The Program Administrator publishes Tips and Tricks to help support stakeholders in avoiding project applications from resulting in a Need Info request and delaying their review and approval.
- AVs are required to indicate if a project is an expansion to a system that is already under a REC Contract on the application in Part I, Section 2.
- An expansion is when additional capacity is added to an existing system. The existing system can already be under REC Contract in the Program, or it can be a system that was built outside of the Program, with just the expanded portion applied to the Program.
- Expansions to an existing system must be marked on the application in Part I, Section 2 in Project Details under “Is this an expansion of an existing facility?”. After selecting “Yes”, the existing system should be identified by its Project Application ID, not its Disclosure Form ID.
- If an expansion is made to an existing system that is not part of the Program, and only the expansion is applying to the Program, confirming the original system is a “Non-Illinois Shines system” in the comments box at the time of submission can prevent Need Info request delays.
- In the 2024-25 Program Guidebook (Section 4.E), expansion pricing is applicable to projects that are added on to existing Illinois Shines projects when the expansion project is submitted less than two years from the original project’s ICC approval date.
- If an already built expansion system is being submitted, AVs should upload the Certificate of Completion (CoC)/Permission to Operate (PTO) in Part I ‘Additional Documents’ for interconnection date verification.
- “Expansion” must still be marked on Part I Section 2 of the application, even if expansion pricing is not applicable as all other expansion guidelines still apply.
