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If the city has its way, more Chicago companies will find a new, cheaper source of electricity: themselves.
If Commonwealth Edison Co. has its way, they won't.
Negotiations are under way between the city and ComEd over the utility's franchise to provide electricity to the city's businesses and residents. The 43-year-old agreement that protects ComEd`s monopoly market position expires at yearend.
Sources close to the negotiations say one of the city's stipulations for a new contract is that ComEd transport electricity -- called "wheeling" -- between a non-utility generator and a customer. The generator is paid for the electricity, and ComEd is paid a wheeling fee.
Under such an agreement, a larger market will exist for cogeneration, a process whereby a large facility uses natural gas or waste heat from operations to make steam, turn turbines and create electricity.
The possibility of selling the excess electricity to customers for a market rate will make cogeneration more feasible for more companies in the Chicago area -- and will drag ComEd -- kicking and screaming, some say -- into a newly competitive market.
Any initial wheeling by ComEd under a new franchise agreement is likely to be restricted. For example, the utility may have to wheel only between city facilities, or from a factory to a related facility. The system probably would not be completely opened in one stroke.
"I hope the city (opens) the lines to competing sources of electricity," says Ian Caloger, president of Gamze Korobkin Caloger Inc.,...