Illinois – ICC Finalizes New Interconnection Rules
On August 13, 2008, the Illinois Commerce Commission issued its final order regarding the state’s new interconnection rules (see Case 06-0525, Final Order Appendix). This rule became effective on August 25, 2008, and replaced the emergency interconnection rule put in place by the ICC in March 2008. On July 15, the Illinois Joint Committee on…
On August 13, 2008, the Illinois Commerce Commission issued its final order regarding the state’s new interconnection rules (see Case 06-0525, Final Order Appendix). This rule became effective on August 25, 2008, and replaced the emergency interconnection rule put in place by the ICC in March 2008. On July 15, the Illinois Joint Committee on Administrative Rules recommended that the ICC amend the proposed interconnection rule to require electric distribution companies to track their use of external disconnect switches and to provide the results to the ICC on a monthly basis (see “the Flynn Report” dated July 18, 2008, page 5.) However, the ICC declined to make that change at this time.
Key points of the final interconnection order: nameplate capacity of the distributed generation is equal to or less than 10 MVA; IEEE 1547 standards must be followed; the utility may require an external disconnect switch; there are four levels of application review, depending on generator size; systems sized 1 MVA or above must carry liability coverage of $2 million for each occurrence and aggregate coverage of not less than $4 million.
