Lincoln Way moves to indexed electric supply contract, expects up to $500,000 in savings

The Lincoln Way Community High School District 210 Board on April 17 approved a revised electric commodity contract with Direct Energy recommended by the district's broker to move from a fixed negotiated price to an indexed supply model and to extend the term to 54 months so the district's supply cycle aligns with capacity auctions. Administrators said the change in Illinois energy billing rules effective June 1 would otherwise increase costs by roughly 1.5 to 2 cents per kilowatt hour; acting now and switching to an index and aligning the contract cycle are expected to avoid about $192,000 in additional charges and produce budgetary savings of roughly $124,000 in the near term. "By tracking that, you can see there's some additional materials... anticipated budgetary savings, dollars 124,000," the district presenter said. Staff and the board discussed the tradeoffs of index versus fixed pricing; staff said the index trend is expected to fall and that the broker can re‑lock to a fixed rate if the index spikes. The board approved the contract unanimously. The district also instructed staff to continue efforts to reduce capacity tags across meters, which staff estimated could produce additional savings in subsequent years. Board members asked whether energy rebates related to construction and mechanical upgrades would be affected; staff said they would follow up with the architect/engineer (DLR) to determine any rebate impacts. The approved approach gives the district flexibility to lock short‑term fixed buys if index prices move higher between now and future capacity auctions.