Illinois Staff Straw Proposal Would Impose New Assessment On Retail Suppliers For FY 2019

The Illinois Commerce Commission Staff has posted a straw proposal to adopt assessments on retail electric and gas suppliers effective for fiscal year 2019.

As first reported by EnergyChoiceMatters.com, pursuant to amended Section 2-202(i-5) of the Public Utilities Act, the ICC recently opened a proceeding to consider the initiation of assessments and fees to be potentially levied on alternative retail electric and natural gas suppliers in order to fund the Commission's operations (Docket 18-0375).

The amended statute provides that the amounts of any adopted assessment, "shall be based on the costs to the agency of the exercise of its regulatory and supervisory functions with regard to the different industries and service providers subject to the proceeding."

Staff's straw proposal would allocate the assessment as follows:

• to alternative retail electric suppliers (ARES) based on annual kilowatt-hours as reported pursuant to 83 Illinois Administrative Code 451. 770; and

• to alternative gas suppliers (AGS) based on annual dekatherms as reported pursuant to 83 Illinois Administrative Code 551.770.

Furthermore, Staff's straw proposal would exempt from the assessments the following:

• ARESs reporting less than 1,000,000 kilowatt-hours; and

• AGSs reporting less than 1,000,000 dekatherms.

As part of the total assessments (which also apply to other jurisdictional entities), retail suppliers would be allocated the following aggregate shares:

• 0.68% to ARESs (affecting 15 entities)

• 0.32% to AGSs (affecting 11 entities)

Staff scheduled a workshop for March 27, 2018 on the assessment proposal