While the solar community in Illinois awaits the initial program rules draft of various parts of the Future Energy Jobs Act (FEJA), the Illinois Power Agency (IPA) has issued the Fall 2017 Procurement Wind and Solar Request For Proposals (RFP). In addition to seeking 1,000,000 Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) for wind power, the IPA will be seeking in this solicitation 200,000 RECs of an annual 1,000,000 total for utility scale (above 2 MW) and any size brownfield solar installations to be apportioned among the three Illinois major utilities.

The RFP, issued on July 19 and posted July 20, will have its proposal components due during various days in August, culminating with the bid itself on August 31. The installations must be located in Illinois or adjacent states, and the agreement will run for 15 years. The systems can be operational after June 1, 2017, and the REC’s must be delivered starting June 1, 2019 and no later than June 1, 2021.

The Spring 2017 Procurement Event for Distributed Generation results for average bids were 9,775 REC’s at $68.56 for “Large Class” systems 25kW to 2 MW in capacity, 1,776 REC’s at $176.46 for “Small Class” systems under 25 kW and, in a new format, 8,071 REC’s at $188.97 for “Forecast” (to be identified systems under 25kW. The 19,549 REC’s will be divided among ComEd (13,599), Ameren Illinois (5,426) and MidAmerican Energy (524). The REC’s are to be delivered beginning in 2018 and 2019.

In the meantime, a draft of program rules of FEJA community solar programs like “Illinois Solar For All” is expected to be posted by the IPA on or about August 2, with a comment period to run until about August 31.