Public Act 102-0662, also known as the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, or “CEJA,” created a new subsection of the IPA Act, 1-75(d-10), which required the IPA to develop a Carbon Mitigation Credit Procurement Plan providing for the procurement of carbon mitigation credits (CMCs) from carbon-free energy resources. CMCs represent the environmental benefits of certain nuclear power generating facilities; the procurement of these credits supports at-risk nuclear facilities by offering revenue certainty.

The draft CMC plan was subsequently updated to incorporate recommendations received through public comment and filed with the Illinois Commerce Commission for review and approval within the 19-day deadline set forth in the Act. The Commission approved the CMC Plan on November 10, 2021. The Agency’s procurement administrator held the CMC procurement event, overseen by the Commission’s procurement monitor, on November 23, 2021. On December 1, the Commission approved the procurement results.

The structure of the CMC price is such that the sale of the credits supports nuclear plant operations with payments when wholesale energy and capacity prices are low but requires the operators to pay a credit back to the utility buyer (and ultimately ratepayers) when energy prices are high. The IPA calculates the CMC price on a monthly basis and provides that amount to Commonwealth Edison (the Buyer under the CMC contracts) for invoicing of the nuclear facilities.

Through the first three years if the CMC contracts, ComEd ratepayers received in aggregate a credit of over $670 million on their electricity bills. Importantly, CMC prices change month over month to reflect updates in the energy market, so any individual month may provide a credit or debit to customer bills; however, to date, ComEd ratepayers have received a net credit.