Community members gathered again at the council chambers on Tuesday as the Naperville City Council prepared to vote on a potential contract extension with the Illinois Municipal Electric Agency.
While a final decision on the agency’s contract proposal was planned, the council instead voted 7-2 to negotiate an addendum to IMEA’s contract that addresses 10 areas of concern.
Addendum for the IMEA contract proposal
The 10 provisions are:
- Allowing the city to exit the contract in 2045
- Allowing the city to increase its by-right allowance of member-directed resources (MDR) to 20% of capacity or 50% of energy consumption, with the option to sign a power purchase agreement for a variety of carbon-free resources, including nuclear energy
- Granting the city the right to increase its MDR allocation by the percentage shortfall if IMEA fails to meet state or self-imposed carbon-free milestones within two years
- The milestones include 50% carbon-free energy by 2038, 85% carbon-free energy by 2045, and net-zero carbon emissions by 2050
- Ensuring that if the city installs peak shaving technology, it will be compensated based on the market value of the resource if used to help IMEA reduce peaks
- Ensuring customers’ rights to supply their own energy and clarifying that city-owned facilities, current and future, can offset their load through the MDR provision
- Using a weighted voting system in resource planning to ensure Naperville is fairly represented based on the load ratio share
- Requiring IMEA to complete and publish an independent financial audit and provide Naperville with its share of fuel, debt service, and operations and maintenance costs for Prairie State Generating Company and Trimble County, in accordance with federal and state laws and market regulations
- IMEA must also share the source and quantity of all its energy on an annual basis
- Continuing to collect retirement costs for Prairie State Generating Company and Trimble County so that decommissioning expenses are collected before state-mandated retirement dates
- City staff issues a request for proposals for carbon-free energy options, including nuclear, within the MDR standards of the proposed IMEA contract
- Allowing staff and council to identify large energy users and negotiate additional MDRs without cutting into the additional 20% allowance
Council members support the list
“What you see on the screen right now is the culmination of a lot of discussions between staff, council, the mayor, NEST, and community partners. So many conversations to get to this, and I think this is excellent. I think this is a bridge between both sides,” said Councilwoman Allison Longenbaugh.
Most council members supported the list, though several noted more time is needed for staff to finalize the specifics.
“A lot of good stuff, as I said before, but [what] I don’t see is a lot of objective criteria. What’s going to define a lot of these things? I think that’s the part for me that’s missing in some cases,” said Councilman Benny White.
Discussion over adding provisions to the list
Councilman Ian Holzhauer said the list was “a useful first step” but pushed for a cap on the city’s coal power usage. He cited concerns that data centers and other high-energy users could drive coal consumption back to current levels or higher.
“So my proposal would be we cap that coal usage at the 592 megawatt hours that we would achieve under this proposal; anything beyond that would have to be purchased through an MDR, through nuclear, something like that,” said Holzhauer.
Though six council members supported the coal cap, Mayor Scott Wehrli countered by suggesting that the city should instead require large energy users, such as data centers, to use 100% clean energy, without carving into existing MDR allocations.
He expressed concern that a coal cap for all customers could bind residents and small business owners to potentially high-cost power purchase agreements.
Holzhauer countered the mayor’s proposal, saying there is ambiguity over who would be considered a large energy user and that the megawatt cap could still be too high.
Since Wehrli had proposed the list, he had to agree to add the coal cap, according to city attorney Michael DiSanto. The mayor opted to add language allowing the city to identify large energy users and negotiate separate MDRs.
Without the coal cap, Holzhauer voted against the list. Councilwoman Mary Gibson was the other dissenting vote.
“I think it would have been appropriate as a new business item. These are steps in the right direction. I would like to see staff negotiating with these, but I’m not comfortable putting my stamp of approval on this amendment. There’s too many unanswered questions, too much vagueness, for me, I don’t think the community has had proper time to weigh in on this,” said Gibson.
Next steps for IMEA contract proposal
With the addendum approved, city staff will finalize details and negotiate with IMEA to get the terms added to the contract. The city will also seek requests for proposals on clean energy options.
Once completed, it will come back to the council for consideration and a final vote.
“This is one small step, reminding you that more steps need to happen. Obviously, the negotiations with IMEA, our purchase agreements, all of this stuff [is] coming back to a future council meeting. So lot’s more to do, and there is progress,” said Wehrli.
Community members speak up for alternative energy
As in past meetings, community members spoke out during public comment, with several calling for cleaner energy.
“Choosing clean energy sends a clear message to every member of this community, and beyond, that we care about the world we live in. That the health and well-being of our co-inhabitants of this planet matter to us,” said Paul Bloom, a professor of physics and environmental studies at North Central College.
Power a Better Future, a new Naperville student-led group, rallied outside the Municipal Center, with more than 100 in attendance. They urged the council to reject the early contract renewal with IMEA, instead favoring cleaner, cost-competitive alternatives.
“We’re trying to show city council that the youth and the community members do not want to stay with coal. Whether that means leaving IMEA, we will do it. We’re not going to wait for them to develop their sustainability goals and get carbon neutral when we can just do it right now,” said Rakshita Ruparel, organizer for Power a Better Future.
Support for the IMEA contract extension
Several community members also showed up in support of renewing with IMEA.
“What we need is to renew the IMEA, so that they can continue to provide us with energy at a [cost-effective rate]. If we do not, our rates are going to skyrocket. Period,” said Naperville resident Michael Costello.
Former Councilman Dick Furstenau, who voted for the original IMEA contract in 2007, spoke in support of the agency’s reliability.
“We haven’t had a blackout in this town, we haven’t had a brownout, we haven’t had rolling blackouts. Nobody’s asked us to turn our light switches off or quit running our TVs. The power is there,” said Furstenau.
Council members thanked the public for sharing their thoughts on the matter.
“Thank you for everyone who came out here. Either side of the issue you’re on, the fact that you’re here tells me you’re passionate about the issue, and you should be commended for that,” said White.
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