Communities and Utilities Field, Wind Energy Category

Emcee: Debra Poneman

Allan Poole is Director of Public Utilities for the City of Naperville in charge of the City’s water, wastewater, and electric utility systems serving a present population of 145,000 in DuPage and Will Counties, Illinois. Naperville has owned and operated its electric utility since 1899 and as a public power community saw the opportunity four years ago to support renewable electric energy development in Illinois.

In partnership with Community Energy, an Iberdrola Company, they have developed one of the most successful voluntary programs for renewable energy in the nation. From January, 2006 at the start of their Renewable Energy Option Program they have steadily increased the number of their contributing residential customers to 4,300 representing a residential participation rate of 8.5% for the 50,600 residences in Naperville.

At present the average contributing residential customer makes a monthly premium payment on their monthly utility bill for approximately 470 kiloWatt-hours of electrical energy to develop new wind, solar, and hydro power in Illinois. The U.S. Department of Energy in 2008 has listed Naperville in their top ten for residential participation.

Allan has been employed with the City of Naperville since 1972, first as Director of Water and Wastewater Utilities until 1992 and since that time as Director of Public Utilities which added the Electric Utility. Naperville’s population was only 23,000 in 1972 and utility systems have been a vital part of the rapid growth to the present 145,000.

He is a 1961 graduate of the University of Iowa, Iowa City, in Civil-Environmental Engineering and a licensed professional engineer in Illinois and Washington State. He is Fellow and Life Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, a Board Certified Environmental Engineer in the American Academy of Environmental Engineers, and a Life Member of the American Water Works Association and the Water Environment Federation.

Allan has served as the City of Naperville’s representative on the Board of Commissioners of the DuPage Water Commission for the past 20 years, and on the Board of Directors of the Illinois Municipal Electric Agency and the University of Iowa Professional Advisory Board.

He was the recipient of the Professional Engineering Management Award of the Illinois Society of Professional Engineers in 1996 and the Public Works Leader of the Year Award of the American Public Works Association, Chicago Metropolitan Chapter in 2000.

He believes in a line from a popular Stevie Wonder song….”Yes my friends the answer is blowing in the wind.”