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Updated Program Guidebook, Consumer Protection Handbook, and Contract Requirements for the Program Year 2025-26 Released

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The Illinois Power Agency announces the publication of updated versions of the Program Year 2025-26 Program Guidebook, Consumer Protection Handbook, Distributed Generation (DG) and Community Solar (CS) Contract Requirements, and 2025-26 REC Prices. These documents conform with the Illinois Commerce Commission’s (ICC’s) Final Order on the IPA’s 2024 Long-Term Renewable Resources Procurement Plan, dated February 20, 2024, and other stakeholder feedback processes. These documents are published 45 days in advance of the start of the 2025-26 Program Year in order to provide transparency and time to review changes prior to the compliance period. Program participants are required to be in compliance with requirements outlined in these documents by June 2, 2025 and throughout the 2025-26 Program Year.

PROGRAM GUIDEBOOK
The updated version of the Program Guidebook will replace the April 18, 2024 version beginning June 2, 2025.

The high-level changes to the Program Guidebook are:

  • 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
  • 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
  • New Safe Harbor Approach for MES compliance


CONSUMER PROTECTION DOCUMENTS
The updated Consumer Protection Handbook, and Distributed Generation and Community Solar Contract Requirements documents replace the versions released on April 18, 2024, and take effect beginning June 2, 2025.

The high-level changes to the 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

REC PRICES
The REC Prices for Program Year 2025-26 have been finalized, are included in the updated Program Guidebook and the Program website. The updated prices will take effect on June 2, 2025.

The April 18, 2024 versions of the Program Guidebook, the Consumer Protection Handbook, and Distributed Generation (DG) and Community Solar (CS) Contract Requirements remain the effective versions of the documents until the new Program Year commences on June 2, 2025. Compliance with all changes in the Program Year 2025-26 versions of these documents is required by June 2, 2025.

Links to the updated document versions:


Stakeholders can find forthcoming, current, and past versions of the Program Guidebook, Consumer Protection Handbook, and other documents at the Program website’s Program Documents page. Comments received as part of the stakeholder feedback processes can be found at https://illinoisshines.com/stakeholder-feedback/. The Program Administrator and IPA thank all entities that took the time to review and comment on the draft Program documents.

Thank you!    
Illinois Shines Program    
[email protected]