By: Mark Glennon*
Get ready for a new line item on electricity bills across Illinois totaling at least $7 billion as the absurdity of Illinois green energy policy continues.
The new charge will be for large batteries that store electricity from wind and solar sources. It’s another cost of green energy nobody told you about. Because wind and solar are not reliable, you will now have to pay to cover up the consequences.
It’s The Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act (CRGA, Senate Bill 25), passed Friday by the General Assembly. Gov. JB Pritzker says he will sign it.
Among many other controversial provisions, here’s one you should know about:
Part of your electricity bill is something called a “capacity charge” assessed by electricity grid operators, two of which cover Illinois. The capacity charge is an assurance that the grid operator will provide enough electricity to its territory even in periods of peak demand. If the grid operator has less access to reliable sources its capacity charges are higher. Capacity charges have soared recently, which is part of why your electricity bills have risen.
The problem with wind and solar is they don’t produce anything when it’s dark and windless. Grid operators therefore cannot give as much credit to wind and solar when they set capacity prices as they can to more reliable sources like natural gas, coal and nuclear. Wind and solar now provide around 20% of Illinois electricity and rising, though estimates vary somewhat. Up went your electricity bill as that portion has risen, thanks to green mandates in Illinois law.
What to do about those higher electricity costs from unreliable sources?
Just add batteries, says our political establishment, and voila, problem solved. Big batteries connected to the grid can store electricity from wind and solar, they say. Their claim is that when the new line item for batteries starts appearing on your bill in 2030 it will be offset by a reduction at least as big in the capacity charge reflected in the rest of your bill.
Think about that. They are making you pay to solve the very problem their green energy mandates caused, which is higher prices. Had we stuck with reliable traditional sources we wouldn’t be trying to deal with the upward pressure on capacity charges caused by renewables.
And who has any confidence that $7 billion of batteries will be the end of it?
Not the authors of the new law, apparently. The battery assessment charge amounts on your bill will be left entirely to the Illinois Commerce Commission – unelected officials. And the law contains no caps. The original law mandating Illinois’ conversion to renewable energy contained caps on rate increases – weak caps, but at least they were something. The new law has nothing. Other estimates already put the charge for the new law at $8 billion, not $7 billion over 20 years.
Perhaps most astonishingly, the bill is being spun by its supporters as a measure to reduce electricity bills. They’ve in fact just swapped one charge in your bill for another.
*******************
This initial article just begins to touch on the madness of the new CRGA law. It’s a monstrosity, and we will try to address the rest of it in later columns. Among its other provisions:
It provides for another $1,687,403 annually for the Clean Jobs Workforce Network program; another $1,687,403 million annually for the Clean Energy Contractor Incubator program; and an additional $1,143,079 million annually for the Barrier Reduction Program beginning June 2026.
It requires the Illinois Department of Commerce to transfer up to $84,800,000 annually from the Energy Transition Assistance Fund to the Electric Vehicle and Charging Fund – more subsidies for charging stations.
And, of course, there’s more bureaucracy:
- Thermal Energy Network Pilot Program to run $20 million for thermal network projects.
- Geothermal Homes and Businesses Program that allocates $10 million per year in credits for installation of new geothermal heating and cooling systems.
- “Powering Up Illinois” program that mandates faster utility connections for EV infrastructure and establishes performance standards.
- Energy Reliability Corporation of Illinois to study the feasibility of state-specific independent System Operator to manage Illinois’ electric grid.
That’s the start of what we have seen in the new law. Stay tuned, and grab your wallets.
*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.
Audio and summary 
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
The day will come, as I tell my wife, that not allowing s smart meter to be installed will be to our benefit.
Good read on the scam that is wind and solar. Should sound familiar to folks in IL given the CRGA and CEJA:
https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/if-solar-and-wind-are-now-cheaper-fossil-fuels-why-dont-we-have-more
Yup, it’s really not that hard. If wind and solar are really cheaper, as they claim, they wouldn’t need the subsidies and mandates.
It has nothing to due with clean energy and a means to siphon more of our taxes into THIER private sectors aka renewable income,they ripped us off for fake clean energy, created a monster bill in tax increases and now want us to pay more to make it look like it is working, come Januarary im no longer paying taxes, this is taxation without representation period.
True. It’s interesting to skim through the statements about the new law from environmental groups and green politicians. I have not seen even one yet with the old claims about saving the planet from global warming. That claim is dead now, yet they go on.
That’s why they compare the green zealots to watermelons.
Green on the outside and red on the inside.
Where are the environmentalists screaming about these huge battery farms being built all over the state? Those batteries aren’t made out of marshmallows and unicorn farts. It’s quite an idelogical pickle they’ve gotten themselves into, now isn’t it?
You would think that these laws that use Illinois taxpayers’ money would at least benefit Illinois workers with “good jobs”. Most of these solar developers are from other states. They are taking these tax incentives from Illinois and not even using the money to help Illinois economy. On top of that, many of these solar installers can’t even speak English.
All this comes as key scientists have backed off the apocalyptic predictions that have been made. Even Bill Gates is no longer convinced. They ought to throw a net over the whole bunch in Springfield. The monstrosity they are constructing would be hailed by Rube Goldberg as a masterpiece.
Who’s getting fat on this one ?
Elections have consequences. I’ve said for several years to run away to another state as fast as you can.
The physics of batteries, wind and solar energy supplies do not help the electrical system to ‘ride through’ disturbances which occur to the electrical system as ‘mechanical’ as large turbine generators are able to do. This ‘ride through’ function is necessary to prevent a cascading effect to the entire electric system leading to a complete system blackout. This exact scenario caused the recent Iberian peninsula blackout. Currently there is no technology to correct this situation short of ensuring there is enough ‘large turbine provided’ energy always connected to system, thus limiting the amount of the green energy connected to the… Read more »
Capacity prices are up because Il. Doesn’t have enough generation to meet their current need so they have to buy from other states at a significantly higher price. If you don’t have enough energy to meet the need what are you going to store? First they wasted over 1 billion $ on rooftop solar bills went up 30-60 % now batteries ,expect another 30-60% increase The Gov and the Il Commerce commission chairman take care of their green energy buddies consumers pay the price!
Well Charlie (and Charlene) Browns, another Halloween has come and gone and your elected officials decided to give you another bag of rocks in the dead of an October night. How many times are these progressive/ Dem/ Socialists going to pull the football away at the last second?
Are Pritzker, his friends, Democrats heavily invested in these companies that will make money on the backs of IL taxpayers?