Evanston’s electricity aggregation program enrolled 24,768 customers with Constellation Energy this week, which will allow residential and small business customers to receive a fixed rate of 4.797 cents/kWh for the next 12 months.
Only 2 percent, or roughly 500 account holders, opted out of the city’s program during the 21-day opt-out period.
Customers included in the program are receiving confirmation letters from ComEd this week notifying them of the switch to Constellation Energy. Customers have a ten-day period to cancel their switch to Constellation and can do so by calling Constellation Energy at 1-800-718-1493.
Also, any customer participating in the program can cancel their participation and go back to ComEd without penalty at any time during the duration of the 12-month contract.
Through the March 20 referendum vote, 73 percent of Evanston voters asked the city to work to obtain lower electricity supply rates for its residents and small businesses through an opt-out electricity aggregation program.
On April 30 the City Council voted unanimously to purchase electricity from Constellation Energy, an alternate retail electricity supplier, for the city program.
A 100% renewable energy mix will be used, which makes Evanston one of the few Illinois communities to purchase energy at a substantially lower rate for its residents, while attaining the benefits of renewable energy at the same time.
Questionsand comments about the program can be submitted by calling 311 or on the city website.
Constellation energy special offer?
Constellation Energy is giving out special promotion offers to switch from Comed. A quick search on google shows a $50 best buy gift card and $75 visa gift cards among other promotional offers. So, what happened to the promotional offer money? A quick calculation: 24,768 customers * $50 = $1.2million dollars
We arrived back from vacation
We arrived back from vacation and received the letter from Commonwealth Edison about the switch to Consellation Energy. I do not recall ever seeing a letter from the city informing us that we had a choice to make in a designated period of time. I called the city and the person who replied said the information had been given on the city website. I really have better things than to search the city website for information that I didn't know I needed. After having received innumerable calls from various electricity providers, I was frankly confused. I feel like the city did not handle this well. The referendum confused the issue further. It was my understanding that people would be given a choice of providers. I did call Constellation Energy to tell them that we are staying with Commonwealth Edison. Now I am trying to contact Commonwealth Edison to confirm that we are still customers. I also encourage anyone with complaints to contact the Illinois Commerce Commission.