Naperville City Officials Want More Nightlife

Naperville city officials have come up with an ingenious plan to cover the millions of dollars they wasted and squandered with their electric public utility. Not only do they want to astronomically raise the rates that residents and businesses are now paying for electric, they want change the way residents live and dictate how businesses should do business in Naperville. Simply stated, city officials want residents to do what they do now, but do it at night when electric usage is less. And the same applies to businesses.

It’s the same plan that city officials have always had, except that they want to do it now, as in immediately. They want to approve and utilize TOU (time-of-use) rates for the City’s 20 largest electric customers, and then quickly follow this will all residents and businesses.

In other words, using electric when we normally use it will now cost a premium, however if we want to use it in the middle of the night, then users would pay less.  What a brilliant idea city officials are presenting; live life at night….brilliant.

So let’s take a look at some of the Top-20 Major Employers and electric users:

* Edward Hospital

* School Districts 203 and 204

* North Central College

* BMO Harris

* Office Max (oops, they decided to leave  Naperville….maybe for better rates)

* Nicor Gas

* Kraft Foods

* Nalco

* BP

* ConAgra

* Phoenix Closures

* Tellabs

And who do we have among the Top-10 Employers and glutton of electric; well none other than the City of Naperville itself.

Watch and listen as Deputy City Manager, Marcie Schatz, presents this idea

So the city wants business and then residents to do their ‘thing’ at night, let’s say between midnight and 5am when electric rates are less. What would that look like, if business and residents started living life at night, and sleeping in the daytime when rates are higher.

We could have doctor’s appointments at 1am. Surgeries could be done at 2am. School buses could pick-up kids at midnight. Curfew for kids could be at 7am. North Central College could offer only night-time classes. Get those professors and teachers in there at 2am. My neighbor could use his electric mower at 3am. Councilmen Chirico and Fieseler could charge their EV’s at 2am when they arrive for council meetings. The entire city of Naperville could be bustling between midnight and 5am. They could build the Water Street Project during those hours. Think of the possibilities…..it’s endless.

The City of Naperville Electric’s Utility can’t tell us what our time-of-use is, as  promised, because city officials wasted almost $1 million dollars on a company to create an e-Portal system, and now that company is heading towards bankruptcy.

I guess I’ll have to use the old-fashioned method of determining my electric usage; if my lights are on, then I’m using electric.