(a) This Article may be cited as the Electric Service Customer Choice and Rate Relief Law of 1997 and shall apply to electric utilities and alternative retail electric suppliers as defined in this Article. Except to the extent modified or supplemented by the provisions of this Article, or where the context clearly renders such provisions inapplicable, the other Articles of the Public Utilities Act pertaining to public utilities, public utility rates and services and the regulation thereof, are fully and equally applicable to the tariffed services electric utilities provide.
     (b) The provisions of subsections (a) through (h) of Section 16-111 of this Act shall not be applicable to any electric utility which elects to file biennial rate proceedings before the Commission in the years 1998, 2000 and 2002. An electric utility electing this option shall do so by filing a notice of such election with the Commission within 60 days after the effective date of this amendatory Act of 1997, or its right to make such election shall be irrevocably waived. An electric utility electing the option specified in this paragraph shall file its rate proceeding with the Commission no later than August 1 of the years 1998, 2000, and 2002. The electric utility’s filing shall comply with all requirements of 83 Illinois Administrative Code Parts 255 and 285 as though the electric utility were filing for an increase in its rates, without regard to whether such filing would produce an increase, a decrease or no change in the electric utility’s rates and the Commission shall review the electric utility’s filing and shall issue its order in accordance with the provisions of Section 9-201 of this Act.