SEPA and ScottMadden Report Says Illinois Is Ready for DERs

Regulations, legislation, and investment in utility infrastructure are foundations for DER growth

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) and ScottMadden today released the latest report in SEPA’s 51st State Perspective series: DERs are Coming and Illinois is Ready for Them.

While New York and California are often cited for leading the charge on innovative energy policy, Illinois has quietly solidified its position as a market to watch. During the past two decades, the legislature has passed several sweeping laws that have changed the way electricity is generated, sold and consumed in the state. The SEPA-ScottMadden report summarizes those recent legislative and regulatory actions that will enable the technical integration of distributed energy resources (DERs) as customers adopt them.

Legislative and other initiatives driving energy market transformation in the state include:

• A pathway to a successor for net metering that could tie compensation for distributed generation to locational grid benefits.
• Treatment of energy efficiency and certain distributed generation as “regulatory assets” on which utilities could earn a return.
• Real-time pricing programs for retail customers and the piloting of new technologies and business models through the utilities’ smart grid test beds.

“Illinois is an exciting field of study because the state is making significant progress across all major aspects of grid transformation,” said Vazken Kassakhian, the SEPA research analyst who co-authored the report. “We see major investments in advanced technologies for the distribution grid, and compelling groundwork for a future where delivery of electricity is more efficient and offers customers more choices. The other side of the equation is that utilities will have more opportunities to manage a potential influx of customer-sited resources to yield value back to the grid.”

“Illinois has made significant investments in infrastructure that have prepared it well for the proliferation of distributed energy resources (DERs). These investments, coupled with performance-based ratemaking have laid an important foundation so that when DERs arrive at scale, the state will be ready,” said Cristin Lyons, partner and grid transformation practice leader at ScottMadden.

“DERs Are Coming and Illinois Is Ready for Them” can be downloaded for free here.

A previous 51st State Perspectives paper, “Policy, Technical, and Regulatory Perspectives from New York and California” is also available for free download here.

Media contact:
Mike Kruger
[email protected]
202-280-1556

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