A light bulb has gone on above the heads of Niles village board members, and it involves saving money on electricity costs.

The savings could come in two ways: the village could cast its lot with what's known as aggregation, which involves pooling the purchasing power of village residents and businesses to get a volume discount. That would likely involve holding a referendum to allow citizens to vote on whether they wanted to switch from having ComEd provide their service in exchange for reaping savings on their electric bills.

However, individual residents or businesses could also decide on their own right now to switch their electrical service to save money--though they would not save as much money as they would if the entire village aggregated.

Trustee Rosemary Palicki, who chairs the village's Environmental Practices Committee, said at Tuesday's village board meeting that residents can sign up for lower energy rates at CleanAirCounts.org, a division of the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus.

Clean Air Counts will give residents who sign up four compact fluorescent light bulbs. If residents use the bulbs and the service, they could save $200 to $250 between now and June 2013, she said.

Emmit George, an energy consultant with Energy Choices, a consulting company in talks with the village's Environmental Practices Committee, came to Tuesday's meeting to answer questions.

"Energy Choices has a guaranteed rate until 2013. They always beat ComEd's price," said Palicki.

That would be true even if ComEd's rate goes lower, George explained in response to a question from Trustee Joe LoVerde.

However, the village could potentially put a referendum on next November's ballot to aggregate, Palicki explained.

She is not recommending the village pursue that option now because it would have to lay out money to pay a consultant. Oak Park paid in the neighborhood of $50,000 for consultant services, and Palicki said she didn't think Niles could afford that right now.

Also, the timing may not be right, because energy prices have dropped, she said. 

"If the price of electricity goes down, the benefits of aggregation are less," she said.

George said that if Niles passed a referendum in March, residents could expect to pay 5.257 cents per kilowatt hour. Right now, though, residents can obtain a rate of 6.6 cents through Clean Air Counts, as opposed to ComEd's rate of 7.7 cents, Palicki explained.

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