Public Act 097-0491
 
HB1458 EnrolledLRB097 05385 PJG 45442 b


  
    AN ACT concerning State government.
  
 
    Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
 
represented in the General Assembly:
  






 
 
    Section 5. 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.
    "Clean coal facility" means an electric generating 
facility that uses primarily coal as a feedstock and that 
captures and sequesters carbon emissions at the following 
levels: at least 50% of the total carbon emissions that the 
facility would otherwise emit if, at the time construction 
commences,  the facility is scheduled to  commence operation 
before 2016, at least 70% of the total carbon emissions that 
the facility would otherwise emit if, at the time construction 
commences, the facility is scheduled to  commence operation 
during 2016 or 2017, and at least 90% of the total carbon 
emissions that the facility would otherwise emit if, at the 
time construction commences, the facility is scheduled to  
commence operation after 2017.  The power block of the clean 
coal facility shall not exceed allowable emission rates for 
sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, particulates 
and mercury for a natural gas-fired combined-cycle facility the 
same size as and in the same location as the clean coal 
facility at the time the clean coal facility obtains an 
approved air permit. All coal used by a clean coal facility 
shall have high volatile bituminous rank and greater than 1.7 
pounds of sulfur per million btu content, unless the clean coal 
facility does not use gasification technology and was operating 
as a conventional coal-fired electric generating facility on 
June 1, 2009 (the effective date of Public Act 95-1027). 
    "Clean coal SNG facility" means a facility that uses a 
gasification process to produce substitute natural gas, that 
sequesters at least 90% of the total carbon emissions that the 
facility would otherwise emit and that uses petroleum coke or 
coal as a feedstock, with all such coal having a high 
bituminous rank and greater than 1.7 pounds of sulfur per 
million btu content. 
    "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  or natural gas 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, anaerobic digestion, crops and untreated and 
unadulterated organic waste biomass, tree waste, 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 of tires, garbage, general 
household, institutional, and commercial waste, industrial 
lunchroom or office waste, landscape waste other than tree 
waste, railroad crossties, utility poles, or 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.
    "Sequester" means permanent storage of carbon dioxide by 
injecting it into a saline aquifer, a depleted gas reservoir, 
or an oil reservoir, directly or through an enhanced oil 
recovery process that may involve intermediate storage in a 
salt dome. 
    "Servicing agreement" means (i) in the case of an electric 
utility, an agreement between the owner of a clean coal 
facility and such electric utility, which agreement shall have 
terms and  conditions meeting the requirements of paragraph (3) 
of subsection (d) of Section 1-75, and (ii) in the case of an 
alternative retail electric supplier, an agreement between the 
owner of a clean coal facility and such alternative retail 
electric supplier, which agreement shall have terms and 
conditions meeting the requirements of Section 16-115(d)(5) of 
the Public Utilities Act. 
    "Substitute natural gas" or "SNG" means a gas manufactured 
by gasification of hydrocarbon feedstock, which is 
substantially interchangeable in use and distribution with 
conventional natural gas. 
    "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, as well as other 
quantifiable societal benefits, including avoided natural gas 
utility costs, 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; 95-913, eff. 1-1-09; 
95-1027, eff. 6-1-09; 96-33, eff. 7-10-09; 96-159, eff. 
8-10-09; 96-784, eff. 8-28-09; 96-1000, eff. 7-2-10.)

 
 
    Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon 
becoming law.