On June 1, 2023, Traditional Community Solar (“TCS”) for the 2023-2024 Program Year opened, allocating 60 MW of capacity to Group A and 140 MW of capacity to Group B. Additional Traditional Community Solar capacity was added to each Group, after several TCS projects submitted to the 2022-23 Program Year were withdrawn, as indicated in the table below.
| Group A | Group B | |
|---|---|---|
| Original 2023-24 Program Year Block Capacity | 60.00 MW | 140.00 MW |
| Capacity from project submitted in 2022-23 that were subsequently withdrawn | 4.00 MW | 13.19 MW |
| Revised 2023-24 Program Year Block Capacity | 64.00 MW | 153.19 MW |
In accordance with the Traditional Community Solar (TCS) scoring guidelines, previously published in both the 2022 Long-Term Renewable Resources Procurement Plan and the Program Guidebook, the Program Administrator scored all projects submitted on June 1, 2023. The scores and a full announcement regarding the scoring process were posted on the Program website’s Project Category hub on the Traditional Community Solar page on August 24, 2023. The Program outlined that following the finalization of the score appeal process, the Agency would utilize a random selection process to break ties between projects submitted on the first day of the Program Year, June 1, 2023 that received tied scores.
On September 20, 2023, a random selection event, open to stakeholder attendance, was conducted. A recording of the event, the presentation slides, and the resulting spreadsheet detailing Group A and Group B project awards (subject to block capacity and 20% developer cap limitations) and waitlists for each group (projects receiving scores of at least 5.0) have been added to the Program’s website at the Traditional Community Solar page.
Group A Traditional Community Solar
There were no tied scores for Group A projects submitted on June 1, 2023 and therefore a random selection process was not necessary for these projects. The Group A selected projects for the 2023-24 Program Year, the applied 20% developer cap, and the current waitlist are published on the results spreadsheet. Group A TCS had a Total Allocation Capacity for Program Year 2023-2024 of 64.00 MW, and a 20% developer cap of 12.8 MW. Following the project scoring process and selection, 19 projects have been selected to fill the block of available capacity.
Group B Traditional Community Solar
For Group B, multiple projects submitted on June 1, 2023 received the same score, which necessitated a random selection event. During this event, the 20% developer cap was applied. In order to apply the 20% developer cap, 2022-23 waitlist projects that received capacity June 1, 2023 were included in the project list. A command- line script was used to generate random numbers to break tied scores for June 1, 2023 submitted projects, and projects were selected until the Group B capacity was reached. None of the June 1, 2023 submitted projects met the minimum 5.0 points to be placed on the waitlist, thus the Group B waitlist will begin with Program Year 2023-2024 projects submitted after June 1, 2023. Group B TCS had a Total Allocation Capacity for Program Year 2023-2024 of 153.19 MW, and a 20% developer cap of 30.638 MW. Following the project scoring process and random selection event, 64 projects were selected to fill the block of available capacity.
During the random selection event for Group B, the Program Administrator was made aware of project application ID errors for three projects. Corrections were made during the event and a re-selection of projects occurred after errors were identified and corrected. Upon further review, the Program Administrator has concluded that no additional errors were found in the 2023-24 TCS Scoring spreadsheet published on August 24, nor were any further errors present in the dataset utilized for project selection on September 20, and the project selection that took place this week is final. The Program Administrator apologizes for any confusion this may have caused.
Please see the recording of the live event for a full demonstration of the selection process.
Next Steps
Projects selected in the random selection event for the 2023-2024 Program Year will be submitted to the next eligible ICC meetings for approval for REC contracts. The first eligible ICC meeting for this project selection is October 19, 2023. Projects that did not get selected and did not make it on to the waitlist (minimum 5.0 points required for waitlist) can reapply to the Program at any time The Approved Vendor will need to submit a new application, and thus a new application fee will be required. The review of projects submitted after June 1, 2023, will be prioritized and processed in the order received and will be added to the applicable waitlists for the TCS blocks if the project meets the 5.0 point minimum threshold. These waitlists are published on the Block Capacity Dashboard and are updated regularly. Waitlisted projects will be eligible for new capacity released for the 2024- 2025 Program Year beginning June 1, 2024.
