WINCHESTER ELECTRIC CUSTOMERS have option to ‘opt-out’ of electric aggregation

By Editor | July 7, 2026 |

By Carmen Ensinger

Homefield Energy Representative Reg Ankrum addressed the Winchester City Council at their July 1 city council meeting to discuss the city’s participation in the electric aggregation program.
Ankrom is not new to the city of Winchester. He first began working with the city in 2012 when the city passed a referendum for the electric aggregation opt-out program. Customers within the city will automatically be switched to Homefield Energy as their electric supplier, instead of Ameren, unless they “opt-out.”
Winchester Mayor Rex McIntire asked Ankrom to explain just what electric aggregation is for the council.
“The law was changed in the mid 1990’s and the state started deregulating electricity,” Ankrom said. ‘That deregulation went through several classifications of customers like large industrial customers, then universities, then businesses and ultimately, in the year 2010, it reached the residential customers.”
Ankrom said the way the law was set up, it was set up as an opt-out program.
“The idea was for a community to put all the kilowatt hours together that they could,” he said. “The suppliers like those large numbers of kilowatt hours we can bring to them because that fills capacity. Because they are generating 24-hours a day, whether they are selling it or not. So the larger contract we can bring to them, the better rate we can get.”
Instead of putting the idea out there and letting the customers come to them, the program is an opt-out program meaning every customer in Winchester is automatically enrolled in the program unless they choose to “opt-out”.
“And people have every right not to participate,” Ankrom said. “Basically, we are doing our neighbors a favor, but they don’t have to participate.”
Ameren typically raises their rates during the summer months and drops them during the winter.
For example, last year, from October to May, Ameren had a staggered rate for its customers depending on how many kilowatt hours were used. For 0-800 kilowatt hours, the rate was 8.769 per kilowatt hour. Anything over 800 kilowatt hours the rate went down to 7.850 per kilowatt hour.
But on June 1, Ameren raised their rates to a rate of .11326 for all kilowatt hours which will run from June through September, when they typically will go down.
For example, last year, in 2025, the summer rate for Ameren was .12180. In October that rate dropped down to 8.402 for under 800 kwh and 7.483 for over 800 kwh.
The rate that Homefield Energy is offering Winchester customers is lower than the summer rate of Ameren. The rate that Winchester customers, who do not choose to opt-out, will be 10.49 cents per kwh.
This 10.49 kwh rate will begin with the August meter reading and continue through May of 2027. Beginning in June, the rate will go up to 10.89 where it will remain for the remainder of the contract which ends in December of 2027.
Customers who wish to stay with Ameren can opt-out in a variety of way. They can call a toll-free number provided by the card they receive in the mail, they can check a box on the card saying they wish to opt-out and return the card, get on the internet and go to their website.
Winchester residents who wish to opt-out can do so in any of the above methods beginning at 12:01 a.m. on July 7 and for the remainder of the 17 months of the contract.
Ankrom said one question he gets asked a lot is if you can come back if you opt-out.
“Yes, you can come back if you do it within two months of opting-out,” he said. “If you stay with Ameren any longer, then you are required to stay with them, or any other supplier for a total of 12 months. The reason being that you are sending a market signal to Ameren that you going to stay with them and they have to contract to have the energy supply to serve you over the next 10 months, so that is the purpose of that.”