Electric Rate

 The city sent out another email reminding electrical customers in the city that the new electric rates will kick in July1 although the price will only go up about a half cent a kilowatt hour, which is still pretty cheap. We had one of the companies in the store a  couple of weeks ago that pitch a lower electric rate because they can search among different suppliers. The problem is, from what I have found is that, like teaser internet or cable rates, the price is really low up front but jumps significantly when the initial contract ends. 

The City of Carbondale participates in an electric aggregation buying group with 94 other communities known as the Southern Illinois Aggregation Partnership (SIAP). Through this, the City of Carbondale has a contract with Homefield Energy that keeps electric prices at a fixed, steady rate throughout the year, instead of fluctuating as with other energy suppliers. The new aggregated rate from Homefield Energy will be

$0.091/kWh. This is a 12-month fixed rate from July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025.

However, this summer Ameren’s rates are sitting at a slightly lower cost. The new price-to-compare will be $0.08136/kWh from Ameren’s BGS-1 electric supply service this summer (June 1, 2024 – September 30, 2024) compared to Homefield Energy’s new aggregated rate of $0.091/kWh. The non-summer numbers from Ameren will not be official until late September for the period of October 1, 2024 – May 31, 2025.

The slight increase in the Homefield Energy rate from it’s previous rate of $0.08473/kWh to $0.091/kWh is attributed to capacity costs increasing for our region for the annual capacity planning year running June 1, 2024 to May 31, 2025. Homefield Energy also had to procure additional energy hedges for December 2024 through

June 2025 and the markets have continued either holding steady or slightly increasing for energy commodity prices.

If you wish to participate in the City's negotiated aggregation rate you do not need to do anything further after receiving your letter. If you DO NOT wish to participate, you must Opt-Out. Instructions will be on the letter or you can call Homefield Energy at 866-694-1262 to opt-out. The deadline to opt-out is June 19th, however there will be no penalties or early termination fees if you choose to opt-out at a later date. Here is the press release

Opt-out letters were recently sent out for the new aggregation rate by Homefield. There is an opt-out period currently happening until June 19th for all eligible residents which includes the following:

1. Residents currently enrolled with Homefield Energy under the previous aggregation rate of $0.08473/kWh

2. Residents currently being served by Ameren’s basic generation service for electric supply, regardless of if they opted out of the previous aggregation rate.

Residents who opted out previously, or moved within or into the City since the last opt-out period, may still have Ameren as their electric supplier and were mailed an opt-out letter by Homefield for the new aggregation rate beginning next month. These people can opt-out now before the June 19th deadline and will not be subject to Ameren’s minimum stay requirement since they will not be getting dropped by an electric supplier.

Minimum stay requirement from Ameren comes into play when a customer is receiving electric supply from a retail electric supplier and returns to Ameren’s electric supply service. If they do so, they have 60 days to select a new retail electric supplier and if they do not choose one, they must remain a customer of Ameren’s electric supply service for an additional 10 months (12 months total being on Ameren’s service).