After passing through the Illinois State Legislature late last year, Governor JB Pritzker today signed the Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability (CRGA) Act.
As energy-intensive data centers expand and capacity prices continue to rise, Illinois expects significantly increasing electric bills for communities across the state. The CRGA Act addresses these challenges by strengthening the state’s renewable portfolio standard and ensuring the state stays on track to achieve its clean energy goals. By encouraging new storage structures and VPP programs, Illinois communities will be better protected from rising energy costs and a stressed energy grid.
Solar Powers Illinois – a partnership between the Illinois Solar Energy and Storage Association (ISEA), Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Coalition for Community Solar Access (CCSA) – released the following statement regarding the signing of CRGA into law.
“Today, Illinois became the first state to pass comprehensive legislation to address the electricity affordability crisis when Governor JB Pritzker signed the CRGA Act. CRGA is a critical step toward lowering Illinois’ rapidly rising energy bills over time as the state’s economy and clean energy pipelines continue to grow.
By investing in solar energy, energy storage and virtual power plants, CRGA will save consumers $12 billion on electric bills over the next twenty years, create tens of thousands of good-paying jobs across the state, invest in the Illinois economy and help achieve Illinois’ goal of a 100% clean electric grid.
CRGA will also strengthen opportunities for the nearly 6,000 Illinoisans who work in the solar industry and create new jobs in construction, manufacturing, sales and other positions for people entering the field.
This legislation strengthens Illinois’ national leadership to ensure residents and businesses have access to an affordable, reliable, and clean electric grid, building on the legacy of previous landmark energy legislation, including the Future Energy Jobs Act (FEJA) of 2017 and the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA) of 2021.”
The CRGA Act contains requirements to add 3 GW of battery storage to the electric grid, increase consumer access to home efficiency rebates, increase funding for low-income energy efficiency programs, adopt grid-enhancing technologies, and reduce bottlenecks in the process to develop and upgrade transmission lines.
“By passing and signing the CRGA Act, Illinois lawmakers and Governor Pritzker have taken decisive action for consumers and the state’s economy by recognizing the importance of energy storage and renewable energy to our collective future,” said Jeff Danielson, Vice President of Advocacy for the Clean Grid Alliance. “CRGA solidifies Illinois as one of the nation’s clean energy leaders, protects the gains previously made through the Clean and Equitable Jobs Act, and helps manage the surge in electricity demand, primarily from data centers. Together, these policies will positively benefit the state’s economy while providing significant relief to consumers.”
CRGA is expected to save consumers at least $13 billion of electricity costs over the next twenty years, according to an analysis by the Illinois Power Agency (IPA). The provisions in the bill will also address the challenges facing Illinois as outlined in the bill the recently released IPA Resource Adequacy Study Report as the state tries to resolve power reliability and availability issues.
Ahead of the fall legislative session, Illinois consumers experienced a 20 to 25% price increase on their electric bills in the summer of 2025. PJM capacity auction results 2026/2027 showed a record price of $329.17/MW day, which represents another substantial increase from June 2026. Clean Grid Alliance helped lead efforts to pass the CRGA to address these consumer price spikes, which were largely driven by increased expected demand from data centers and other expected developments.
