In May 2013, the Illinois General Assembly passed the Natural Gas Consumer, Safety and Reliability Act (SB 2266). The legislation will allow utilities to make incremental investments in infrastructure upgrades and recover those costs through a rider on customer bills. The rider/surcharge is to be regularly reviewed by the ICC. In addition, the measure requires utilities to file annual plans with the ICC detailing performance improvements and reporting on progress. Performance improvements may include decreases in time to respond to gas emergency calls and/or preventing damage caused by utility or contractor error. The Illinois Commerce Commission has authorized a cost recovery mechanism for the work, known as the rider qualified infrastructure program, that went into effect January 1, 2014 and sunsets after 2023. The rider enables Peoples to recover its costs with only a one-month cash flow lag, eliminating the regulatory lag between rate cases, and allows the company to earn a return on investment based on the cost of capital established in the most recent rate case. Peoples had been replacing roughly 45 miles of cast iron and ductile iron main with modern polyethylene pipes annually, but in 2011 the utility ramped up the replacement program, aiming to tackle nearly 2,000 miles of gas pipe, or 40% of the company's system, over two decades. On April 7, 2014, Nicor Gas filed for its infrastructure replacement surcharge with the ICC. Nicor’s plan calls for approximately $171 million in spending in each of the three years beginning in 2015. Entitled the Qualifying Infrastructure Plant (QIP) tariff, this surcharge will allow NICOR to replace hundreds of miles of aging distribution lines and thousands of natural gas services. The company also plans to upgrade gas transmission and storage systems and refurbish regulating stations. This application was approved on July 30, 2014. The following projects are eligible for recovery under the QIP: 1) Replacing cast iron main and related services; 2) Replacing non-cast iron main, which may include wrought iron, ductile iron, unprotected coated steel, unprotected bare steel, pre-1973 DuPont Aldyl “A” polyethylene, polyvinylchloride (“PVC”) plastic, or other vintage materials, and related services; 3) Replacing copper services; 4) Replacing high-pressure transmission pipelines and associated facilities; and 5) Replacing and/or installing regulator stations, regulators, valves, and associated facilities. In August of 2014, Ameren Illinois announced its plan for a 10-year, $400 million overhaul of its natural gas distribution in central and southern Illinois. When the project is completed, up to 350 miles of steel pipe will be replaced with polyethylene pipe. The project includes upgrades to 70 stations that regulate gas from interstate pipelines and adding over 450,000 so-called 'smart meters.' On January 6, 2015, the ICC approved a QIP rider for Ameren Illinois.

Peoples Gas owns and operates a public CNG station in Chicago, IL and has a Compressed Natural Gas Service rate schedule (Service Classification No. 8) in its tariff. This rate schedule is available to any customer for gas to be used only as compressed natural gas to fuel a vehicle and who shall agree during the term of a written contract with the Company: (1) to exclusively use gas delivered hereunder in the equipment specified in its contract, and (2) not to voluntarily discontinue and renew service under this service classification within a consecutive twelve-month period. WEC Energy Corp. subsidiary Trillium CNG owns and operates stations in Bloomington, Morton, Romeoville, Mokena and two stations in Chicago.

Originally approved as a pilot in 2007 and adopted permanently in 2011, Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas utilize a Volume Balancing Adjustment (VBA). The VBA, expressed on a cents per therm basis, stabilizes the distribution revenue requirement approved by the Commission in each Company’s most recent rate proceeding. Ameren Illinois operates under a rate design in which recovers 80% of its revenue for Residential and Small GS Customers per through a flat fee plus small variable charge. NICOR Gas operates under a rate design consisting of a flat fee plus a small variable charge. On December 9, 2015, the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) issued an order adopting a Volume Balancing Adjustment Rider (Rider VBA) in Ameren Illinois’ base rate proceeding. Rider VBA (a decoupling mechanism), mitigates the effect that future sales fluctuations will have on the company's ability to recover its fixed costs.