The Agency has released a draft of the 2025-26 Program Year Illinois Shines Program Guidebook, as well as draft of the Consumer Protection Handbook, the Minimum Contract Requirements, and draft REC Prices for stakeholder feedback.
PROGRAM GUIDEBOOK
This draft Guidebook will undergo stakeholder feedback, the Agency will review comments submitted and then release a final version of the Guidebook for the 2025-26 Program Year, which commences on June 2, 2025.
The Agency will release the final Program Guidebook for the 2025-26 Program Year on April 18, 2025, 45 days in advance of the start of the Program Year, to allow Program participants time to review, understand, and prepare to be in compliance with all changes in the Program Guidebook when the 2025-26 Program Year commences on June 2, 2025.
Next Steps in Program Guidebook Comment & Update Process
- Comments on draft Program Guidebook due March 26, 2025
- Redline comparison between current 2024-25 Program Guidebook and draft 2025-26 Program Guidebook
- Stakeholders should email comments to IPA.Solar@illinois.gov by March 26, 2025 with the subject line “25-26 Guidebook Feedback”
- Agency to review comments and make any relevant edits
- Agency to release final Program Guidebook for the 2025-26 Program Year on April 18, 2025
- Updated Program Guidebook takes effect June 2, 2025
High Level Changes to Draft Guidebook
- New information on Consumer Protection Initiatives – including the escrow process, the restitution program, and the stranded customer REC adder
- New information on the 2025 REC Contract Amendment
- Changes to the following documents for purposes of compliance with the Minimum Equity Standard: EEP Attestation, EEP Certification, EEC Attestation and Application, Compliance Plan, Mid-Year Report, Year-End Report, Corrective Action Plan, and MES Waiver
- Please review these documents carefully as the Agency is interested in feedback on proposed changes. They are located in the Guidebook’s Appendices.
- Clarifications for co-location pricing
- Clarifying information for timing on Community Solar application submissions
- Newly required latitude/longitude coordinates for all applications
- New information on CDCS Part II submissions
- Updated AV application
- Addition of a new Designee type
CONSUMER PROTECTION DOCUMENTS
The draft of the Consumer Protection Handbook, the Distributed Generation, and the Community Solar Contract Requirements will undergo stakeholder feedback, the Agency will review comments submitted and then release a final version of the documents for the 2025-26 Program Year, which commences on June 2, 2025.
The high-level changes to the Draft Consumer Protection Handbook are:
- New requirements in Section I.C related to marketing the Federal Income Tax Credit to residential customers (2 draft options provided for stakeholder feedback), and related to advertising depreciation tax benefits to residential customers
- Requirements in Section V.A related to disclosing information about batteries on Disclosure Forms, providing documents to customers who do not have email accounts, and updating Disclosure Forms if they become outdated or are incorrect
- Updating requirement in Section IX that entities provide requested records to the IPA or Program Administrator in five rather than 21 days
The high-level changes to the drafts of the Minimum Contract Requirements include:
- Requirement that contracts may not prohibit or limit customer’s ability to make complaints to the Program Administrator
- Requirement that DG contracts include (if applicable) the amount of any promised pass-through of the Illinois Shines incentive payment from the Approved Vendor to the customer
Next Steps in CP documents Comment & Update Process
- Comments on draft CP documents due March 26, 2025
- Stakeholders should email comments to IPA.Solar@illinois.gov by March 26, 2025 with the subject line “25-26 CP Feedback”
- Agency to review comments and make any relevant edits
- Agency to release final CP Documents for the 2025-26 Program Year on April 18, 2025
- Updated CP Documents take effect June 2, 2025
REC PRICES
Earlier today the IPA released an announcement of the draft REC Prices for the 2025-26 Program Year for stakeholder feedback. Additional documents to support the REC Prices documents are linked below.
Next Steps in Draft REC Prices Comment & Update Process
- Comments are due by March 26, 2025 and should be submitted to IPA.Contactus@illinois.gov
- Agency to release final REC Prices for the 2025-26 Program Year on April 18, 2025
- Updated REC Prices take effect June 2, 2025
Stakeholders can find the draft Program Guidebook, the draft Consumer Protection documents, and the drafted REC prices on the Program Documents page of the website. Please note, responses provided via this feedback request will be made public and published on the Program’s website https://illinoisshines.com/. However, should a commenter seek to designate any portion of its response as confidential, that commenter should provide both public and redacted versions of their comments.
PLEASE NOTE – Changes to the Program requirements via edits to the Program Guidebook, Consumer Protection documents, and REC prices as published on April 18, 2025 will not take effect until June 2, 2025. Beginning June 2, 2025, all Program participants are expected to be in compliance with the updated Program requirements or may face disciplinary action.
Thank you!
Illinois Shines Program
