Rochelle Municipal Utilities Electric plays a vital role in the future progress of our community.  RMU’s electric division provides low-cost reliable public power to over 7,000 customers in our service territory. Our electric department continues to see load growth and based on our current trajectory will have an annually daily load of 45 MW and a peak load of 75 MW.  Based on these numbers, our electric utility will be the fifth largest electric utility in the state, behind Springfield, Naperville, St. Charles, and Geneva. 

Based on this growth, the city council has authorized our staff to make significant upgrades to our infrastructure. Currently, our team is designing a new substation to the west of the city near Mighty Vine. This new facility will be our fourth substation and the second newly constructed facility since 2020. Also included in the construction of the new substation will be a feeder line that will connect all three other substations together.  This will help with reliability within the electrical system and give us more options for redistributing power to customers during outages. The new substation will also allow for more growth in Rochelle’s western corridor.

One of the most critical assets owned by RMU is the Diesel Plant located at 2^nd Avenue.  This plant is operated during outages and critical peak times. Operating during high usage times helps reduce capacity and system charges through PJM, our regional transmission operator. These cost savings are passed directly to our customers through stable rates and lower power cost adjustments. 

This year our team will be replacing all the feeders at the Diesel Plant. The new feeders will be underground and will reduce outages and outage times. 

Additional projects include upgrades in the Westview Drive area, replacing the overhead primary wire with underground wires to provide greater reliability in the northwest side of town. Additionally, RMU is also installing a new underground service in the Southview Drive/Willis Avenue area.  This project not only increases reliability for that area but also eliminates a primary road crossing over South Main Street. 

Our mayor, city council and staff are dedicated to increasing reliability and working to ensure your rates remain level.  Aside from our base load power through Prairie State, the city purchases power off the market from NextEra Energy.  In 2019, the city council authorized me to extend our contract with NextEra through 2028.  The average price of this power is less than $.03KWh. Current power prices in the market are well above this. In fact, key decisions like this have helped RMU’s power rates to remain stable for the past eight years. We’ve had one rate increase to the residential minimum bill and two rate decreases for our commercial customers.  Our overall rates are some of the lowest in the state and consistently lower than the area investor-owned utility. 

Last week I had the privilege of representing RMU at the annual APPA conference. There I attended numerous breakout sessions centered on the future of public power, increasing renewables, promoting micro grids, the future of energy regulations and strategies to improve customer satisfaction. I have several ideas and initiatives other utilities are doing that I hope to implement in Rochelle.  We have an amazing team at RMU.  Everyone is dedicated to promoting our utility, providing great customer service, and ensuring reliability.  Should you have ideas or questions never hesitate to reach out to me or our team at RMU.

“There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.”-Nelson Mandela

“In any given moment we have two options: to step forward into growth or step back into safety.” -Abraham Maslow.

Jeffrey A. Fiegenschuh, MPA, ICMA-CM, is the city manager of the City of Rochelle.