BE Plan Pilot 2

The Final Order in ComEd’s Beneficial Electrification Plan 2 (“BE Plan 2”) proceeding, Illinois Commerce Commission (“Commission” or “ICC”) Docket Nos. 24-0484 and 24-0577, Cons., dated March 27, 2025 (“Final Order”), specifies a budget of $55.9 million annually, on average, over the three-year period of the BE Plan, 2026 through 2028.  Of this $55.9 million annual total, the Commission allocated $3.7 million annually, on average, to 1) complete the eight BE Plan 1 pilots, 2) extend technical demonstration efforts during Plan 2, or 3) to develop new BE Pilot proposals to be submitted to the Commission for approval prior to implementation in the next BE Plan filing (“BE Plan 3”).

Based on this decision, ComEd is now accepting ideas for the BE Plan 2. BE Plan 2 pilots should fall into one of the following focus areas and should build off the work completed in these focus areas as part of the BE Plan 1 pilots. This may take the form of scaling or advancing Plan 1 concepts or technologies or submitters also may propose exploration of a new technology or concept so long as it falls within the focus area. Focus areas are described below. More information on current pilot implementation can be found on the main BE Pilots page.

Submitters may submit ideas outside of these focus areas, but these ideas will be considered as part of the next BE Plan Pilot cycle, BE Plan 3, which is not anticipated to start until after the conclusion of BE Plan 2 in 2028.

Air Quality Monitoring

Seeks to understand the severity of air quality issues near heavily trafficked transportation hubs and other vulnerable areas.

Air Quality Monitoring

Learn More

Backup Power Capabilities

Explores the risks, benefits, and market opportunities associated with the ability of EVs and EV charging stations to provide bidirectional capabilities to support customer resiliency as well as the performance of these as backup power sources.

Backup Power Capabilities

Learn More

Curbside Charging

Aims to address gaps in EV charger access while optimizing cost, efficiency, and grid operation. It also investigates and develops best practices in equitable implementation, construction practices, and municipal collaboration.

Curbside Charging

Learn More

Electric Vehicle Energy Management Systems (EV EMS)

Investigates customer tools and processes to regulate the use of equipment such as EV supply equipment (EVSE) to either reduce or eliminate costs associated with make-ready and service capacity upgrades.

Electric Vehicle Energy Management Systems (EV EMS)

Learn More

Residential Optimized Charging*

Aims to develop residential products and services for the purpose of reducing customers’ costs and increase grid flexibility of EV charging.

Residential Optimized Charging*

Learn More

Rideshare

Aims to accelerate EV access to LI/EIEC customers by addressing cost, availability, and other barriers to EVs and by promoting familiarity.

Rideshare

Learn More

School Bus Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G)*

Aims to assess and demonstrate the viability of implementing vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology with electric school buses (ESBs) and showcase the technology’s potential to leverage ESBs as viable energy storage sources while achieving balance on the grid.

School Bus Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G)*

Learn More

Submetering

Evaluates alternatives to using utility metering for billing EV charging and operation of EVSEs to expand or accelerate the deployment EV charging and EVSEs broadly.

Submetering

Learn More

*These focus areas will be prioritized for advancement during Plan 2.

Pilot Scoring

Ideas will be scored using the process and criteria outlined for BE Plan 1: Download Pilot Evaluation Process and Criteria.

At a high level the criteria include:

  • Promotion of beneficial electrification and alignment with the goals described in BE Plan 2
  • Grid impact, such as increased operational effectiveness, capacity, resiliency, reliability, or power quality
  • Customer impact, in the form of economic or energy benefits
  • Community impact, in the form of greenhouse gas emissions reductions, benefit to income eligible customers or equity investment eligible communities, or stakeholder inclusion and participation

Ideas will be further assessed on:

  • Implementation potential: including cost-effectiveness, lifetime of investment, potential to leverage external resources, and program costs associated with implementation
  • Concept potential: including technology readiness, scalability, likelihood of success, delivery strategy, and ease of adoption
  • Operation and Safety: including O&M considerations and any costs associated and risks with construction, permitting, implementation of communications infrastructure, standardization, safety, and cybersecurity

Additional information on these topics will be requested for ideas that are selected to move forward to the proposal stage.

ComEd will also consider the Benefit-Cost-Analysis (BCA) of Plan 2 pilots. More information on calculation of BCA can be found here: BCA criteria.