As previously announced both through the 2024 Long-Term Plan and weekly announcements across April-May 2024, on Monday, May 27, 2024 at 8:00 a.m. CPT, the Illinois Shines program will close for the 2023-24 Program Year. All Portal functions, including the ability to submit Part I project applications or to generate, download, or submit Disclosure Forms (in all forms and manners including API, CSV, PDF), will be unavailable during this period. This means that for a Disclosure Forms to be signed during the portal closure, the Approved Vendor or Designee will need to generate and send the Disclosure Form for e-signature or download the Disclosure Form (to then be wet-signed) before the closure.
Please note that the requirement that customers sign Disclosure Forms prior to signing an installation contract or subscription agreement will remain in effect, and Approved Vendors and Designees will need to plan accordingly. All other activities and support provided by the Program Administrator will remain available. During this closure the Portal will be unavailable for use by stakeholders while the Program prepares the portal for the new Program Year including updated block capacity configurations, REC pricing, new application requirements for some project categories and more. The Portal will re-open for the 2024-25 Program Year on June 3, 2024 at 8:00 a.m. CPT.
Key additional notes about the Program Closure:
- May 31, 2024 – Last applicable day for EEP workforce data for purposes of 2023-24 MES compliance via MES Year-End Reports
- May 31, 2024 – Bi-annual Report deadline
- May 31, 2024 – Last day of the delivery year and last day to have RECs delivered in tracking registry to count towards the 2023-24 Delivery Year Annual Report
Other activities and support including Contract generation, Invoices and Quarterly Netting Statement Generation, Program Call Center, Consumer Protection Center, Weekly Office Hours, Sector Strategist availability, and SharePoint access will remain available as usual.
The Program Administrator and the IPA understand that the unavailability of Disclosure Forms across this time provides challenges to Program participants. While we understand that this will have business impacts, after carefully weighing the various considerations, the Agency does not intend to provide a waiver from consumer protection requirements during the portal closure. Approved Vendors and their Designees may still advertise solar offers and perform customer outreach, discuss specific offers with prospective customers, do site visits and design solar projects, etc. However, the customer should not sign a contract until a Disclosure Form has been generated and signed by that customer—in other words, customers should not sign contracts while the portal is down unless their Approved Vendor or Designee already generated a Disclosure Form prior to the portal closure.
Please note that non-compliant actions risk an Approved Vendor’s/Designee’s status of good standing in the Program. The Program Administrator does audit Disclosure Form execution dates and any entity that is discovered to have acted out of compliance with Program requirements may face disciplinary action.
