It’s been a very busy legislative session in Springfield, and we’re barely passed the halfway mark. The 104th General Assembly convened on January 8th and will adjourn May 31st. The deadline to get a bill through committee was on March 21, so what’s moving? What’s stalled? And what’s an omnibus bill got to do with it? 

First up: An Omnibus Energy Bill

Regular readers of MEEA’s Policy Insider newsletter will know that legislators introduced a massive energy bill, the Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act or CRGA Act (pronounced “surge-ah”) this session. It’s SB 2473 in the Senate with Senator Cunnigham as the lead sponsor and HB 3779 in the House with Representative Williams as the lead sponsor. This bill is proceeding as an omnibus, which means it is not going through the typical committee process and was not subject to the March 21st deadline. Legislators are hosting working group meetings with stakeholders prior to bringing the bill to committee. We expect the bill will change substantially as a result of these negotiations and that the amended bill could get a hearing later this session.  

Electric Energy Efficiency

CRGA aims to strengthen the power grid and deliver ratepayer savings through clean energy resources including both electric and gas energy efficiency. The changes to electric energy efficiency in the introduced version of the bill includes a new 2% annual savings goal for both ComEd and Ameren that would simplify planning, increase overall energy savings and offer increased flexibility to utilities to meet these savings goals that the current way of calculating the cumulative persisting annual energy savings (CPAS)does not.  

CRGA would also increase utilities’ minimum spending on income-qualified programs and increase utilities’ spending cap to achieve the more aggressive savings goals. The bill adjusts the utilities’ Return on Equity (ROE) to the current Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) approved level in the utility’s grid plan. CRGA would also bring large energy users into electric energy efficiency programs. Currently, large private energy customers can opt-out of paying into utility electric EE programs, meaning Illinois is currently losing out on significant and highly cost-effective energy savings from these mostly industrial users.  

CRGA would also create smart time-of-use electric rates and clarifies that the ICC can support low-income discount rates for gas and electric utilities.  

Gas Energy Efficiency

The changes to gas EE include gradually increasing the annual savings goal to 1% of sales by 2029 with an average measure life of 12 years (similar to electric EE). CRGA significantly shifts the focus of gas EE towards building envelope improvements and away from gas appliances. The bill would prohibit utilities from counting savings from the installation of new gas furnaces, boilers, water-heaters or other gas consuming equipment in residential buildings. There is, however, an exception carved out to allow utilities to count savings from the installation of a new gas furnace through income-eligible programs where it is determined a replacement furnace is urgently needed.  

The bill would require 67% of gas EE budgets to go towards building envelope improvements and require utilities to spend at least 25% of the total EE budget on income-qualified programs. The bill further specifies that at least 80% of the income-qualified spending must be on whole home weatherization and other building envelope improvements. CRGA also adds a performance incentive for gas utilities.  

Munis and Co-ops

CRGA would introduce requirements for municipal and cooperative utilities (“munis and co-ops”) to engage in integrated resource planning. The bill would not require munis and co-ops to participate in EE programs unlike in Wisconsin and Minnesota where munis and co-ops are mandated to participate.    

Other Areas of Interest

CRGA impacts many areas beyond energy efficiency including:

• Clean energy procurement
• Improvements to transmission such as requiring transmission developers to evaluate and use cost-effective grid enhancing technologies  
• A battery storage procurement program  
• A virtual power plan program
• A solar bill of rights seeking to create a uniform standard to compensate customers with rooftop solar  
• The creation an office of energy modeling at the Illinois Power Agency, among many other things

In addition to working group negotiations around language already in the bill, it appears there’s appetite from legislators and stakeholders to include provisions to address the impact of data centers on our electric grid. Addressing the immense energy requirements of data centers has emerged as a critical environmental and economic issue as the digital landscape continues to grow rapidly. A data center can use 10 to 50 times as much energy as a typical commercial office building, per U.S. Department of Energy data. Final language addressing data centers in Illinois was not included in the version of the bill introduced, but it is possible language could be included in an amended version later this session.  

Next Up: What’s Moving?

The Utility Data Access Act (HB 3312) introduced by Representative Canty passed out of the House Public Utilities Committee on March 19 and received a second reading on March 26. The bill, however, was held on second reading and has not yet been placed on the calendar for a third reading. The bill would require investor-owned utilities to retain monthly billed energy consumption data for at least 15 years and provide the past two years of data to building owners at their request to assist owners with energy benchmarking. Read MEEA’s comments on the bill here.

A bill to create a statewide energy navigator program (HB 3650) introduced by Representative Lilly advanced out of the House Public Utilities Committee on March 19. The energy navigator program would provide information about building electrification, energy efficiency programs, financing resources and a contractor list. The original bill included many other provisions that would have made changes to the Energy Transition Act, but the amended version of the bill that passed out of committee only included the provisions creating the statewide energy navigator program. The bill received a second reading on March 25 and has been placed on the calendar for third reading.  

Finally: What’s Stalled?

The Illinois Appliance Standards Act (HB 1612 / SB 1582), introduced by Representative Buckner and Senator Fine, is unlikely to succeed this session. The bill did not receive a hearing, failed to advance out of the House Energy & Environment Committee and was never assigned to a substantive committee on the Senate side. This bill would have created appliance efficiency standards for several appliances not covered by the federal standards.

The Clean & Healthy Buildings Act (CHBA) (HB 3525) introduced by Representative Williams did not receive a hearing, failed to advance out of the House Public Utilities Committee by March 21 and is likely dead for this session. CHBA sought to address greenhouse gas emissions from buildings, which account for roughly 20% of Illinois GHG emissions. The bill contains largely the same gas energy efficiency provisions as CRGA but none of the electric energy efficiency provisions.    

What’s Next?

For bills that passed out of committee, the deadline to get a third reading and move onto the second chamber is coming up fast on April 11. After that, bills need to pass out of committee in their second chamber by May 9. Illinois spring session adjourns on May 31. Stay tuned for the April edition of the Policy Insider to see how things progress over the next several weeks. MEEA Members can receive the Insider directly to their inboxes by emailing membership@mwalliance.org.