On behalf of the Illinois Shines program, the Illinois Power Agency and Program Administrator welcome stakeholders to Program Year 2023-2024. This Program Year includes new capacity for project categories to continue the expansion of solar development in Illinois, and brings new requirements, updated Program documents, new REC prices, stakeholder resources, and more.
This message is designed as a quick reference tool to link stakeholders to some of the many critical and updated Illinois Shines resources newly available for Program Year 2023-2024, as well as final block sizes and things to know while using the portal to create new Disclosure Forms. Resources can be found at the Program website’s Resources page, Program Year Updates page, or elsewhere at www.IllinoisABP.com.
Updated Program Documents
- Program Guidebook – May 31, 2023 version – updated to conform with the ICC’s Order on Rehearing dated May 4, 2023 (Docket 22-0231) and to correct typographical errors
- Consumer Protection Handbook – published April 17, 2023 – effective June 1, 2023
- Contract Requirements effective June 1, 2023 – Distributed Generation and Community Solar
- Program Year 2023-2024 REC Prices (link to spreadsheet)
- REC Payments Calculator (link to Excel tool at Resources page)
- Updated Distributed Generation and Community Solar Program brochures and Guide to Going Solar flyer/timeline at IllinoisShines.com
New Disclosure Forms (“Version 2”) Resources
- New Disclosure Form samples (see the Disclosure Forms section of the Resources page)
- Community Solar DF templates for API (see the Disclosure Forms section of the Resources page)
- Portal Help Guides (PDF and video walkthroughs)
- New consumer-oriented Disclosure Form “Deep Dive” tool at IllinoisShines.com
- New Disclosure Forms webinar – May 18, 2023 – recording, presentation slides, Q&A
Other Program Requirements and Resources
- Program Year 2023-2024 webinar – May 25, 2023 – recording, presentation slides, Q&A
- 2023 Annual Report and Delivery Year REC Evaluation webinar – May 8, 2023 – recording and presentation slides
- Minimum Equity Standard (MES) resources including:
- Guide to the Equity Accountability System and Illinois Shines
- MES Compliance Plan submission form
- MES Compliance Plan sample questions
- MES Waiver Request
- MES Frequently Asked Questions (last edited May 25, 2023)
- Links to October 4, 2022, November 15, 2022, and March 13, 2023 Equity Accountability System and Minimum Equity Standard webinar recordings and presentation slides at the Program’s Equity Accountability System page
Final Block Sizes Included Reallocated Capacity from the 2022-23 Program Year
| Block | Group | Tier | Size (public schools only) | Total 23-24 Block capacity | Remaining Capacity (After capacity is applied to any waitlisted projects) |
| CEJA Category | Group | Tier | Start capacity | ||
| Block capacity + Rollover capacity in MW | Total PY 23-24 minus waitlisted PY 22-23 in MW | ||||
| Small DG | A | 40 | 37.66 | ||
| Small DG | B | 94 | 94 | ||
| Large DG | A | 40 | 7.92 | ||
| Large DG | B | 94 | 94 | ||
| TCS | A | 60 | 0 | ||
| TCS | B | 140 | 114.62 | ||
| CDCS | A | 10* | TBD | ||
| CDCS | B | 23* | TBD | ||
| EEC - CS | A | 29.49 | 0 | ||
| EEC - DG | A | 9.83 | 9.83 | ||
| EEC - CS | B | 68.31 | 18.62 | ||
| EEC - DG | B | 22.77 | 22.77 | ||
| Public Schools | A | 1, 2, EJC | <250 kW | 8.83 | 8.83 |
| 250 - 1000 | 17.66 | 17.66 | |||
| 1000-5000 | 8.83 | 8.83 | |||
| 3, 4 | <250 kW | 3.78 | 3.78 | ||
| 250 - 1000 | 7.57 | 7.57 | |||
| 1000-5000 | 3.78 | 3.78 | |||
| Public Schools | B | 1, 2, ECJ | <250 kW | 20.6 | 20.6 |
| 250 - 1000 | 41.2 | 41.2 | |||
| 1000-5000 | 20.6 | 20.6 | |||
| 3, 4 | <250 kW | 8.83 | 8.83 | ||
| 250 - 1000 | 17.66 | 17.66 | |||
| 1000-5000 | 8.83 | 8.83 |
The block capacity dashboard on the Program website will not reflect the new block sizes until later this afternoon. Thank you for your patience.
