Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Feb. 18 issued an executive order aimed at boosting nuclear generation in the state.
The EO calls for the Illinois Power Agency and the Illinois Commerce Commission, within 60 days from the date of the Executive Order, and after consultation with other State agencies as appropriate, issue a notice of inquiry to potential developers of new nuclear power generation facilities that will benefit Illinois residential ratepayers.
The information may include, but not be limited to, among other things:
• Size in megawatts of nameplate capacity and technology type of proposed nuclear facilities, including any deployment of small modular reactor technology;
• Financing options and frameworks for each proposed nuclear facility, including any requested clean energy credits or other supporting state policy, and whether the proposed nuclear facility is co-located with or otherwise selling directly to load;
• Potential sites for each nuclear facility, including whether a facility would be in an Equity Investment Eligible Community
• Financial risk allocation framework;
• Grid interconnection availability;
• Expected cost and timeline to bring the nuclear facility online;
• Whether the project is designed to address specific Illinois resource adequacy needs
The EO also calls for the IPA and the ICC to also provide for the NOI to address potential expansion of or uprates to existing sites seeking similar information, as appropriate.
It also calls for the ICC to work with both the impacted load-serving entities and Regional Transmission Organizations/Independent System Operators (RTO/ISO) “to secure the ability of any potential new nuclear generation project to interconnect to the grid, and address any financial, technical or legal issues preventing timely and economically advantageous interconnection.”
Such collaboration could include, but is not limited to, working with a RTO/ISO to improve interconnection study processes to facilitate rapid interconnection of new resources or to ensure eligibility of new nuclear generation in any expedited interconnection pathways offered by the RTOs.
