a cushion so that developers can be made whole if ComEd cuts back on its commitments under the long-term contracts. But wind and solar power developers are leery. They say the risk of additional state borrowings dampens future wind and solar development because no one wants to enter into a contract with no guarantee there will be money in the fund.

jwernau@tribune.com

Twitter @littlewern