The IEC is committed to bringing natural gas savings to all the members in the state of Illinois. Currently the utility service areas that we have been able to identify quantifiable savings are:

• Nicor
• Peoples
• North Shore
• Illinois Power (We currently are only able to service IP customers)

Purchasing Strategy

The team of industry professionals that was assembled by the IEC to make the purchases has developed a disciplined approach to buying and using sound money management techniques. We have several benchmarks we use to evaluate our performance. They include:

• What you would have paid had you locked in your own price
• What you paid as compared to last year 
• What our costs were versus the spot market.

We have maintained a much disciplined strategy regarding our purchases. Prices have fallen hard in the past couple of weeks and one of our pre-established triggers hit. We have currently hedged about 20% of our purchases between now and March 2008. The price for this hedge is about 10% below last winter's rates. We will continue to monitor the market conditions and make purchases based on the pricing committees buying strategy which has been set forth. 

We will continue to evaluate our progress and methods to ensure that the best possible prices are obtained. We have carefully planned for the growth of the IEC

Budgeting

If you are budgeting for this next fiscal year, we suggest you take this year's actual costs and reduce it by between 5%. Your total cost per therm, including your utility charges, will be about $.90/therm for the 2007-2008 school year.