Illinois Senate votes for new smart grid bill

• 13 years ago (2011-10-26)
• David Flin

North America 1021

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The Senate of the US state of Illinois has approved a bill that adds utility concessions onto legislation. These concessions are supported by the utility Commonwealth Edison (ComEd), but are opposed by Pat Quinn, the Governor of Illinois.

Quinn vowed to fight passage of the legislation with the help of state Attorney General Lisa Madigan. The House will now vote on the bill, followed by a vote in both chambers to override Quinn’s veto of the original legislation. ComEd said that it was encouraged by approval of the bill to address concerns raised about the smart grid legislation.

The original legislation outlines cost increases to consumers amounting to $3 a month in ComEd’s area to pay for smart grid and other infrastructure improvements intended to help consumers monitor and manage electricity use, helping ComEd more quickly locate outages and make repairs.

Separately, Tenaska Energy’s proposal to build in Taylorville, near Springfield, a $3.5 billion power plant fuelled by gas produced from coal, is contained in another bill before the Senate. The project’s developers are asking legislators to force state utilities to purchase the plant’s output for 30 years. The Tenaska bill attempts to allay the fears of businesses that want a cap on electricity rate increases. Residential customer increases would be capped at 2 percent over 30 years; other customers at 3-4 percent over the same period.