Batteries are the centerpiece of the state’s third major piece of energy legislation in a decade. The governor has pledged to sign the bill.
Illinois legislators passed a major energy bill that creates grid-battery and geothermal incentives and a virtual-power-plant program, during the final hours of a fall veto session Thursday.
Advocates and industry sources describe the legislation as the crucial next step in the state’s clean-energy transition, jump-started by 2017 and 2021 laws that created significant solar and wind incentives. The bill’s passage comes as the Trump administration eviscerates federal support for clean energy and as a debate plays out in state legislatures around the country over how best to rein in soaring electricity rates.
The legislation faced substantial pushback, largely because of concerns about the costs imposed on residential and industrial customers to fund the energy-storage incentives. It also faced stiff competition for legislators’ attention during the six-day veto session, as bills related to a transit-funding emergency, a new stadium, and insurance regulation were also on the table.
The state House passed the bill on the second-to-last day of the October veto session, and the state Senate passed it in the final hours on Oct. 30. Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, has pledged to sign the bill.
The Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act, or CRGA, calls for the procurement of 3 gigawatts of energy storage by 2030.
The Illinois Power Agency, which procures electricity on behalf of the state’s two major utilities, ComEd and Ameren, estimates that developing and operating the storage will cost $9.7 billion over 20 years. That money will be collected from utility customers through a new charge on their electricity bills. But under the incentive structure, a portion of the revenue earned by the storage companies will go back to consumers. With this factored in, customers will end up paying an estimated $1 billion for the storage.
Meanwhile, energy storage connected to the grid will save those same customers an estimated $13.4 billion over 20 years, since the influx of electricity into “capacity markets” will suppress prices, the Illinois Power Agency predicted. Capacity markets are run by regional grid operators to make sure enough power is available to meet future demand.
Mark Pruitt, an energy consultant who previously led the Illinois Power Agency, said that getting more electricity into capacity markets is urgent because of the AI data centers springing up in the state.
“Is there a way of demonstrating that we’re going to be able to get a benefit for consumers in all of this?” asked Pruitt. “That was an honest concern by many of the policymakers. When do consumers start to see a benefit, and will they see lower costs? I don’t know that prices are coming down; it’s a question of can you slow their rate of increase.”
The credit structure meant to incentivize storage under the bill is already being used as part of the state’s subsidy program to keep existing nuclear plants online, which got started in 2021. At the time, watchdog groups worried the mechanism would cost households money, but the arrangement has actually benefited consumers.
Energy-storage deployment is central to the virtual-power-plant program created by the bill, wherein homes and businesses with batteries can earn revenue by supplying energy to the grid when needed. The bill also, for the first time, makes geothermal eligible for state renewable-energy incentives. And it lifts a decades-old moratorium on the construction of large nuclear plants. The legislature had revised the moratorium in 2023 to allow small modular nuclear reactors to be built, though this technology is still nascent.
Legislators’ approval of CRGA “is a major step toward strengthening Illinois’ power grid and keeping energy costs in check,” said Hannah Flath, climate communications manager of the Illinois Environmental Council, a group of over 100 environmental organizations working on policy and advocacy. “Battery storage represents the next phase of Illinois’ clean-energy buildout, ensuring that clean power is available around the clock.”
The bill was backed by the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition, made up of clean energy, environmental, and community groups that were instrumental in crafting and passing the 2021 Climate and Equitable Jobs Act. That law built on 2017’s Future Energy Jobs Act, by increasing incentives for renewables and electric vehicles and creating an ambitious clean-energy workforce training program, among other measures.
In February, legislators introduced two separate storage-related bills, one backed by the Clean Jobs Coalition and the other by storage and solar industry groups. They eventually joined forces, pushing together for CRGA.
Opponents — namely, large energy users — argued that storage development should be left to the open market and that customers shouldn’t have to pay for incentives.
CRGA proponents have said that storage on the grid is crucial to mitigate escalating prices, in part because it facilitates more solar deployment; energy from solar can be held in batteries until it’s needed.
“The only way to protect ratepayers and address energy affordability is by investing in solar and storage, the fastest and cheapest energy sources to deploy,” said Andrew Linhares, a senior manager at the Solar Energy Industries Association who focuses on the Midwest. “Energy costs are already set to increase next summer, and they’ll continue to skyrocket every year until Illinois solves its energy supply-and-demand imbalances.”
CRGA backers sought to dispel the myths that they say swirled leading up to and during the veto session, including the fear that companies could get incentives before they even built storage.
“CRGA does not deliver any benefits to storage projects until those projects are online,” said Stephanie Burgos-Veras, senior manager of equity programs at the Coalition for Community Solar Access, made up of businesses and nonprofits nationwide. “This means ratepayers have no up-front cost for the storage program, and that all projects must actively contribute to the grid through stored power and price suppression before they are eligible for incentives. It is an incredibly safe funding model that ensures families and businesses receive risk-free savings.”
Ultimately, backers of CRGA said the bill’s passage shows that a state-level clean-energy transition can still move forward even without federal support.
“This bill isn’t just a rejection of Trump’s anti-climate policies — it’s proof that local and state action can offset those backward policies,” said Flath. “Illinois consumers, our power grid, and our climate will be better protected from price volatility and increasingly extreme weather events because we’re stepping up to fill the gap where the federal government is failing us.”
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