The Naperville City Council took the first of multiple steps forward in planning and charting the future path of the municipal electric utility.
While a number of avenues still remain on the table, the council did hone in on possible options and created a vision statement, at a strategy workshop meeting Monday, Sept. 28.
Workshop comes after multiple staff reports
City Manager Doug Krieger provided a presentation and requested input from the council on steps forward in planning energy procurement options for the 125-year-old electric utility at the recent workshop.
The strategy session came on the heels of a vote on the dais early this year to pause contract extension talks beyond 2035 with the Illinois Municipal Electric Agency to leave the door open for an exploration of other potential options.
Since the council’s vote, city staffers have been issuing a series of reports on options and scenarios to consider for the future of the electric utility. The once-a-month reports were first issued in April and continued through August.
Vision statement created
While no formal action occurred at the recent workshop, the council did weigh in and provided direction on strategies in reaching an ultimate determination for the electric utility’s energy procurement options in the road ahead.
With six hands in the air on the dais, a vision statement has been created as a foundation for the planning and discussions ahead.
Councilwoman Supna Jain presented the vision statement that garnered the supermajority of support at the workshop. It reads, “To secure an energy future that prioritizes reliability, sustainability, affordability, flexibility, and local control.”
In addition to Jain, councilmembers Mary Gibson, Ian Holzhauer, Patrick Kelly, Ashfaq Syed, and Benjamin White showed signs of support for the vision statement.
For an issue as complex as the electric utility’s future and the energy procurement options on the table, Jain said her desire is to have a statement that was clear and to the point.
“I think it needs to be a statement that is succinct, easy to understand, and, hopefully, measurable through our decision framework and our ultimate mission statement,” Jain said.
Drawing on her prior experience on the park board, where vision and mission statements were common in relation to the Naperville Park District, Gibson said she agreed with Jain’s thinking.
“One of the things I took away from my time at the park district is that a good mission/vision statement is short,” Gibson said. “You want everybody at the organization to be able to say it at the drop of a hat.”
Holzhauer said he believed the visioning exercise was prudent — not just within the parameters of the electric utility, but in a broader sense for other facets of city operations as well.
“As we think about strategic planning for our city in the next couple years, it’s been a long time since we’ve had this discussion more broadly about what the city’s vision is,” Holzhauer said. “I just appreciate that we’re talking about this more broadly. I hope that it becomes a habit for council.”
Mayor Scott Wehrli and councilmembers Josh McBroom and Nate Wilson did not raise their hands in support for the vision statement as it was written.
Wilson said he was concerned about the use of the word “sustainability” within the vision statement.
“As I’ve talked about, sustainability means different things to different people, especially when you talk about metrics,” Wilson said. “To me, I don’t know what metrics we’d be defining there.”
Wehrli expressed a desire to have the word “affordability” at the front of the mission statement, pointing out respondents in a recent survey cited the matter as an important one for the electric utility.
“In the business of selling electricity, we have to be competitive against what those communities next to us are selling electricity for, whether it be ComEd as their supplier, or another municipally-owned electric utility,” Wehrli said.
McBroom presented a different vision statement at the workshop, but did not receive majority support.
His proposal read, “To maintain a financially strong, technologically adaptable electric utility capable of meeting Naperville’s future energy needs while preserving flexibility for generations to come.”
McBroom also shared general concerns about vision statements, at one point commenting, “Are we boxing some future council, some future city manager, into financial commitments that may be reckless at the time?”
Four options reviewed
At the workshop, Krieger also revisited each of the four overarching options the city could deploy structurally for the Naperville Electric Utility. The specific options were explored during reports issued at council meetings late this spring and through the summer.
Of the four options, there were varying levels of support on the dais to have staff continue looking into three of them when members were asked to vote on each with a show of hands:
- Joint action agency participation, which, as Krieger said, could create economies of scale through a membership model and shared responsibility for related resources (receiving 8 affirmative votes)
- Market participation with asset ownership, which Krieger said would give the city a high degree of autonomy and leaves the door open for multiple sources of energy generation. (receiving 5 affirmative votes)
- Market participation without asset ownership, which, Krieger noted, would not require locking the city into any specific energy source and can provide the flexibility for pivots as new technologies are deployed. (receiving 8 affirmative votes)
No one on the dais supported a fourth option, which would entail the outright sale of the Naperville Electric Utility. Doing so, Krieger said, would eliminate the loss of local control.
City manager outlines next steps
With the vision statement in place and the list of options reduced, Krieger outlined a series of next steps, which will include further research on the feasibility of the remaining options.
A city spokesperson said staff will first focus on the joint action agency participation and market participation without asset ownership options, knowing that market participation with asset ownership could return into focus at the direction of city council.
Next summer, Krieger said plans are also in motion to present an evaluation to the council on the options in conjunction with a utility rate study that is to take place at that time.
Other anticipated processes, Krieger added, include the creation of a decision framework document and a mission statement that will feed off the vision statement that now is in place.
Additionally, Krieger said a cost-benefit analysis of battery energy storage systems is anticipated. This specific proposal has been discussed amid recent electric utility-related reports at council meetings.
“I don’t want people to think that this means, ‘Oh, we’re going to go pencils down and not do anything until the rate study, because that’s absolutely not the case,” Krieger said of next summer’s major milestone. “There will be touch points with city council and reports to city council as time progresses.”
Residents continue weighing in
As has been the case at council meetings for more than a year, councilmembers continued hearing from residents about the electric utility’s future, and the planning options on the table.
During public forum at the recent workshop meeting, Robert Giese of the group Affordable Naperville suggested city decision-makers be mindful in considering scientific questions alongside politically driven claims.
“I believe we should be careful that climate policy does not become driven by the label ‘crisis,’ rather than by careful analysis,” Giese said. “The climate system is extraordinarily complex. It involves the atmosphere, oceans, land, clouds, and many feedback mechanisms.”
Joe Hus, a volunteer with the Naperville Environmental and Sustainability Task Force, asked the council to consider a flexible energy strategy as future decision-making takes place.
“We can replace the coal plant by purchasing assets that are allowed under CEJA (Illinois’ Climate and Equitable Jobs Act that was adopted five years ago) or by signing a power purchase agreement,” Hus said. “Both provide the same rate-stabilizing effect. Rate volatility will depend on how much energy we hedge, and how much cash buffer we maintain.”
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