(a) During the mandatory transition period, notwithstanding any provision of Article IX of this Act, and except as provided in subsections (b) and (f) of this Section, the Commission shall not (i) initiate, authorize or order any change by way of increase (other than in connection with a request for rate increase which was filed after September 1, 1997 but prior to October 15, 1997, by an electric utility serving less than 12,500 customers in this State), (ii) initiate or, unless requested by the electric utility, authorize or order any change by way of decrease, restructuring or unbundling (except as provided in Section 16-109A), in the rates of any electric utility that were in effect on October 1, 1996, or (iii) in any order approving any application for a merger pursuant to Section 7-204 that was pending as of May 16, 1997, impose any condition requiring any filing for an increase, decrease, or change in, or other review of, an electric utility's rates or enforce any such condition of any such order; provided, however, that this subsection shall not prohibit the Commission from: (1) approving the application of an electric utility to implement an alternative to rate of return regulation or a regulatory mechanism that rewards or penalizes the electric utility through adjustment of rates based on utility performance, pursuant to Section 9-244; (2) authorizing an electric utility to eliminate its fuel adjustment clause and adjust its base rate tariffs in accordance with subsection (b), (d), or (f) of Section 9-220 of this Act, to fix its fuel adjustment factor in accordance with subsection (c) of Section 9-220 of this Act, or to eliminate its fuel adjustment clause in accordance with subsection (e) of Section 9-220 of this Act; (3) ordering into effect tariffs for delivery services and transition charges in accordance with Sections 16-104 and 16-108, for real-time pricing in accordance with Section 16-107, or the options required by Section 16-110 and subsection (n) of 16-112, allowing a billing experiment in accordance with Section 16-106, or modifying delivery services tariffs in accordance with Section 16-109; or (4) ordering or allowing into effect any tariff to recover charges pursuant to Sections 9-201.5, 9-220.1, 9-221, 9-222 (except as provided in Section 9-222.1), 16-108, and 16-114 of this Act, Section 5-5 of the Electricity Infrastructure Maintenance Fee Law, Section 6-5 of the Renewable Energy, Energy Efficiency, and Coal Resources Development Law of 1997, and Section 13 of the Energy Assistance Act. After December 31, 2004, the provisions of this subsection (a) shall not apply to an electric utility whose average residential retail rate was less than or equal to 90% of the average residential retail rate for the "Midwest Utilities", as that term is defined in subsection (b) of this Section, based on data reported on Form 1 to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for calendar year 1995, and which served between 150,000 and 250,000 retail customers in this State on January 1, 1995 unless the electric utility or its holding company has been acquired by or merged with an affiliate of another electric utility subsequent to January 1, 2002. This exemption shall be limited to this subsection (a) and shall not extend to any other provisions of this Act.
(g) Until all classes of tariffed services are declared competitive, an electric utility may, without obtaining any approval of the Commission other than that provided for in this subsection and notwithstanding any other provision of this Act or any rule or regulation of the Commission that would require such approval: (1) implement a reorganization, other than a merger of 2 or more public utilities as defined in Section 3-105 or their holding companies; (2) retire generating plants from service; (3) sell, assign, lease or otherwise transfer assets to an affiliated or unaffiliated entity and as part of such transaction enter into service agreements, power purchase agreements, or other agreements with the transferee; provided, however, that the prices, terms and conditions of any power purchase agreement must be approved or allowed into effect by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; or (4) use any accelerated cost recovery method including accelerated depreciation, accelerated amortization or other capital recovery methods, or record reductions to the original cost of its assets. In order to implement a reorganization, retire generating plants from service, or sell, assign, lease or otherwise transfer assets pursuant to this Section, the electric utility shall comply with subsections (c) and (d) of Section 16-128, if applicable, and subsection (k) of this Section, if applicable, and provide the Commission with at least 30 days notice of the proposed reorganization or transaction, which notice shall include the following information:
(i) a complete statement of the entries that the electric utility will make on its books and records of account to implement the proposed reorganization or transaction together with a certification from an independent certified public accountant that such entries are in accord with generally accepted accounting principles and, if the Commission has previously approved guidelines for cost allocations between the utility and its affiliates, a certification from the chief accounting officer of the utility that such entries are in accord with those cost allocation guidelines; (ii) a description of how the electric utility will use proceeds of any sale, assignment, lease or transfer to retire debt or otherwise reduce or recover the costs of services provided by such electric utility; (iii) a list of all federal approvals or approvals required from departments and agencies of this State, other than the Commission, that the electric utility has or will obtain before implementing the reorganization or transaction; (iv) an irrevocable commitment by the electric utility that it will not, as a result of the transaction, impose any stranded cost