SB0878eng 95TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SB0878 Engrossed LRB095 05639 MJR 25729 b

AN ACT concerning regulation.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 5. The Renewable Energy, Energy Efficiency, and Coal Resources Development Law of 1997 is amended by changing Section 6-3 as follows:

(20 ILCS 687/6-3)

(Section scheduled to be repealed on December 12, 2015)

Sec. 6-3. Renewable energy resources program.

(a) The Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, to be called the "Department" hereinafter in this Law, shall administer the Renewable Energy Resources Program to provide grants, loans, and other incentives to foster investment in and the development and use of renewable energy resources.

(b) The Department shall establish eligibility criteria for grants, loans, and other incentives to foster investment in and the development and use of renewable energy resources. These criteria shall be reviewed annually and adjusted as necessary. The criteria should promote the goal of fostering investment in and the development and use, in Illinois, of renewable energy resources.

(c) The Department shall accept applications for grants, loans, and other incentives to foster investment in and the development and use of renewable energy resources.

(d) To the extent that funds are available and appropriated, the Department shall provide grants, loans, and other incentives to applicants that meet the criteria specified by the Department.

(e) The Department shall conduct an annual study on the use and availability of renewable energy resources in Illinois. Each year, the Department shall submit a report on the study to the General Assembly. This report shall include suggestions for legislation which will encourage the development and use of renewable energy resources.

(f) As used in this Law, "renewable energy resources" includes energy from wind, solar thermal energy, photovoltaic cells and panels, dedicated crops grown for energy production and organic waste biomass, hydropower that does not involve new construction or significant expansion of hydropower dams, and other such alternative sources of environmentally preferable energy. "Renewable energy resources" does not include, however, energy from the incineration, or burning or heating of waste wood, tires, garbage, general household, institutional and commercial waste, industrial lunchroom or office waste, landscape waste, or construction or demolition debris.

(g) There is created the Energy Efficiency Investment Fund as a special fund in the State Treasury, to be administered by the Department to support the development of technologies for wind, biomass, and solar power in Illinois. The Department may accept private and public funds, including federal funds, for deposit into the Fund.

(Source: P.A. 94-793, eff. 5-19-06.)

Section 10. The Illinois Power Agency Act is amended by changing Section 1-10 as follows:

(20 ILCS 3855/1-10)

Sec. 1-10. Definitions.

"Agency" means the Illinois Power Agency.

"Agency loan agreement" means any agreement pursuant to which the Illinois Finance Authority agrees to loan the proceeds of revenue bonds issued with respect to a project to the Agency upon terms providing for loan repayment installments at least sufficient to pay when due all principal of, interest and premium, if any, on those revenue bonds, and providing for maintenance, insurance, and other matters in respect of the project.

"Authority" means the Illinois Finance Authority.

"Commission" means the Illinois Commerce Commission.

"Costs incurred in connection with the development and construction of a facility" means:

(1) the cost of acquisition of all real property and improvements in connection therewith and equipment and other property, rights, and easements acquired that are deemed necessary for the operation and maintenance of the facility;

(2) financing costs with respect to bonds, notes, and other evidences of indebtedness of the Agency;

(3) all origination, commitment, utilization, facility, placement, underwriting, syndication, credit enhancement, and rating agency fees;

(4) engineering, design, procurement, consulting, legal, accounting, title insurance, survey, appraisal, escrow, trustee, collateral agency, interest rate hedging, interest rate swap, capitalized interest and other financing costs, and other expenses for professional services; and

(5) the costs of plans, specifications, site study and investigation, installation, surveys, other Agency costs and estimates of costs, and other expenses necessary or incidental to determining the feasibility of any project, together with such other expenses as may be necessary or incidental to the financing, insuring, acquisition, and construction of a specific project and placing that project in operation.

"Department" means the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.

"Director" means the Director of the Illinois Power Agency.

"Demand-response" means measures that decrease peak electricity demand or shift demand from peak to off-peak periods.

"Energy efficiency" means measures that reduce the amount of electricity required to achieve a given end use.

"Electric utility" has the same definition as found in Section 16-102 of the Public Utilities Act.

"Facility" means an electric generating unit or a co-generating unit that produces electricity along with related equipment necessary to connect the facility to an electric transmission or distribution system.

"Governmental aggregator" means one or more units of local government that individually or collectively procure electricity to serve residential retail electrical loads located within its or their jurisdiction.

"Local government" means a unit of local government as defined in Article VII of Section 1 of the Illinois Constitution.

"Municipality" means a city, village, or incorporated town.

"Person" means any natural person, firm, partnership, corporation, either domestic or foreign, company, association, limited liability company, joint stock company, or association and includes any trustee, receiver, assignee, or personal representative thereof.

"Project" means the planning, bidding, and construction of a facility.

"Public utility" has the same definition as found in Section 3-105 of the Public Utilities Act.

"Real property" means any interest in land together with all structures, fixtures, and improvements thereon, including lands under water and riparian rights, any easements, covenants, licenses, leases, rights-of-way, uses, and other interests, together with any liens, judgments, mortgages, or other claims or security interests related to real property.

"Renewable energy credit" means a tradable credit that represents the environmental attributes of a certain amount of energy produced from a renewable energy resource.

"Renewable energy resources" includes energy and its associated renewable energy credit or renewable energy credits from wind, solar thermal energy, photovoltaic cells and panels, biodiesel, crops and untreated and unadulterated organic waste biomass, trees and tree trimmings, hydropower that does not involve new construction or significant expansion of hydropower dams, and other alternative sources of environmentally preferable energy. For purposes of this Act, landfill gas produced in the State is considered a renewable energy resource. "Renewable energy resources" does not include the incineration, or burning, or heating of tires, garbage, general household, institutional, and commercial waste, industrial lunchroom or office waste, landscape waste other than trees and tree trimmings, railroad crossties, utility poles, or and construction or demolition debris, other than untreated and unadulterated waste wood.

"Revenue bond" means any bond, note, or other evidence of indebtedness issued by the Authority, the principal and interest of which is payable solely from revenues or income derived from any project or activity of the Agency.

"Total resource cost test" or "TRC test" means a standard that is met if, for an investment in energy efficiency or demand-response measures, the benefit-cost ratio is greater than one. The benefit-cost ratio is the ratio of the net present value of the total benefits of the program to the net present value of the total costs as calculated over the lifetime of the measures. A total resource cost test compares the sum of avoided electric utility costs, representing the benefits that accrue to the system and the participant in the delivery of those efficiency measures, to the sum of all incremental costs of end-use measures that are implemented due to the program (including both utility and participant contributions), plus costs to administer, deliver, and evaluate each demand-side program, to quantify the net savings obtained by substituting the demand-side program for supply resources. In calculating avoided costs of power and energy that an electric utility would otherwise have had to acquire, reasonable estimates shall be included of financial costs likely to be imposed by future regulations and legislation on emissions of greenhouse gases.

(Source: P.A. 95-481, eff. 8-28-07.)