Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) Chairman Brien J. Sheahan recently announced that Illinois received the second highest rating among all states for its leadership in moving toward a modernized electric grid. Gridwise Alliance in collaboration with Clean Edge Incorporated released the results of its fourth Grid Modernization Index (GMI) on November 8.
“I am very pleased Illinois is being recognized as a national leader for our efforts to embrace innovations in technology and modernize our grid. Under the leadership of Governor Bruce Rauner,
Illinois adopted the Future Energy Jobs Act that is leading to a greater investment in smart technology, renewables and energy efficiency programs by our public utilities,” said Sheahan. “I am especially proud the Illinois Commerce Commission’s NextGrid: Illinois Utilities of the Future Study is mentioned several times in the report and contributed to Illinois’ high rating.”
The ICC recently launched NextGrid, an 18-month customer-focused study, to explore emerging technologies, address customer demands for greater choice, and layout a roadmap to become a clean energy state and modernize the grid while minimizing costs for consumers. Professors from the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Illinois (UIUC/ECE) Urbana-Champaign are working with the ICC as lead facilitators for the study.
Gridwise based its ratings on three primary areas:
- State support, which includes plans and policies that support grid modernization
- Customer engagement, which ranks states on their rate structure, customer outreach and data collection practices.
- Grid operations, which benchmarks the deployment of grid modernization technologies such as smart meters, sensors, controls and analytics.
Illinois received a score of 73.0. California received the top rating with a score of 81.5 and Texas was third with a score of 64.0. The last GMI report was issued in 2015. IEF