charges that it might otherwise be allowed to charge retail customers under federal law or increase the transition charges that it is otherwise entitled to collect under this Article XVI; (v) if the electric utility proposes to sell, assign, lease or otherwise transfer a generating plant that brings the amount of net dependable generating capacity transferred pursuant to this subsection to an amount equal to or greater than 15% of the electric utility's net dependable capacity as of the effective date of this amendatory Act of 1997, and enters into a power purchase agreement with the entity to which such generating plant is sold, assigned, leased, or otherwise transferred, the electric utility also agrees, if its fuel adjustment clause has not already been eliminated, to eliminate its fuel adjustment clause in accordance with subsection (b) of Section 9-220 for a period of time equal to the length of any such power purchase agreement or successor agreement, or until January 1, 2005, whichever is longer; if the capacity of the generating plant so transferred and related power purchase agreement does not result in the elimination of the fuel adjustment clause under this subsection, and the fuel adjustment clause has not already been eliminated, the electric utility shall agree that the costs associated with the transferred plant that are included in the calculation of the rate per kilowatt-hour to be applied pursuant to the electric utility's fuel adjustment clause during such period shall not exceed the per kilowatt-hour cost associated with such generating plant included in the electric utility's fuel adjustment clause during the full calendar year preceding the transfer, with such limit to be adjusted each year thereafter by the Gross Domestic Product Implicit Price Deflator ; and (vi) in addition, if the electric utility proposes to sell, assign, or lease, (A) either (1) an amount of generating plant that brings the amount of net dependable generating capacity transferred pursuant to this subsection to an amount equal to or greater than 15% of its net dependable capacity on the effective date of this amendatory Act of 1997, or (2) one or more generating plants with a total net dependable capacity of 1100 megawatts, or (B) transmission and distribution facilities that either (1) bring the amount of transmission and distribution facilities transferred pursuant to this subsection to an amount equal to or greater than 15% of the electric utility's total depreciated original cost investment in such facilities, or (2) represent an investment of $25,000,000 in terms of total depreciated original cost, the electric utility shall provide, in addition to the information listed in subparagraphs (i) through (v), the following information: (A) a description of how the electric utility will meet its service obligations under this Act in a safe and reliable manner and (B) the electric utility's projected earned rate of return on common equity for each year from the date of the notice through December 31, 2006 both with and without the proposed transaction. If the Commission has not issued an order initiating a hearing on the proposed transaction within 30 days after the date the electric utility's notice is filed, the transaction shall be deemed approved. The Commission may, after notice and hearing, prohibit the proposed transaction if it makes either or both of the following findings: (1) that the proposed transaction will render the electric utility unable to provide its tariffed services in a safe and reliable manner, or (2) that there is a strong likelihood that consummation of the proposed transaction will result in the electric utility being entitled to request an increase in its base rates. Any hearing initiated by the Commission into the proposed transaction shall be completed, and the Commission's final order approving or prohibiting the proposed transaction shall be entered, within 90 days after the date the electric utility's notice was filed. Provided, however, that a sale, assignment, or lease of transmission facilities to an independent system operator that meets the requirements of Section 16-126 shall not be subject to Commission approval under this Section. In any proceeding conducted by the Commission pursuant to this subparagraph (vi), intervention shall be limited to parties with a direct interest in the transaction which is the subject of the hearing and any statutory consumer protection agency as defined in subsection (d) of Section 9-102.1. Notwithstanding the provisions of Section 10-113 of this Act, any application seeking rehearing of an order issued under this subparagraph (vi), whether filed by the electric utility or by an intervening party, shall be filed within 10 days after service of the order.
The Commission shall not in any subsequent proceeding or otherwise, review such a reorganization or other transaction authorized by this Section, but shall retain the authority to allocate costs as stated in Section 16-111(i). An entity to which an electric utility sells, assigns, leases or transfers assets pursuant to this subsection (g) shall not, as a result of the transactions specified in this subsection (g), be deemed a public utility as defined in Section 3-105. Nothing in this subsection (g) shall change any requirement under the jurisdiction of the Illinois Department of Nuclear Safety including, but not limited to, the payment of fees. Nothing in this subsection (g) shall exempt a utility from obtaining a certificate pursuant to Section 8-406 of this Act for the construction of a new electric generating facility. Nothing in this subsection (g) is intended to exempt the transactions hereunder from the operation of the federal or State antitrust laws. Nothing in this subsection (g) shall require an electric utility to use the procedures specified in this subsection for any of the transactions specified herein. Any other procedure available under this Act may, at the electric utility's election, be used for any such transaction.