Updated Distributed Generation Disclosure Forms

The updated Distributed Generation (“DG”) Disclosure Forms will go live the evening of Tuesday, January 7, 2025. Disclosure Forms are an important consumer education tool. Customers can use Disclosure Forms to understand key project information and to compare offers. Once the updated Disclosure Forms go live, the new fields and information will appear on the PDFs generated by the Illinois Shines Portal.

Approved Vendors and Designees who use CSV files to generate forms will need to download and use the new CSV templates, which include the new fields. The new CSV templates are available on the Program Documents page in the Disclosure Forms section.

API users will need to update their APIs by January 7, 2025, in order to continue generating Disclosure Forms. Please contact [email protected] with API questions.

The updates to the DG Disclosure Forms include the following:

1. New fields about whether the solar project includes a battery and if so, the size of the battery (all DG Disclosure Forms).
2. New field for an estimate of the customer’s annual electricity usage (all DG Disclosure Forms).
3. New fields related to utility rebates and calculation of the rebate amount (ComEd and Ameren Disclosure Forms only).
4. Updated calculations to estimate the value of electricity generated from the solar project, which also includes new fields (DG Disclosure Forms for ComEd, Ameren, and MidAmerican, only for residential/small commercial customers).
5. A required field for information on net meter crediting for customers in the service territory of Mt. Carmel, a municipal utility, or rural electric co-operative (replacing the customer acknowledgement form for the unavailability of net metering).
   
   

The Program is providing sample Disclosure Forms to illustrate the updates here. Sample A is an example Disclosure Form that shows items 1-4 above. Sample B is an example Disclosure Form that shows item 5.  

Additional details on calculations for the value of electricity generated by the solar project:
Please note – The value of electricity section will NOT appear for large commercial and industrial customers, public schools, and customers in the service territory of Mt. Carmel, municipal utilities, or rural electric co-operatives.

• The estimate for the value of electricity generated by the solar project will ONLY be included on Disclosure Forms for residential and small commercial customers of ComEd, Ameren, and MidAmerican.
• The value of electricity will be calculated by multiplying the project’s expected electricity production by a “blended $/kWh rate,” taking into account a 0.5% assumed annual degradation, and electricity escalation rates of 0.5%, 1.7%, and 2.5%.
• The Portal will determine the “blended rate,” which will be a mix of the utility’s full retail rate and the utility’s supply rate. The portal will make an assumption about how much electricity the customer will use directly onsite (which will be valued at the retail rate) and how much will be sent back to the grid (which will be valued at the supply rate). The portal will be programmed with basic utility rates (which will be used for basic utility supply customers and customers who take supply from an Alternative Retail Electric Supplier) and will use a multiplier to estimate hourly/Time of Use rates (based on basic utility rates).
• The Portal will use the chart below to determine the assumption of how much electricity will be used directly onsite.
  
  

If you have any questions about the new Disclosure Forms, please reach out to [email protected].

Thank you,
Illinois Shines Program    
[email protected]