Illinois State Senator Bill Cunningham and Representative Marcus Evans have introduced a bill that could have the state’s residents and businesses seeing lower energy bills by establishing a 15GW energy storage deployment target.
Sen. Cunningham and Rep. Evans introduced HB3758/SB2497 to address an energy crisis fueled by rapid inflation, new tariffs on materials used to build and maintain energy infrastructure, and an anticipated energy deficit for Illinois.
Additionally, the bill will address significant delays in connecting clean energy projects to the grid.
According to Solar Power World, it also plans to create a Virtual Power Plant (VPP) program to allow homeowners with small-scale energy installations to combine their energy and send it to the grid during times of high demand to reduce stress on the grid and lower energy costs for ratepayers.
Repetitive Barbara Hernandez (D-Aurora), a chief co-sponsor of HB3758/SB2497 stated, “This is not just an energy bill. This is also an economic development and jobs bill that will propel Illinois to the forefront of future technology. Illinois’ power grid needs this legislation to accommodate high-energy emerging industries such as data centers, quantum computing, and AI. This investment will pay dividends and lower energy bills for decades to come.”
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