On December 13, the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) issued its Final Order on the Illinois Power Agency’s (IPA) 2017 Procurement Plan. The 2017 Procurement Plan, which will include two DG procurement events, will govern the final series of procurements held under Illinois’ existing RPS provisions, before the state transitions to its new RPS.
The Plan calls for two DG procurement events, with an allocated $40 million budget for the procurement of an estimated 20 MW of DG resources. The DG procurements under the Plan will be unique from previous DG procurements in that the IPA will allow for speculative bids for systems under 25kW for the first time. This change, made in light of the success of the IL SPV Procurement Plan and in response to public support, is combined with a reduced $4/REC letter of credit for both identified and speculative systems.
The DG procurements will be for 5-year REC contracts for systems under 25kw (“small”) and systems 25kW – 2MW (“large”), with a 50:50 procurement split between small and large systems. Any such new and existing systems interconnected with Ameren, ComEd, MidAmerican (Illinois service territory only), Mount Carmel, Illinois municipal utilities or rural co-ops are eligible to participate in the procurement, including “speculative” (unidentified) projects. There is a 1 MW “bid minimum”, and RECs will need to be offered at a single, blended REC price per bid. Interested participants are encouraged to bid through aggregators in order to meet the 1 MW “bid minimum”.
Speculative systems will have nine months to identify systems, and all systems will have between nine months and one year from identification to commence delivery, depending on the system type.
The timing of the DG procurement event rounds will be contingent upon the IPA’s determination regarding an April 2017 contingency procurement under the SPV Plan and other factors. The final version of the 2017 Procurement Plan and future updates on the Plan will be posted on the IPA’s website here.
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