220 ILCS 5/16-102 — Illinois Code / Chapter 220 / Act 5 / Section 16-102
Section 16-102
Status: in_force

(220 ILCS 5/16-102) Sec. 16-102. Definitions. For the purposes of this Article the following terms shall be defined as set forth in this Section. "Alternative retail electric supplier" means every person, cooperative, corporation, municipal corporation, company, association, joint stock company or association, firm, partnership, individual, or other entity, their lessees, trustees, or receivers appointed by any court whatsoever, that offers electric power or energy for sale, lease or in exchange for other value received to one or more retail customers, or that engages in the delivery or furnishing of electric power or energy to such retail customers, and shall include, without limitation, resellers, aggregators and power marketers, but shall not include (i) electric utilities (or any agent of the electric utility to the extent the electric utility provides tariffed services to retail customers through that agent), (ii) any electric cooperative or municipal system as defined in Section 17-100 to the extent that the electric cooperative or municipal system is serving retail customers within any area in which it is or would be entitled to provide service under the law in effect immediately prior to the effective date of this amendatory Act of 1997, (iii) a public utility that is owned and operated by any public institution of higher education of this State, or a public utility that is owned by such public institution of higher education and operated by any of its lessees or operating agents, within any area in which it is or would be entitled to provide service under the law in effect immediately prior to the effective date of this amendatory Act of 1997, (iv) a retail customer to the extent that customer obtains its electric power and energy from that customer's own cogeneration or self-generation facilities, (v) an entity that owns, operates, sells, or arranges for the installation of a customer's own cogeneration or self-generation facilities, but only to the extent the entity is engaged in owning, selling or arranging for the installation of such facility, or operating the facility on behalf of such customer, provided however that any such third party owner or operator of a facility built after January 1, 1999, complies with the labor provisions of Section 16-128(a) as though such third party were an alternative retail electric supplier, or (vi) an industrial or manufacturing customer that owns its own distribution facilities, to the extent that the customer provides service from that distribution system to a third-party contractor located on the customer's premises that is integrally and predominantly engaged in the customer's industrial or manufacturing process; provided, that if the industrial or manufacturing customer has elected delivery services, the customer shall pay transition charges applicable to the electric power and energy consumed by the third-party contractor unless such charges are otherwise paid by the third party contractor, which shall be calculated based on the usage of, and the base rates or the contract rates applicable to, the third-party contractor in accordance with Section 16-102. An entity that furnishes the service of charging electric vehicles does not and shall not be deemed to sell electricity and is not and shall not be deemed an alternative retail electric supplier, and is not subject to regulation as such under this Act notwithstanding the basis on which the service is provided or billed. If, however, the entity is otherwise deemed an alternative retail electric supplier under this Act, or is otherwise subject to regulation under this Act, then that entity is not exempt from and remains subject to the otherwise applicable provisions of this Act. The installation, maintenance, and repair of an electric vehicle charging station shall comply with the requirements of subsection (a) of Section 16-128 and Section 16-128A of this Act. For purposes of this Section, the term "electric vehicles" has the meaning ascribed to that term in Section 10 of the Electric Vehicle Act. "Base rates" means the rates for those tariffed services that the electric utility is required to offer pursuant to subsection (a) of Section 16-103 and that were identified in a rate order for collection of the electric utility's base rate revenue requirement, excluding (i) separate automatic rate adjustment riders then in effect, (ii) special or negotiated contract rates, (iii) delivery services tariffs filed pursuant to Section 16-108, (iv) real-time pricing, or (v) tariffs that were in effect prior to October 1, 1996 and that based charges for services on an index or average of other utilities' charges, but including (vi) any subsequent redesign of such rates for tariffed services that is authorized by the Commission after notice and hearing. "Competitive service" includes (i) any service that has been declared to be competitive pursuant to Section 16-113 of this Act, (ii) contract service, and (iii) services, other than tariffed services, that are related to, but not necessary for, the provision of electric power and energy or delivery services. "Contract service" means (1) services, including the provision of electric power and energy or other services, that are provided by mutual agreement between an electric utility and a retail customer that is located in the electric utility's service area, provided that, delivery services shall not be a contract service until such services are declared competitive pursuant to Section 16-113; and also means (2) the provision of electric power and energy by an electric utility to retail customers outside the electric utility's service area pursuant to Section 16-116. Provided, however, contract service does not include electric utility services provided pursuant to (i) contracts that retail customers are required to execute as a condition of receiving tariffed services, or (ii) special or negotiated rate contracts for electric utility services that were entered into between an electric utility and a retail customer prior to the effective date of this amendatory Act of 1997 and filed with the Commission. "Delivery services" means those services provided by the electric utility that are necessary in order for the transmission and distribution systems to function so that retail customers located in the electric utility's service area can receive electric power and energy from suppliers other than the electric utility, and shall include, without limitation, standard metering and billing services. "Electric utility" means a public utility, as defined in Section 3-105 of this Act, that has a franchise, license, permit or right to furnish or sell electricity to retail customers within a service area. "Mandatory transition period" means the period from the effective date of this amendatory Act of 1997 through January 1, 2007. "Municipal system" shall have the meaning set forth in Section 17-100. "Real-time pricing" means tariffed retail charges for delivered electric power and energy that vary hour-to-hour and are determined from wholesale market prices using a methodology approved by the Illinois Commerce Commission. "Retail customer" means a single entity using electric power or energy at a single premises and that (A) either (i) is receiving or is eligible to receive tariffed services from an electric utility, or (ii) that is served by a municipal system or electric cooperative within any area in which the municipal system or electric cooperative is or would be entitled to provide service under the law in effect immediately prior to the effective date of this amendatory Act of 1997, or (B) an entity which on the effective date of this Act was receiving electric service from a public utility and (i) was engaged in the practice of resale and redistribution of such electricity within a building prior to January 2, 1957, or (ii) was providing lighting services to tenants in a multi-occupancy building, but only to the extent such resale, redistribution or lighting service is authorized by the electric utility's tariffs that were on file with the Commission on the effective date of this Act. "Service area" means (i) the geographic area within which an electric utility was lawfully entitled to provide electric power and energy to retail customers as of the effective date of this amendatory Act of 1997, and includes (ii) the location of any retail customer to which the electric utility was lawfully providing electric utility services on such effective date. "Small commercial retail customer" means those nonresidential retail customers of an electric utility consuming 15,000 kilowatt-hours or less of electricity annually in its service area. "Tariffed service" means services provided to retail customers by an electric utility as defined by its rates on file with the Commission pursuant to the provisions of Article IX of this Act, but shall not include competitive services. "Transition charge" means a charge expressed in cents per kilowatt-hour that is calculated for a customer or class of customers as follows for each year in which an electric utility is entitled to recover transition charges as provided in Section 16-108: (1) the amount of revenue that an electric utility would receive from the retail