IMEA Battery Storage Findings and Path Forward
Date Posted: 2026-03-26
The Illinois Municipal Electric Agency (IMEA) continues to diversify and economically reduce its carbon footprint as directed by its 2024 Sustainability Plan. The Sustainability Plan details the agency’s vision to reduce the power supplied to member municipalities to net-zero carbon by 2050.
One of the plan’s benchmarks was to study the feasibility of adopting utility-scale behind-the-meter battery storage on member distribution systems. Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) is a technology that uses rechargeable batteries to store electrical energy, allowing it to be dispatched later to stabilize power grids, integrate renewables and manage energy costs. The report was written by IMEA Engineering and Markets Staff with consultation from the engineering and consulting firm of GDS Associates, Inc., whose work product was utilized to provide additional financial analysis.
The IMEA Battery Energy Storage Systems Study, recently reviewed at the February 2026 IMEA Board of Directors meeting, provides a comprehensive overview of BESS, examining BESS fundamentals; operational hazards and mitigation protocols; and the economics of implementation using high, low and base capacity, energy and ancillary services market scenario assumptions for the future. It concludes with recommendations to the IMEA Board to pursue pilot behind-the-meter BESS projects in our member communities, ideally with one located in the Regional Transmission Organization (RTO) of MISO (central and southern Illinois) and one located in the RTO of PJM (northern Illinois).
Implementing these pilot projects will allow IMEA to learn how to integrate the technology into its power portfolio in its daily market operations and manage the economic benefits of BESS in each RTO. This will provide the agency with valuable experience as the Board considers future wide-scale implementation as the technology evolves and becomes more economical.
Upon reviewing the details of the BESS Study, IMEA’s Board of Directors approved the development of a Request for Proposal (RFP) to be issued to all member municipal utilities to apply to host a pilot BESS project in their community. Once IMEA receives and reviews interested municipality’s RFP responses, the IMEA Board of Directors would look to select two host sites at a fall 2026 Board meeting.
IMEA Battery Energy Storage Systems Study linked here: https://www.imea.org/documents/IMEA_BESS_Feasibility_Study.pdf