Energy Solutions continues its commitment to providing frequent updates and details on Illinois Shines application processing progress. Project application review volumes for the week again exceeded our forecasted processing volume, continuing progress toward the Program Administrator’s goal on processing to meet and exceed processing targets toward achieving a two-week review turnaround by the end of Summer 2023, as shared in the April 4, 2023, announcement. Since Energy Solutions became Program Administrator July 1, 2022, through May 28, 2023, the Program has reviewed over 12,616 Part I project applications and 6,671 Part II applications.
This announcement provides the following application processing updates:
- Updated application processing tables through the week starting May 29, 2023, and forecast through June 2023
- Updates to accelerate application processing, including progress in the Need Info working group
Application Processing Updates
The Program Administrator has established the staffing and processes to achieve review turnaround times of two weeks by end of Summer 2023. Updated application processing data is published on the Program website on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. This weekly announcement reflects projected and actual application submission and processing throughput, including a forecasted “turnaround time” of submission date to application review by project type/category, and updates on our Need Info efforts.
The week of May 29, 2023, the Program received fewer new project applications than projected; however, the Program Administrator is prepared to address higher volumes throughout June subsequent to the Program Year 2023-2024 opening on June 1, 2023.
Applications are reviewed in order of submission date by Part I/Part II groups, regardless of project category reflected in forecasted review dates. For example, older Part I Small DG applications are processed before more recently submitted Part I Large DG applications.
*End of Week Queue column includes the total number of applications batched and paid which have not been reviewed. Due to project cancellations, the current queue may not exactly equal the previous week’s queue plus submitted less reviewed application volumes.
Staffing and Training Enhancements
- Staffing – The Program Administrator’s applications team is more than 50 full-time equivalent employees and may quickly “ramp up” to address variances of application submission volumes.
Productivity and Quality Gains – As staff experience progresses and bulk review expands, the volume of reviewed applications has increased while the proportion of Need Info requests has been reduced.
Need Info Updates
Resolving the high Need Info volume and resulting delays in application approvals remains a high priority. The Need Info working group identified an opportunity to refine the automated process to reduce the number of flagged applications as Need Info but instead flag for manual review for the processor to seek information elsewhere in the application packet. The team moved over 480 Part I and Part II applications out of Need Info last week.
The Program Administrator thanks stakeholders for their continued patience and feedback. We are working hard to aggressively meet application review and approval targets and bring application processing into expected timeframes for the benefit of all stakeholders. Stakeholders are invited to contact the Program Administrator at any time regarding specific applications or overall application processing, by contacting: [email protected] or (877) 783-1820.