Updates on Known Bugs in V2 Disclosure Forms
The new Disclosure Forms have been significantly revised, and incorporate many dynamic elements—this required significant redevelopment of the Portal and automated Disclosure Form generation methods. There are a few known issues with the new Disclosure Forms that will be resolved over the next several days. These are described below, along with related guidance to Approved Vendors/Designees.
The Program Administrator has done extensive testing of the Disclosure Forms, but all Approved Vendors and Designees are still encouraged to carefully review generated Disclosure Forms for any errors or miscalculations. If you experience any other issues when generating Disclosure Forms, please reach out as soon as possible to [email protected]. Please provide as much documentation (screenshots, DF ID number) as possible so that the Program Administrator can identify and help address the issue.
The Program Administrator will work diligently to remedy all issues outlined here as soon as possible and will keep AVs and Designees updated on the status of these issues.
If you have a business model or solar offer that cannot be accommodated by the options and fields in the current Disclosure Forms, or if you plan to develop a new offer that does not fit the Disclosure Form content, please reach out to the Program Administrator for guidance.
| TYPE OF FORM / GENERATION METHOD | ISSUE | GUIDANCE TO AV/DESIGNEES |
| Community Solar – CSV | The Portal will not automatically generate DFs if a user uploads a csv file that includes multiple lines (Disclosure Forms) that are linked to the same community solar project. The Portal will accept the upload, but the user will have to manually open each “In Progress” form, select the community solar project application, and then “submit” the DF. | Users may use CSV to generate multiple DFs associated with the same community solar project, but will need to take an additional manual step. |
| Community Solar – All generation methods | The Portal is currently requiring that the user enter an email for all community solar customers. The customer email waiver is available and may be used, in which case the user may enter “[email protected]” | Users may enter “[email protected]” in place of the customer’s email if the waiver is used. The Portal Administrator will be updating the Portal to not require an email for customers. |
| DG Lease and DG PPA | The “Value of Electricity and Savings Estimates” section has been turned off for all DG Lease and DG PPA forms, as the calculations are not yet correct. These forms can be generated and used as normal, they simply will not include the “Value of Electricity and Savings Estimates” section. | The forms can be used as normal. |
| All DG forms - Portal | The drop-down list from which the user selects the customer’s electric utility includes “Jo-Carroll Energy.” This option can only be selected for community solar Disclosure Forms. If you have a DG customer who is in Jo-Carroll service territory, select “Rural Electric Cooperative” and type in “Jo-Carroll Energy” in the utility name field. | Select “Rural Electric Cooperative” and type “Jo-Carroll Energy” if a DG customer is in Jo-Carroll’s service territory. The Program Administrator will update the drop-down list to remove “Jo-Carroll Energy.” |
| DG Purchase CSV | On the DG Purchase CSV, when a user selects that a fee will be charged to the customer to cover the collateral, on the generated PDFs, that fee amount is not being properly added to the “total amount paid” box at the end of the “Project Purchase Information and Costs” section. | Please review carefully the “total amount paid” field to make sure that any collateral has been properly added to that amount. If it has not, please email the Program Administrator at [email protected] with details of the DF ID and screenshots of the issue. We also encourage you to explain to the customer the correct total amount they will pay and show them this announcement so they understand why the Disclosure Form is not properly calculating that amount. |
| CSV | When generating DFs using CSV, users may receive an error stating that “Project already exists with this name” even if that user/account has not previously used that name. This may occur if a different AV/D has already used that name. While we do not expect that different AV/Ds will often use the same DF name, if you receive this error, please change the name (for example, you can add a number or date to the end of the name to make it unique). | If you receive an error stating that a form or project name has already been used, please modify the name and try again. |
For available Office Hours support, please see the most recent weekly Program announcement. For assistance at any time, please contact the Program Administrator at [email protected] or (877) 783-1820.
