On May 5, the Program made the following updates to the Program Year 2025-26 Program Guidebook that was released on April 18, 2025. Please note that there are no new requirements introduced in this update but rather clarifications to items already published in other documents as well as corrections of formatting issues in order to better delineate requirements. Page references are to pages in this May 5, 2025 version:
- Section 5.F, Required Information (p 93) – added new “Prevailing Wage Applicability” bullet and properly nested the three applicable sub-bullets that were previously nested under “Proof of exemption from taxation” bullet
- Appendix E, footnote 83 (p 158) – removal of the word “either” after “…feature a community solar project” and before “under contract…”
- Appendix E, Interconnection Status (p159) – Maximum of 4 points permitted, corrected nesting of criteria 4.c.i through 4.c.v; these five subpoints had previously incorrectly shown as bullets d through h
- Appendix E, Compliance section (p 163-164) – addition of paragraph and ensuing table outlining “Documentation to be Submitted to Demonstrate Fulfillment of Part I Commitment, Including Permissible Changes” for Scoring Criterion 1.c, 1.d, and 3.a-d
- Appendix F, header (p 166) – corrected location of “Primary Selection Criteria – Maximum of 20 points available.” to correctly precede table that follows
- Appendix F, Scoring Criterion (p 173) – correction of table header from “Primary Scoring Criterion” to correctly indicate “Secondary Scoring Criterion”
- Appendix F, Scoring Criterion (p 174) – deletion of erroneously repeated scoring criterion table.
- Appendix S, MES Year-End Report, Equity Eligible Persons section (p 241) – addition of questions:
- Does your company work with any EEC subcontractors?
- If yes, please list the names of the EEC subcontractors.
- If yes, how many of the total EEPs in your Illinois-based Illinois Shines project workforce are employed by an EEC subcontractor?
- The Agency will count Equity Eligible Persons employed by an EEC-certified subcontractor, including the Equity Eligible Person majority-owner, 1.5 times in calculating compliance with the MES.
- Does your company work with any EEC subcontractors?
- Appendix S, MES Year-End Report, Partnerships and Outreach section (p 245) – revision of questions:
- addition of “non-EEC” to revise item to read “Please list any non-EEC subcontractors your company works with.”
- Revision of these items to remove “and/or subcontractors” since subcontractors are asked about in the EEP section:
- Did you partner with Equity Eligible Contractor Approved Vendors and/or Designees for project applications associated with your organization?
- If yes, please list the name(s) of the EEC Avs and/or Designees.
Questions should be directed to the Program Administrator at [email protected].
Thank you!
Illinois Shines Program
[email protected]