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Meeting Minutes

Town meetings are held at 7pm on the first Tuesday of every month.
Location: Owen Township Hall, 4019 Latham Road, Rockford, IL 61103 
Meetings are open to the public. 


*Please note: 2024 Meeting Minutes have been moved to the page titled “File Share"

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August 6, 2025

 

Residents of Owen Township,

 

The Township Board has received several inquiries about the recent mailing from Dynegy about electrical aggregation and the upcoming rate increase, as well as the opt-out option. We hope to clarify things with this communication.

 

Your elected members of the Township Board are also Owen Township residents, and will also be affected by the upcoming rate increase in September. Please know that we are also unhappy about this, and made the best choices we could with the information at hand. We understand how difficult it is to find out that rates are increasing while for many, household budgets are strained- and we are sorry for that.

 

Please note- any resident of Owen Township can OPT OUT of the Dynegy agreement by calling Dynegy at 833-233-1787 by August 11 and choosing either a different energy supplier or choosing Commonwealth Edison to supply their energy.

 

First, some quick history:

SB 3170 was passed in the State of Illinois in mid 2012, and it extended aggregation authority to Township boards and authorized Townships to submit voter referenda for opt-out aggregation programs in their areas.

 

Meaning, the state allowed Owen Township to put a referendum on the ballot asking the voters for permission to negotiate on behalf of the voters for their energy prices; the idea being that having a larger group of customers to service would allow Townships to negotiate for better energy prices than individual customers. That referendum was passed by the voters of Owen Township in April of 2013.

 

This explains why Owen Township is involved with choosing an energy supplier in the first place. Again, this DOES NOT TAKE AWAY YOUR RIGHT TO CHOOSE YOUR OWN ENERGY SUPPLIER. Ultimately, it simply allows us to try to find the best deal for all residents- so you don’t have to wonder if the person going door-to-door is a scammer when they tell you they can save you money on your electric bill. And again, if you would prefer to get your energy from the person going door-to-door- you can. Simply opt out of the aggregate.

 

When we negotiated our first rate in 2013, there were about a dozen suppliers to choose from. As we have negotiated each subsequent contract, the number of suppliers has dwindled. Suppliers that could not compete and win contracts simply went out of the supply business. For this latest contract, we had far fewer suppliers to choose from. Every single supplier - including Commonwealth Edison- had a substantial rate increase, justifying it by saying that the supply is far less than demand- particularly the demand of the A.I. industry and electric vehicle industry.

 

We chose the best rate available. Dynegy will supply electricity at 9.67 cents per kilowatt-hour for 2 years. If the Commonwealth Edison supply rate is lower than Dynegy at any point during the contract, Dynegy will match the Commonwealth Edison rate automatically.

 

Please keep in mind that regardless of which company supplies your energy, there are still delivery costs (from Commonwealth Edison) and taxes and fees. Owen Township is unable to negotiate lower costs for either of these amounts.

 

If you still have questions, please feel free to contact a member of the Township Board. Contact information can be found at https://www.owentownshipillinois.com/

Board meetings are held at 7pm on the first Tuesday of each month in the Township Hall, located at 4019 Latham Road. The public is welcome to attend.

 

Sincerely,

The Owen Township Board

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Helpful links for context: These articles are dense, but give needed background information for this complex topic.

 

https://www.citizensutilityboard.org/blog/2025/05/09/cub-qa-capacity-price-spike-means-comed-supply-price-will-shoot-up-june-2025/

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https://www.citizensutilityboard.org/blog/2025/01/10/new-electric-rates-for-comed-and-ameren-customers-in-2025/

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