Illinois

To achieve these goals, Advanced Energy United’s recommendations for Illinois’ Governor focus on these core tenets: 

• Build It: The state’s energy policy has attracted billions in investment and has a strong pipeline of projects across the state. However, with federal policy disfavoring advanced energy, many wind, solar, storage, and transmission projects face significant hurdles to development, as well as supply chain uncertainties, siting and permitting issues, or long interconnection queues. 

• Make it Flexible: Utilities can get more out of our existing grid infrastructure by making demand more flexible. This means scaling up distributed energy resources (DERs), energy efficiency (EE), virtual power plants (VPPs), and advanced electric vehicle (EV) and building electrification solutions via utility and state programs.  

• Make it Affordable: State and regional leaders can take steps to ensure that our public utilities are planning, optimizing, and delivering the right types of energy investment at the lowest possible cost. Grid modernization technologies increase the capacity of our existing transmission and distribution systems more quickly and affordably than building poles and wires.

• Electric Vehicles as Grid Assets: Electric vehicles can be a grid asset in an age of rising energy demand. Unfortunately, this technology is not being used to its full potential and currently adds to that demand. But that doesn’t have to be the case. The difference between EVs either adding to load growth and strengthening our grid is based in policy. By championing smart grid policies, Illinois’ Governor can enable further growth in the EV sector while bolstering Illinois’ grid strength.  

To download the Illinois state policy roadmap, please complete the form.