The Illinois Power Agency (IPA) is seeking stakeholder feedback on its summer procurement of 600MW of energy storage projects in the US state, after falling short by 438MW.
Announced 28 September, the IPA is seeking stakeholder feedback on the Summer 2026 Energy Storage Procurement as well as prospective input on considerations of its 2027 procurement.
The Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) approved the results of IPA’s utility-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) procurement on 1 September.
IPA’s procurement administrator, NERA Economic Consulting, issued the Summer request for proposal (RFP) on behalf of the IPA with a goal to procure 1,038MW of new storage resources, split by 450MW from projects in the MISO territory and 588MW from projects in the PJM territory, as required under Illinois law.
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The procurement ultimately fell short by 438MW. A total of 520MW of BESS were procured from MISO and 80MW of BESS were procured from PJM.
The projects are all located in Illinois, four are in utility Ameren Illinois’ service area and one is located in utility ComEd’s service area. The projects operate under LLCs, though Energy-Storage.news has provided further details about the suppliers in the chart below.
| Utility | Provided supplier name | LLC owner | Location of project | Capacity |
| Ameren Illinois | Gatehouse Energy Storage LLC | Invenergery | Howard School Rd and Co Hwy 25 Du Bois, IL 62831 | 185MW |
| Ameren Illinois | KCE IL 1, LLC | Key Capture Energy | (38.6997, -88.5476) Flora, IL 62839 | 100MW |
| Ameren Illinois | KCE IL 2, LLC | Key Capture Energy | (39.1848, -89.0244) Herrick, IL 62431 | 100MW |
| Ameren Illinois | McDuff Battery Storage, LLC | Rwe Solar Development | 1375 County Road 2480 E Casey, IL 62420 | 135MW |
| ComEd | Lincoln Reserve Energy, LLC | REV Renewables | 16601 Ridge Road Calumet City, IL 60409 | 80MW |
ComEd project supports Richardson Electronics’ Illinois manufacturing efforts
Also in Illinois, on 12 October, utility ComEd and US power electronics manufacturer Richardson Electronics announced Richardson Electronics’ expanded manufacturing of locally produced BESS and its plans to install an onsite BESS demonstration project.
Richardson is installing a 5MWh research and development demonstration BESS project, supported through the ComEd interconnection process.
Additionally, announced 13 October, renewables developer TurningPoint Energy (TPE) launched its Energy Storage Community Support Programme, an initiative designed to help communities prepare for the growing adoption of BESS by providing dedicated funding to local emergency service providers.
The programme sees TPE, which is understood to be developing projects in Illinois, committing US$100,000 for each community hosting a BESS developed by the company to support emergency preparedness, training, equipment, public safety initiatives, and other community-identified priorities.
Early this year, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed the Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act (CRGA) into law, aiming to boost solar PV and BESS investments in the state.
