Thursday, Oct. 29, 2009

Ameren gets competition in supplying power to region

BlueStar promises some savings

Ameren Illinois residential and small business customers in the metro-east will be getting a choice as to their electricity suppliers.

BlueStar Energy Services Inc., of Chicago, has just launched a campaign to offer qualified customers the chance to save between 7 percent and 11 percent or more off the supplier portion of their monthly electric bills.

Guy Morgan, chief executive of BlueStar, said his company will be competing for customers among the 1.1 million served by Ameren Illinois in central and Southern Illinois, and the more than 4 million served by Commonwealth Edison in northern Illinois.

"It's been a hundred years that customers have not had a choice," Morgan said. "We want customers to know they're going to be treated as customers and not ratepayers."

Ineligible to take part, however, are customers of municipal power authorities, such as those in Freeburg, Waterloo. Highland and Springfield.

BlueStar can sell its power more cheaply than Ameren Corp., the corporate parent of Ameren Illinois, because BlueStar buyers can purchase electricity daily on the open power market. In contrast, Ameren must buy only once a year through the state power authority for its Illinois customers.

"We're more effective, we're more efficient than the utilities or the state in procuring our power," Morgan said, "because we're in the market every day."

Leigh Morris, a spokesman for Ameren Illinois, called BlueStar's entry into the Illinois residential market "very welcome news."

Morris noted that Ameren Illinois provides delivery services only and won't be competing against BlueStar. BlueStar must sell its electricity over Ameren Illinois power lines.

"They're going to offer choice to customers," he said. "Something we encourage, something we support."

Because Ameren would still provide delivery services to BlueStar customers, they won't be shielded from the impact of the $226 million rate hike request that Ameren has filed with the Illinois Commerce Commission.

BlueStar, an alternative energy supplier, has been providing electricity and related services to industrial and commercial customers in Illinois, Maryland and Washington, D.C., since 2002.