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Since 2017, sweeping legislation in Illinois has sparked a solar-power boom and launched ambitious energy-equity and green-jobs programs.
Now, for the third time in under a decade, state lawmakers, advocates, and industry groups have their sights set on ensuring that clean energy momentum.
The focus this legislative session is the electric grid. Stakeholders worry the state’s clean energy progress will stagnate if it can’t expand and fortify its infrastructure for moving and storing electricity.
Advocates are backing a wide-ranging bill known as the Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act, or CRGA, which they describe as the successor to the 2017 Future Energy Jobs Act and the 2021 Climate and Equitable Jobs Act. Solar and energy-storage industries are backing another bill that includes even more ambitious goals for building out new transmission and energy storage.
There’s widespread agreement that Illinois’ current grid is not ready for the state’s mandated transition to 100% clean energy by 2050, especially as overall electricity demand climbs thanks to the proliferation of data centers in Illinois. As in other states, Illinois’ long interconnection queues and lengthy transmission planning processes through the regional transmission organizations make it hard to connect renewable energy sources.
CRGA, introduced Feb. 7, aims to make more efficient use of existing grid infrastructure through a transparent audit of the current system and the adoption of grid-enhancing technologies. It would facilitate new transmission buildout by making it easier for merchant transmission developers to get state permits and by allowing high-voltage transmission lines to be built in highway rights-of-way. It also calls for 3 gigawatts of new energy storage to be added to the grid.
“Transmission is crucial to a reliable and affordable grid because it allows us to move clean energy from place to place and be more resilient in cases of extreme weather,” said James Gignac, Midwest policy director for the Union of Concerned Scientists’ climate and energy program.
The industry-backed transmission and storage bill (HB 3758), introduced Feb. 7, calls for 15 GW of new energy storage, which the bill’s backers say would save consumers $2.4 billion over 20 years. The bill calls on the Illinois Power Agency, which procures energy for the state’s utilities, to also procure energy storage. Gignac said studies by advocacy groups indicate 3 GW of storage is sufficient for the near-term. Both industry and advocacy groups backed a “skinny bill” that passed in the legislature’s January lame-duck session, launching an analysis of energy storage needs by the Illinois Commerce Commission, due on May 1.
Stakeholders generally agree that new energy legislation is especially crucial given the Trump administration’s rollbacks to clean energy incentives and mandates.
“A lot of federal funding we just don’t know the future of, so the role of states and local governments is more important than ever now,” said Jen Walling, executive director of the Illinois Environmental Council.
Illinois does not do the type of comprehensive planning for energy use and transmission that electric utilities do in states with vertically integrated energy markets. In Illinois, separate companies generate and transmit electricity, with the idea that the open market will match supply with demand. But experts say centralized planning is necessary to ensure that clean energy can meet the state’s needs.
“The market is not necessarily going to get us where we need to go on resource adequacy and reliability,” said John Delurey, Midwest deputy program director of the advocacy group Vote Solar.
CRGA calls on the state to undertake a clean-resource planning process involving the commerce commission, state Environmental Protection Agency, and Illinois Power Agency, similar to what utilities in other states do with integrated resource plans.
The bill also mandates public studies of the grid to determine where it is underutilized and how the latest technology could more efficiently move electrons around — increasing the grid’s capacity without building new wires.
“A lot of incumbent transmission owners have confidence in their traditional approaches and tend to rely on those” instead of adopting new grid-enhancing technology, said Gignac. As an example, he pointed to software that can help grid operators reroute power through less congested pathways, a tool reminiscent of Google Maps for road traffic.
“There’s potentially a financial disincentive for [companies to embrace] some of these technologies,” Gignac added, “because they can often be cheaper solutions” than building new transmission, which earns companies a guaranteed profit from ratepayers. Clean energy advocates say more transmission lines are needed, but they want a comprehensive study to know exactly where and how much.
“We are at a point in transition where we have to get even more precise,” said Delurey. “That precision is crucial for affordability. How do we make sure we build exactly what we need? No more, no less.”
Last year, companies hoping to build new high-voltage transmission in Illinois backed a proposal for creating renewable energy credits to incentivize it, similar to those that helped Illinois grow its solar capacity manyfold to over 3.5 gigawatts in less than a decade since the passage of the Future Energy Jobs Act.
CRGA does not include such incentives, but it would make it easier for companies that have not previously built transmission in Illinois to get authority from state regulators to do so, Gignac explained.
This could help the company Soo Green construct its planned 350-mile underground transmission cable connecting Iowa and Illinois. Such merchant transmission lines don’t have to go through the lengthy bureaucratic process that new projects built through regional grid operators’ planning programs do.
Meanwhile, both CRGA and the industry-backed storage bill would create a virtual-power-plant program, wherein companies would aggregate and market the capacity of individual batteries owned by residents, businesses, industries, and even vehicles plugged into the grid.
CRGA would also create an Illinois Storage for All program, mirroring the existing Illinois Solar for All initiative, which helps income-qualified customers, nonprofits, and government entities get solar for little or no cost. The same pot of state funds could subsidize batteries for residents, schools, churches, and others.
“That person is now a resilience hub for the neighborhood,” said Delurey. “Neighbors can come over and stay cool in summer, keep medicine cold in the fridge. For the nonprofit and public facility program, it’s the same idea on a larger scale.”
The bill also greatly expands energy-efficiency mandates for the state’s electric and gas utilities. It increases the amount of energy savings that electric utilities are required to achieve each year to the equivalent of 2% of their annual sales. The utilities do this through funding programs like home weatherization and subsidized efficient appliances.
Under the legislation, downstate utility Ameren would have to meet the same targets as Chicago-area utility ComEd, closing a gap between the utilities’ requirements. It would also more than double the savings mandates for natural gas utilities, and it would end the current ability of large industrial users to opt out of paying into a fund for energy efficiency.
“These are important ways to be moving the needle and prioritizing affordability across the board and even more so for Illinoisans who are financially challenged, historically disadvantaged,” said Kari Ross, Midwest energy affordability advocate for the Natural Resources Defense Council. “Investment in energy efficiency is critical for affordability and … getting the grid reliable and moving toward a clean energy future.”
CRGA has planning requirements and transparency mandates specifically for rural cooperatives and municipal utilities. This is especially important since residents who are member-owners of those entities may understand little about contracts they get locked into, said Andrew Rehn, climate policy director of the Prairie Rivers Network, an environmental group in downstate Illinois. One example of such an agreement is the highly controversial and financially troubled Prairie State Energy Campus, a massive coal plant.
“It’s good governance, trying to make sure the way cooperatives are operating is transparent and interested members can have clear pathways to engaging, understanding what’s going on, having a voice,” Rehn said.
“We think if they did some of this planning we’d see different outcomes. We would be looking at a more diverse portfolio,” changing the fact that “a lot of these municipal utilities and co-ops are still on coal, [and] they will be the last in the state still on coal.”
Two separate bills have been introduced related to the municipal-utility and rural-cooperative transparency demands and to help muni and co-op customers more easily install solar. A Solar Bill of Rights for such customers was also introduced last year.
Advocates say they expect energy bill negotiations to continue throughout the spring session, as they try to gain industry support for CRGA and add elements — like provisions related to data centers — that were discussed but not included in the current legislation.
“In a Trump world nothing feels certain,” said Rehn. “But this feels real. This is the state being able to set our own direction and offset a lot of the horrible things that are going to happen on the federal level. It’s a way we can fight back and do important climate and community-focused work.”
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