220 ILCS 5/16-107.7

(220 ILCS 5/16-107.7)

Sec. 16-107.7. Power price mitigation rebate.

(a) Illinois electric utility customers have been impacted by unanticipated changes to electric power and capacity prices during a period of economic hardship associated with recent global events, including increasing gas prices due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic. The recent power and capacity procurement events affect the market prices paid by customers. Accordingly, as many customers have experienced increased electric utility bill impacts due to the increase in electric power and capacity prices, it is the policy of the State to assist qualifying customers through a power price mitigation rebate for the June 2023 through October 2024 electric utility billing cycle. As used in this Section, "small commercial customer" means those nonresidential retail customers of an electric utility consuming 15,000 kilowatt-hours or less of electricity annually in its service area whose service has not yet been declared competitive pursuant to Section 16-113.

(b) Any electric utility serving adversely impacted residential and small commercial customers shall notify the Commission by April 15, 2023 of the same and provide the results of the calculations set forth in this subsection. As used in this Section, "electric utility serving adversely impacted residential and small commercial customers" means any electric utility that can demonstrate that the utility default power supply rate procured from the Illinois Power Agency and available to its residential and small commercial customers has experienced, or will experience, a more than 90% year-over-year total supply charge increase, as calculated by comparing the total supply charge effective on June 1, 2021, as reported by the electric utility to the Commission pursuant to subsection (i) of Section 16-111.5, and the total supply charge effective on June 1, 2022, as reported to the Commission pursuant to subsection (i) of Section 16-111.5. The total supply charge effective on June 1, 2021, and June 1, 2022, respectively, as reported pursuant to subsection (i) of Section 16-111.5, shall be used to calculate an electric utility's qualification under this Section and no other adjustments shall be made for purposes of the calculation, including, but not limited to, any transmission costs, purchased electricity adjustments, or any other credits. Any small multijurisdictional electric utility that relies upon company-owned generation resources, including fossil fueled generation, to supply the majority of its eligible State retail customers' energy and capacity needs shall be ineligible to file a notice or receive funding for rebate credits pursuant to this Section. The Commission shall have 5 days from the date of receipt of the utility's notice to review the calculations and notify the electric utility as to whether it qualifies as an electric utility serving adversely impacted residential and small commercial customers under this Section.

(c) Any electric utility that provides notice to the Commission of qualification under subsection (b) shall concurrently file a tariff with the Commission that provides for a monthly rebate credit to be given to all residential and small commercial customers, beginning as soon as is practicable following the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 102nd General Assembly. The tariff shall provide that the total funds appropriated by the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity shall be divided equally and issued to all of its active residential and small commercial customers, including customers that take supply service from alternative retail suppliers or real-time pricing tariffs. The tariff shall further provide that the monthly rebate credit will be reflected on, and applied to, customer bills beginning at the start of a monthly billing period and continue through the October 2023 billing period in a manner compliant with subsections (d) and (e). The tariff shall also provide that the utility may apply the monthly rebate credit to up to 5 monthly billing periods ending in October 2023, and the utility may aggregate monthly rebate credits. To the extent a rebate credit is greater than a customer's bill in a given month, the excess rebate credit amount shall apply to the next billing period, even if the billing period is after October 2023, until the customer's rebate credit has been fully applied.

(d) The Commission shall have 5 days from the date an electric utility files the tariff pursuant to subsection (c) to review the tariff for compliance with this Section, and, subject to appropriation to the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity for purposes of the power price mitigation, the tariff shall go into effect no later than 7 days from the original tariff filing date or one day from the date of any compliance filing, whichever is later. Upon the tariff becoming effective, the Commission shall notify the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity of any electric utility serving adversely impacted residential and small commercial customers with an approved tariff that is eligible to receive funds to be used to pay for the monthly rebate credits issued pursuant to this Section.

(e) Each electric utility providing a monthly rebate credit to its customers pursuant to subsection (c) shall include at least the following statement as part of a bill insert or bill message provided with any bill reflecting a monthly rebate credit to customers: "Your bill has been reduced this month by the Power Price Mitigation Rebate Act passed by the Illinois General Assembly." The amount of the monthly rebate credit being applied for the billing period shall also be reflected on the customer's bill with the description "State Funded Power Price Mitigation Credit". The electric utility's obligation to reflect the information required by this subsection shall not extend past the October 2023 billing period.

(f) An electric utility with a tariff approved pursuant to subsection (c) shall be entitled to recover the reasonable and prudent expenses incurred to comply with this Section and shall have an obligation to provide monthly rebate credits to customers only to the extent there are funds available to the utility to provide the monthly rebate credits, as funded by the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity and subject to appropriation to the Department. Within 180 days from the date on which all allocated funds have been transferred to and applied by the electric utility, the electric utility shall notify the Commission and provide an accounting for all funds applied as a monthly rebate credit to its residential and small commercial customers. The electric utility shall take reasonable steps to apply all allocated funds it receives as monthly rebate credits. If any funds remain after the October 2023 billing period that have not been applied to residential or small commercial customers, the electric utility shall return such unapplied amounts to the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity by March 30, 2024. If the electric utility provides rebate credits to customers that exceed the available funds, the electric utility shall account for such amounts and the utility shall recover those amounts not to exceed 2% of the total available funds made available for the rebate credits as part of its next base rates increase pursuant to Article XVI or Article IX.

(g) This Section, except for this subsection and subsection (f), is inoperative on and after January 1, 2025.

(h) This Section may be referred to as the Power Price Mitigation Rebate Act.

(Source: P.A. 102-1123, eff. 1-27-23.)