Illinois is running out of power.
That’s the word from state analysts trying to figure out whether there are enough sources of electricity to keep the lights on in the coming years.
The outlook is bleak, according to a just-released report from Gov. JB Pritzker’s administration, as demand is sky high and older sources of power, such as coal plants, are shutting down. Newer sources of “clean” power, such as wind and solar, are not coming online quickly enough.
This is bad news for anyone who is worried about their electricity bills. ComEd customers are already dealing with higher bills, in large part due to demand from data centers powering artificial intelligence. The same goes for Ameren customers, who largely fall south of Interstate 80.
“I see this report as really solidifying the need for us as a state to take a serious look at what can be done to preserve reliability and affordability,” said Sarah Moskowitz, executive director of the consumer advocacy group Citizens Utility Board.
The news is also a setback for Pritzker, who’d set ambitious goals to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel power plants that are accelerating global warming.
Pritzker signed a major clean energy and climate bill into law in 2021 that set a goal to eliminate all coal and natural gas sources of power by 2050. That looks at the very least threatened following the state report made public late Monday night.
The report suggests natural gas plants could be built in the state to help bridge the power needs until cleaner sources of electricity, such as solar and wind, are constructed. One state lawmaker said it will likely delay the closing of some dirtier, more polluting gas plants that are supposed to shut down in the next several years under the 2021 law.
“The upshot is the energy transition in Illinois is likely to be more gradual and more reliant on natural gas plants than previously thought,” said state Sen. Bill Cunningham, a Democrat from Beverly.
Cunningham has been a point person in Springfield on clean energy legislation.
“We tried to expect the unexpected,” he added. “The unexpected turned out to be data centers.”
The news isn’t entirely fatalistic. The state can add electricity by building battery storage, projects allowed under a measure passed by state lawmakers in October. It can also improve transmission lines to help better connect new sources of power, the report found. Energy conservation can also help with the growing need for power.
Coal plants, however, are unlikely to emerge from retirement. Once the most dominant form of electricity in Illinois, the plants are very old, expensive to run and not as efficient to operate as most other sources of power.
One big question with the recent measure passed out of Springfield centers on the future of nuclear power in the state. The law ended a moratorium on building full nuclear reactors.
There’s still a huge hurdle in the time needed and the expense of building a new nuclear plant. However, Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has left open the possibility of building onto an existing nuclear plant at downstate Clinton.
The plant is the only nuclear site in Illinois with just one nuclear reactor. The other five in the state each have two nuclear reactors. With six plants, all owned by Constellation Energy, Illinois already has more nuclear power sites than any other state.
A combination of short-term fixes could help the state eventually meet its climate-related goals, according to the state report released Monday night.
In a statement, a Pritzker spokesperson said the “state set up a deliberate process to address findings from this resource adequacy study,” and said the governor will sign the most recent energy legislation passed in October.
Cunningham said he’s not giving up on the goal of fossil fuel plant retirements by 2050.
The year “should remain our goal. And we should strive for that,” he said.