Public Act 095-0913
 
SB0878 Enrolled 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    (Section scheduled to be repealed on December 12, 2015)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.)

Effective Date: 1/1/2009