An electric utility shall provide delivery services to retail customers in accordance with the provisions of this Section.
(a) Each electric utility shall offer delivery services to retail customers located in its service area in accordance with the following provisions:(1) On or before October 1, 1999, the electric utility shall offer delivery services (i) to any non-residential retail customer whose average monthly maximum electrical demand on the electric utility's system during the 6 months with the customer's highest monthly maximum demands in the 12 months ending June 30, 1999 equals or exceeds 4 megawatts; (ii) to any non-governmental, non-residential, commercial retail customers under common ownership doing business at 10 or more separate locations within the electric utility's service area, if the aggregate coincident average monthly maximum electrical demand of all such locations during the 6 months with the customer's highest monthly maximum electrical demands during the 12 months ending June 30, 1999 equals or exceeds 9.5 megawatts, provided, however, that an electric utility's obligation to offer delivery services under this clause (ii) shall not exceed 3.5% of the maximum electric demand on the electric utility's system in the 12 months ending June 30, 1999; and (iii) to non-residential retail customers whose annual electric energy use comprises 33% of the kilowatt-hour sales, excluding the kilowatt-hour sales to customers described in clauses (i) and (ii), to each non-residential retail customer class of the electric utility.(2) On or before October 1, 2000, the electric utility shall offer delivery services to the eligible governmental customers described in subsections (a) and (b) of Section 16-125A if the aggregate coincident average monthly maximum electrical demand of such customers during the 6 months with the customers' highest monthly maximum electrical demands during the 12 months ending June 30, 2000 equals or exceeds 9.5 megawatts.(2.5) On or before June 1, 2000, an electric utility serving more than 1,000,000 customers in this State shall offer delivery services to retail customers whose annual electric energy use comprises 33% of the kilowatt hour sales to that group of retail customers that are classified under Division D, Groups 20 through 39 of the Standard Industrial Classifications set forth in the Standard Industrial Classification Manual published by the United States Office of Management and Budget, excluding the kilowatt-hour sales to those customers that are eligible for delivery services pursuant to clause (1)(i), and shall offer delivery services to its remaining retail customers classified under Division D, Groups 20 through 39 on or before October 1, 2000.(3) On or before December 31, 2000, the electric utility shall offer delivery services to all remaining nonresidential retail customers in its service area.(4) On or before May 1, 2002, the electric utility shall offer delivery services to all residential retail customers in its service area. The loads and kilowatt-hour sales used for purposes of this subsection shall be those for the 12 months ending June 30, 1999 for nonresidential retail customers. The electric utility shall identify those customers to be offered delivery service pursuant to clause (1)(iii) and paragraph (2.5) of subsection (a) of this Section and Section 16-111(e)(B)(iii) pursuant to a lottery or other random nondiscriminatory selection process set forth in the electric utility's delivery services implementation plan pursuant to Section 16-105, which process may include a registration process giving each nonresidential customer the opportunity to register for eligibility for delivery services under this Section, with a lottery of registered customers to be conducted if the annual electric energy use of all registered customers exceeds the limit set forth in clause (1)(iii) or clause (2.5) or Section 16-111(e)(B)(iii), as applicable; provided that the provision of this amendatory Act of 1999 as it relates to the registration and lottery process under clause (1)(iii) is not intended to nor does it make any change in the meaning of this Section, but is intended to remove possible ambiguities, thereby confirming the existing meaning of this Section prior to the effective date of this amendatory Act of 1999. Provided, that non-residential retail customers under common ownership at separate locations within the electric utility's service area may elect, prior to the date the electric utility conducts the lottery or other random selection process for purposes of clause (1)(iii), to designate themselves as a common ownership group, to be excluded from such lottery and to instead participate in a separate lottery for such common ownership group pursuant to which delivery services will be offered to non-residential retail customers comprising 33% of the total kilowatt-hour sales to the common ownership group on or before October 1, 1999. For purposes of this subsection (a), an electric utility may define "common ownership" to exclude sites which are not part of the same business, provided, that auxiliary establishments as defined in the Standard Industrial Classification Manual published by the United States Office of Management and Budget shall not be excluded.