It has been brought to the Village’s attention that residents may be receiving calls from companies that indicate an affiliation with ComEd.  Residents are falsely being told that new ComEd rates are dropping significantly and that they should consider leaving their current electrical supplier and that they should return to ComEd, or sign up with a third party company that will manage their account.

Gurnee and the Northern Illinois Municipal Electric Collaborative (NIMEC) have had Electrical Aggregation agreements with FirstEnergy and MC Squared (mc2) since 2012, which has saved our residents an average of over $425 per household during that time. Just recently, Gurnee and NIMEC locked in a rate of 6.89 cents per kilowatt-hour. This rate is applicable for residential and small business owners that are participating in the Electrical Aggregation program. The rate is effective for billing periods July 2017 through July 2018.   MC Squared was selected to replace FirstEnergy due to their competitive pricing of electrical power to residents and small businesses in Gurnee.

Currently, the Village is not aware of any specific company making scam solicitation calls.   “Slamming” occurs when residents are being asked for their account numbers, and they can potentially be changed to another provider under false pretenses without proper informed consent.   If a resident does receive such a call, the following steps should be taken:

1.      NEVER  provide any caller with your account number

2.      Attempt to get a name or a return phone number for the caller

3.      If you have Caller ID, please note the inbound phone number

Gurnee electric aggregation customers should check their ComEd bill to be sure that their electric supplier has not been changed without their knowledge. To do so, look up a previous bill and under the supplier it should list “FirstEnergy Solutions” up until the July bills, which will then list “MC2” due to the energy supplier change. If a resident or small business believes a change has been made without proper consent, or they have received false or misleading information from any electricity supplier or other entity, a complaint can be filed by contacting the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, at 1-800-524-0795, or by using the ICC’s on-line complaint process at http://www.icc.illinois.gov/consumer/complaint/wizard.aspx. Residents and small businesses can also file a complaint with the Illinois Attorney General’s Office at 1-800-243-0618 or http://www.illinoisattorneygeneral.gov/consumers/filecomplaint.html.

If there are any questions regarding the electric aggregation program, please contact the Village at 847-599-7500. If there is a door-to-door utility representative and you are not sure of their status, do not open the door and call the Gurnee Non-Emergency number at 847-599-7000.

More information on our agreement with MC Squared can be found out here.