On February 7, 2020, Group B Small DG Block 1 reached its capacity and the soft-close procedure for that Block was initiated and ended on February 21, 2020. Please see the February 7, 2020 announcement and the February 22, 2020 announcement for more details.
With the approval of the Agency’s Revised Long-Term Renewable Resources Procurement Plan (“Revised Long-Term Plan”) by the Illinois Commerce Commission on February 18, 2020, the procedure for subsequent closing of blocks has changed. For Group A Small DG Block 1 (and for Groups A and B Small DG Block 2), the soft-close period is now seven days rather than fourteen.
For Groups A and B Large DG Block 4 (and Groups A and B Small DG Block 3) a new closing protocol is now in effect. Rather than a soft-close period, blocks will close when the block volume is filled, and any projects submitted after that time will be put on a first-come/first-served waitlist for the Group/category, pending an analysis of available funds and the verification of the eligibility of projects that applied to the Program prior to them.
The details of how this protocol will be implemented include:
- On the calendar day that an application is submitted whose capacity meets or exceeds the remaining capacity in Large DG Block 4 or Small DG Block 3 for a given Group, any project applications received on or prior to 11:59 PM Central Prevailing Time that day that exceed the remaining capacity of that block will be selected until a 5 MW cap is reached. For the application that crosses the 5 MW cap, the entire project will be allocated Block 4 pricing, with all subsequently submitted applications placed on an ordinal waitlist. If the application that crosses the 5 MW cap is part of a multiple-project batch in which all projects in that batch are time-stamped as having been submitted at the same time, such that the determination of which individual application in that batch was the one that crossed the 5 MW cap is not possible, the Approved Vendor may select which applications within that batch will remain under the 5 MW cap, with the remaining applications in that batch placed on the waitlist for that Group/category. (The Revised Long-Term Plan includes a change to the Part I submittal process that will be implemented in approximately one month. It will allow for the submittal of Part I applications as projects rather than batches for Approved Vendors that already have an ICC-approved batch. This protocol will be updated at that time.)
- As early as practicable on the following business day after a block’s capacity has been met or exceeded by a submitted application, the Program Administrator will post an announcement at illinoisshines.com and email both the Approved Vendors and the illinoisshines.com mailing list that the capacity for that block was met, on which date it was met, and that all applications submitted after that date will be placed on a waitlist once their application fee has been received by the Program Administrator.
- An Approved Vendor that submitted an application and initiated its application fee after the final block of a Group/category has reached capacity, but before the announcement of block closure, may request, within 10 business days after application submittal, removal from the waitlist and a refund of the application fee for the submitted application(s).
- Consistent with current practice, an application is considered submitted and eligible for Program Administrator review, as well as eligible to maintain its position on a waitlist, only with the Program Administrator’s receipt of the application fee within 10 business days following application submittal.
- In the case of newly available capacity resulting from a withdrawal from the Program (such as a project application that had been allocated to a block being found ineligible), an application will be selected off of the waitlist in the order of application submittal provided that sufficient capacity ahead of that application has withdrawn to accommodate the entire project.
- As soon as practicable, the Program Administrator will notify an Approved Vendor when an application that it has submitted is selected off the waitlist. The Block Capacity Dashboard on the Program website will be updated daily with the most recent total capacity of applicant projects present on a Group/category’s waitlist.
- Applications that are submitted with payment after the closure of a block has been announced will be added to the waitlist for that Group/category combination in order of application submittal. If a project is accepted off the waitlist prior to a future block opening (Block 5 for Large DG, Block 4 for Small DG) it will receive a REC price at the price of the last open block.
