ROCHELLE — Rochelle Municipal Utilities and the University of Illinois System’s EnergySense Resilience Center held an open house Tuesday to discuss the draft Rochelle Energy Action Plan and gather public feedback. The plan outlines steps to help maintain affordable and reliable energy as Illinois moves away from fossil fuel power sources under the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act. Recommendations include energy efficiency improvements, future power purchases, rate stability and community education.
Shawn Maurer, technical director for EnergySense, said, “I would say probably a couple big ones are that we have identified a number of ways that the community can proceed with, energy efficiency projects and future energy planning that will help mitigate energy costs in the future and maintain affordable, energy for RMU’s clients.”
Blake Toliver, superintendent of electric operations for Rochelle Municipal Utilities, said, “The biggest thing is, looking at our generation profile and the fleet of generation that we not only have ourselves, but that we purchase from, and making sure that’s diverse and we’ll be able to cover the energy needs that the city has for, the next 30 to 50 years beyond, the existing, CEJA, bill that we are dealing with today.”
The project is funded through an Illinois EPA Energy Office community energy efficiency grant, and public feedback will be considered as the draft plan moves forward.
