Energy Issues Light Up Oak Park Meeting

The future of Oak Park's energy use lit up the agenda of Monday's special meeting, with representatives from consumer groups, the private sector, ComEd and Oak Park's Village Board all hashing out ideas for a smarter future.

Village President David Pope said the meeting presented "lots of options and an interest on the part of the board to explore all of these opportunities."

Here's a look at was discussed:

Sustainability Vision Plan: The Oak Park River Forest Foundation is funding the creation of a Sustainability Vision Plan, an effort which aims to hammer out a long-term plan for environmental and financial sustainability.

To make it happen, the foundation has already partnered with the Chicago-based Center for Neighborhood Technology for what's known as a "baseline measuring," essentially taking a hard look at energy consumption in both villages.

The second major component in creating the plan would be citizen involvement, namely through the distribution of surveys as well as community forums designed to let residents prioritize sustainability efforts in areas like waste, water, food supply and transportation.

Gary Cuneen, the executive director of Seven Generations Ahead who's helping spearhead the project, billed the plan as a first-of-its kind joint effort between two village governments, their parks, schools, congregations, residents and local business communities. 

The plan is expected to be complete in spring 2011.

Smart Grid: ComEd representatives were on hand to discuss updates to the company's "Innovation Corridor," a nine-community area that's being used as a testing ground for several high-tech experiments designed to increase the reliability of ComEd's power grid. 

Rich Gordus Jr., a ComEd smart grid manager, explained how some Oak Park residents would benefit from a series of technological improvements at the substation located adjacent to the Oak Park Fire Department headquarters at North Boulevard, as well as the creation of isolation switches to "self-heal" damaged power lines. 

But ComEd officials couldn't yet specify what part of town would see increased reliability because of the system updates.

The overhaul to Oak Park's substation is expected to be finished in December.  

Smart Community: Thanks to an agreement signed in July, Oak Park is part of the "Illinois Smart Communities Coalition," a new consortium comprised of the Illinois Science and Technology Coalition, the Citizens Utility Board, the Galvin Electricity Initiative and the Republic of Korea, whose energy industry officials are revered locally as global leaders in smart grid systems.   

Representatives from two of those agencies — CUB executive director David Kolata and John Kelly with the Galvin Initiative — urged village officials to ween off ComEd's massive grid system and create something new.

The idea, according to Galvin's website, starts with "small, self-contained systems" typically owned by a municipality and "connected to and augmenting the larger electricity grid."

Kelly pointed to Naperville, where city leaders opted for a "microgrid" system which put most of the city's utilities underground, a move Kelly said boosted efficiency and increased savings.

In addition to better reliability, Kelly said such a system would provide residents with something they haven't had before: a controlling stake in their power source.

"We believe this plan is the first step in…giving residents more say," Kelly said. "The [village] board is critical to achieving those goals."

Solar Panels at the Avenue Parking Garage: The estimated cost of purchasing and installing a solar array atop the Avenue Parking Garage is more than $900,000.

Village officials said half of the project would be funded by an Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) grant, but finding ways to split the remaining costs was still under consideration. 

Options included soliciting cash from the Oak Park River Forest Community Foundation for some of the remaining costs and borrowing money to make up for the rest.

The lofty price tag would make the solar panel project the village's first major investment in renewable energy, officials said.

Village officials estimate the solar panels to reduce electricity bills at the garage by 30 percent, create jobs, boost the village's image as eco-conscious leader and produce new revenue in the form of SRECs, or Solar Renewable Energy Credits, commodities which can be sold back to utility companies or bought and sold on an SREC market.

Too much, too soon? 

All of the aggressive planning taking place in the village's meeting chamber left some residents with blown fuses.

More than a dozen neighbors in the 900 block of Hayes Street arrived at the meeting — most with flashlights in tow  — to chide ComEd representatives for their area's frequent power outages. 

Mark Paulsen, 58, said the past few years have been the worst in his 20-year-history as a resident of Oak Park.

"Let's fix the stupid grid first before we have a smart grid," he said.