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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, A secure, reliable, and resilient power grid
3integrating generation resources serves as a foundation of a
4growing economy and is critical to national security; and
 
5    WHEREAS, Regulators, policymakers, and consumers expect
6generating resources and the grid to perform extremely
7reliably; and
 
8    WHEREAS, A significant portion of the nation's
9transmission facilities is aged and urgently requires
10replacement and substantial upgrading; and
 
11    WHEREAS, Environmental regulations, state renewable and
12clean energy portfolio standards with mandated deadlines,
13state and federal tax policies, other economic factors, and
14technology developments are causing some electric generation
15resources to retire, while substantial replacement generation,
16some of it fueled by intermittent resources, is being or is
17planned to be sited at other locations on the electric grid;
18and
 
19    WHEREAS, The risk of natural disasters threatens the
20network of power transmission and distribution lines, and
21strengthening the nation's grid with advanced technology can

 

 

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1increase the grid's resiliency and reliability; and
 
2    WHEREAS, New innovative, cost-effective transmission
3technologies, including, but not limited to, high-capacity and
4high-efficiency conductors and compact transmission towers,
5are commercially available with revolutionary, extraordinarily
6high-performance levels compared to other technologies to
7address aged circuit and new generation issues, including much
8greater increases in grid capacity, much greater improvements
9in energy transfers, significantly greater stability and
10resiliency, much greater efficient use of existing and new
11rights-of-way, substantial reduction in transmission line
12losses, streamlining siting and construction activities, and
13more rapidly bringing new and replacement circuits into
14service; and
 
15    WHEREAS, New and advanced replacement transmission
16facilities can be designed and deployed to enable a wide
17variety of new generating resources and can address technical,
18environmental, and aesthetic issues that could impede or limit
19the development and operation of resources so states can
20achieve public policy goals on set schedules; and
 
21    WHEREAS, Crowded utility corridors often allow little room
22for expansion; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, Some states have established minimal requirements
2for approving transmission projects that use existing
3corridors with de minimis impacts; and
 
4    WHEREAS, At least one state has established a policy that
5encourages regulators and grid operators to support and
6encourage consideration of advanced transmission line
7technologies to cost-effectively deliver benefits; and
 
8    WHEREAS, Substantial benefits will flow from advanced
9technologies on a cost-per-energy-unit-delivered or other
10basis, so state legislators, electric utilities, grid
11operators, and state public service commissions are encouraged
12to optimize investment decisions around the cost-effective use
13of technologies to yield extraordinarily high performance from
14them; therefore, be it
 
15    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
16HUNDREDTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we
17encourage the State of Illinois to support the following:
18        (1) the investigation and consideration of new
19    advanced transmission technologies that offer
20    revolutionary performance benefits when replacing aged
21    transmission infrastructure;
22        (2) the evaluation of new advanced transmission
23    technologies to determine whether they are best able to

 

 

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1    cost-effectively ensure the continued reliable delivery of
2    electricity while providing revolutionary greater capacity
3    and revolutionary enhanced efficiency on schedules
4    required to meet the state's public policy objectives;
5        (3) the consideration of the ability of these
6    technologies to greatly reduce environmental and visual
7    impacts to communities; and
8        (4) the consideration of the ability of these and other
9    technologies to greatly reduce the overall cost of energy
10    delivery; and be it further
 
11    RESOLVED, That we encourage efforts to work with regional
12transmission organizations, independent system operators, and
13other planning authorities to compare the cost-effective,
14revolutionary performance of advanced electric transmission
15infrastructure options to the performance of other
16technologies for increasing grid capacity, reducing
17transmission line losses, improving energy transfers, making
18more efficient use of rights-of-way, improving energy
19efficiency, and encouraging the shortest timeframes be put in
20service by streamlining siting and construction activities in
21their planning, evaluation, and oversight of transmission grid
22development, especially by utilizing existing transmission
23corridors; and be it further
 
24    RESOLVED, That we encourage the inclusion of supplemental

 

 

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1or new policies of transmission facilities that promote
2revolutionary, rather than incremental, performance and the
3benefits of the appropriate use of cost-effective advanced
4electric transmission technologies in support of their
5interest in the continued, timely provision of affordable,
6reliable electricity to consumers; and be it further
 
7    RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be
8delivered to Governor Rauner, all members of the Illinois
9Commerce Commission, all members of the Illinois Congressional
10Delegation, Exelon, Dynegy, ComEd, Ameren, Mid-American
11Energy, Illinois Electrical Cooperatives, the Electric Power
12Research Institute, National Labs (Department of Energy), and
13the IEE.