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By Bryan Bloodworth

NORMAL - Electricity aggregation was approved by voters in Normal, Heyworth and Randolph Township.

Voters in Normal approved the measure with a 54 percent favorable vote. Heyworth and Randolph Township voters approved passage by a 62 percent to 38 margin.

The McLean County communities were among 90 counties and cities that will present themselves as a group to an electricity supplier in hopes of getting cheaper prices. Three hundred Illinois communities have already approved the measure.

The law allows residential and small business electricity customers to choose alternative suppliers since 2000, but only in recent years have the economics of electricity generation brought forth a panoply of suppliers to offer customers a choice.

Under municipal aggregation, a city will negotiate a deal with a supplier and customers will get that deal unless they opt out and go with a different supplier.

Alternative suppliers are, for now, cheaper than Ameren and Com Ed.

The measure failed in Normal and Bloomington last spring.

Bryan Bloodworth can be reached at bryan.bloodworth@cumulus.com.