Building on a partnership forged last September with theIllinois Chamber of Commerce, MidAmerican Energy announced a dualoffer to customers in Nicor Gas’ customer choice pilot program andCommonwealth Edison’s electric pilot program yesterday.

Through the agreement, the chamber will promote MidAmerican’soffer to attach a 5% discount on both electric and gas bills tothose customers that switch to MidAmerican service. The discount isa guaranteed deduction from the annual rate of a customer’s bill.Chamber members can contact the Chamber Energy Alliance – theentity created by the partnership – to take advantage of thisoffer.

Todd Ely, CEO of the Chamber Energy Alliance, said, “Ourorganization is the only business-energy alliance in our stateoffering businesses a one-stop shop for natural gas, electricityand energy-related services.”

“This is our first major effort to expand our customer basethrough this pilot program,” said Todd Raba, vice president ofmarketing and sales for MidAmerican. He added that the companycurrently only has a handful of gas customers signed.

Nicor’s choice program started in January 1998 and will end inApril 2001. Currently, Nicor is holding the last enrollment periodof the program, which ends at the end of March. It is open to allof Nicor’s 120,000 business customers and residential customers infour counties. So far, over 40,000 business customers and more than23,000 residential customers have enrolled. There are 15 companiesparticipating in the pilot.

Roughly one-third of Illinois businesses became eligible tochoose an electricity supplier on Oct. 1 thanks to Illinois statelaw. Another 33% of manufacturing customers in the currentCommonwealth Edison service territory will be eligible by June. Allremaining businesses in downstate Illinois will be eligible by theend of this year, MidAmerican said.

“MidAmerican Energy knows the Illinois market. We’ve beenserving customers in Illinois for more than a century. Ourunprecedented partnership in the Chamber Energy Alliance makes itpossible for businesses to take full advantage of competition forboth gas and electricity, resulting in cost savings and excellentservice,” Ron Stepien, MidAmerican’s president, said.

After a year’s review of 15 national, regional, and local energyproviders, the chamber of commerce selected MidAmerican as itsexclusive supplier last year. Under the 10-year agreement,MidAmerican will offer electricity, gas, and other energy servicesto a wide range of Chamber members and businesses in Illinois.

MidAmerican Energy Co., Iowa’s largest energy company, provideselectric service to 653,000 customers and natural gas service to622,000 customers in Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska and South Dakota.Company headquarters are in Des Moines, IA.

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