May 29, 2024 

Mass Data Update:

Bulk Update Project Application Status and Verification Date 

Approximately 2000 Part I applications submitted during the 2023-24 Program Year for blocks that had already closed for the year have completed the verification process and will be advanced to the Part I Verified status in preparation for the 2024-25 Program Year. 

Enhancements:

Scoring Changes on TCS Applications (Part I Section 8) 

Section 8 of the Traditional Community Solar (TCS) project application for TCS Scoring Criteria has been revised to reflect the updated scoring criteria for the 2024-25 Program Year. The first question “Built Environment” and the third question “Equity Eligible Contractors” have been updated with revised options for claimable credits, and the scoring criteria version used will now be listed at the top of the form. 

All new applications being created will use the new version of the TCS Scoring Criteria going forward. All TCS applications previously submitted will retain the previous version of the scoring criteria and answers in the portal. Any TCS applications filled out but not submitted have been (1) updated to use the new version of TCS Scoring Criteria, (2) had their Section 8 status set back to ‘In Progress’ and (3) had responses to questions one and three reset. Participants who have filled out TCS applications in preparation for the 2024-25 Program Year launch, will need to revisit Section 8 and complete questions one and three prior to submitting. 

Program Year 2024-25: Updated DC/AC Ratio – Validation 

An optional question was added to Part I to check if a system has a battery/storage component, as the 2024 Long-Term Plan’s updated guidelines allow for a higher default DC/AC ratio limit for systems that have a battery. 

Warnings about DC/AC ratio limit in both Part I Section 4 and Part II Section 1 have also had their wording updated to reflect the change. 

Require “Net Metering Letter” Attachment when Interconnecting Utility is ComEd 

Part II applications will now require a “Net Metering Letter” document to be attached prior to submission when the interconnecting utility is ComEd. 

Optional Upload for Part I Applications: Unavailability of Net Metering Credits Customer Acknowledgment 

A new ‘Optional Document’ type has been added to the ‘Documents Section’ for all Part I Distributed Generation (DG) applications. An “Unavailability of Net Metering Credits Customer Acknowledgment” document should be collected and attached to Part I DG applications when a utility does not give customers the option of net metering credits. 

Bugfixes: 

[Part I Application: Section 4] Adding Array Orientation Before Entering Total Inverter Size AC (kW AC) Results in Generic Error. 

Issue: Previously in Section 4 of Part I project applications, trying to add a row to the table of array data before populating the [Total Inverter Size AC (kW AC)] field resulted in a generic error message telling the user to contact their administrator rather than explaining how to proceed. 

Fix: It is still necessary to populate the [Total Inverter Size AC (kW AC)] field before adding rows to the array data so that calculations can be performed in the background, but the error message will now inform the user how to proceed, “Please populate the Total Inverter Size AC (kW AC) before adding array data.” 

Regression: CSV upload for Disclosure Form for Spanish produces English version (DG) 

Issue: Distributed Generation (DG) Purchase, DG Lease, DG PPA Disclosure Forms created by CSV upload would render PDFs in English when the Spanish option was selected. 

Note: DG Disclosure Forms created directly in the Web Portal and from the API with the Spanish option selected would still correctly render PDFs in Spanish, and all Community Solar (CS) Disclosure Form including those created from the CSV upload process would render PDFs in Spanish when the Spanish option was selected. 

Fix: The issue with the DG CSV upload process has been corrected and now all Disclosure Forms will render PDFs in Spanish when the Spanish language option is selected regardless of Disclosure Form creation method. 

[DG Disclosure Form API] Calculated Field Audit – Total Cost Incorrectly Does Not Include Fees 

Previously, Distributed Generation (DG) Disclosure Forms created via API incorrectly did not include general fees as part of the total cost. This has been corrected so the total cost to the customer should now be the same whether the Disclosure Form has been created via API or the portal web UI.