Naperville Files Lawsuit Against Calico Energy Inc.

 The City of Naperville filed a lawsuit on Friday, January 31 against Calico Energy Inc., the City’s contracted vendor to provide the ePortal website as part of the Naperville Smart Grid Initiative. 

The lawsuit claims that Calico Energy Inc. was negligent in providing its contracted services and is therefore in breach of its contract with the City. 

The lawsuit describes the working relationship the City and Calico have had since 2010 and explains that Calico could not even produce a modified, reduced-functionality version of ePortal to the City. 

The suit requests Calico pay the City the $779,550 that had already been paid to Calico for their services plus damages. 

“Calico Energy Inc. is on the brink of bankruptcy,” City Attorney Margo Ely said. “As we sit here today without a functioning ePortal website for our utility customers, it is evident that this company failed to perform and does not have the capacity to perform any of its contracted work. We need to explore every avenue to recover our costs, including this lawsuit. It is the only responsible action to take on behalf of our ratepayers.”

Since the inception of the Naperville Smart Grid Initiative, the City intended to provide its utility customers with ePortal, a website to view their electric usage, select from different electric rates and take part in optional energy saving programs. 

The utility industry has evolved since the City’s contract with Calico went into effect in 2010. City staff will be re-evaluating what types of on-line services are currently available and how those match with the City’s desired functionality in a website.

Source: City of Naperville press release