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Illinois Sets Process to Consider Electric Vehicle Rates, Regulation

October  7, 2011
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The Illinois Commerce Commission has developed a list of five specific issues to be addressed by a plug-in electric vehicle working group, including developing a petition to the Commission to clarify the legal status of public charging stations, and various EV rate options.

The ICC has established a working group process to aid the Commission on these five specific issues:

(1) Defining the scope of what waivers (if any) to the IDC (Integrated Distribution Company) rules would facilitate utilities’ role in facilitating the adoption of PEVs and related services. The ICC said that it, "may be necessary to consider if a waiver to the IDC rules would allow for appropriate participation by utilities while not hampering the ongoing development of a competitive market for PEV-related programs and services."

(2) Developing customer education & outreach plans;

(3) Modeling and assessment of potential localized reliability impacts;

(4) Expanding PEV rate options in order to improve current distribution, transmission and generation asset utilization, and to prevent unnecessary and duplicative investment in infrastructure for on-peak charging. "Current statutory and/or regulatory barriers may impede broad availability of dynamic pricing options that could prevent negative systemic impacts from at home charging of PEVs at peak load times. The Commission would be interested in proposals for statutory solutions," the ICC said.

(5) Developing a petition to the Commission to clarify the legal status of public charging stations.

"There has been general agreement among parties to the Commission’s Initiative on Plug-In Electric Vehicles that publicly-available charging stations should be deemed competitive services and therefore not be considered as public utilities. Many commenters requested a declaratory statement from the Commission to this effect, but the Commission does not appear to have authority under the Public Utilities Act to make a binding declaration on its own initiative," the ICC noted.

Under Title 83, Section 200.220 of the Illinois Administrative Code, parties may petition the Commission for a declaratory ruling with respect to the applicability of any statutory provisions enforced by the Commission. If workshop participants are interested in pursuing this path, they may work together to agree on the content of the petition and to select a party to make the filing.

An initial workgroup meeting will be held October 13.

The ICC directed stakeholders to develop a report on each of the enumerated issue above by December 31.

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