Democratic socialists in Chicago, including a sitting alderman, are floating the idea of “democratization” of ComEd, the power provider for the city.

Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, one of the six members of the Democratic Socialist Party who sit on the Chicago City Council, told WTTW’s Paris Schutz “we want to make sure that public utility that provides a pivotal and critical service to the people of the City of Chicago is democratized.”

The city is in the process of renewing its franchise agreement with ComEd and advocates are pushing officials to lean on the utility for more green energy initiatives.

The alderman said that “democratizing” ComEd would result in lower rates for residents as well as provide further protections.

“We want to lower rates. We want to make sure that we see an end to electrical shut-offs. We want to see municipal control of that utility,” Rosa said.

Rosa’s office would not respond to repeated requests to elaborate on his proposal.

Under the assumption that he meant municipalization of the power utility, where a city purchases the transmission equipment and is then in charge of rates, delivery and other services, David Kolata, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board, said a number of municipalities in Illinois already do this.

“There’s several in the state of Illinois,” he said. “Springfield is a municipal utility. Winnetka is a municipal utility. Naperville is a municipal utility.”

Kolata said state law exists that would allow Chicago to negotiate a purchase of ComEd’s equipment and become the provider of power for the city’s 2.7 million residents. But he said it wouldn’t necessarily result in lower costs for consumers.

“The way the law works, that price is likely to be very, very high,” he said. “City taxpayers would have to pay that.”

ComEd wasn’t available for comment on the idea.