To submit a question to the Procurement Administrator, please use the Ask a Question page. The Procurement Administrator responds to a question by email directly to the questioner. If the question provides new information for potential suppliers, the question and answer are posted to the web site as an FAQ.

No. The web site to which you have directed your question is web site established for the Illinois Power Agency by the Procurement Administrator in connection with procurements of energy products for the Ameren and ComEd portfolios.

The Procurement Administrator has invited interested parties to submit their comments on the proposed changes that have been made relative to the previously used 2012 energy contract.  Please note that comments are solicited on proposed changes only and not on the entire energy contact.

To submit comments, please visit the Standard Products Section of the IPA procurement website (www.IPA-energyrfp.com) to download:

• the Invitation to Comment; and
• the Comment Form to be used for submitting comments.

The deadline to submit comments is 6PM CPT, Tuesday, March 18, 2014.

There is no process for a supplier that has corporate policies that require it to use its own form of guaranty to submit such an alternate form for approval. The comment process on the standard contract documents for the Spring 2014 Procurement Events is limited to proposed changes to the standard contract documents from 2012. There were no changes to the Form of Guaranty for either Ameren or ComEd, the Procurement Administrator does not expect comments from interested parties in regards to the Form of Guaranty. However, there exists a set of optional modifications to the Form of Guaranty for both Ameren and ComEd that suppliers may use on an optional basis. These optional modifications are provided for Ameren in Schedule 1 of the Confirmation Agreement and for ComEd in the Optional Changes to the Form of Guaranty document. These documents are currently posted on the Supplier Products Section of the IPA procurement web site.

For each of the Ameren and ComEd Energy Master Agreements, Section 2.5 of the EEI Master Power Purchase & Sale Agreement is inapplicable. We note that under the IPA procurement events, the details of the Confirmation are established through the RFP process managed by the Procurement Administrator who is not a Party to the Agreement. Specifically, such an RFP process provides for details for the procurement event to be posted to the procurement website (www.ipa-energy.com), for the bidder to provide its two part proposal in writing, for the bids to be submitted in a bid form in writing by the bidder, and for the Procurement Administrator to inform the bidders if its bids are being recommended to the Illinois Commerce Commission for acceptance and if its bids are being subsequently approved by the ICC and awarded, and where all such notifications are provided to the winning bidder in writing. Given the steps leading up to the execution of the Transaction Confirmation, there is little scope for phone recordings to be used to establish a Confirmation under the applicable Energy Master Agreements.

The language in Section 10.8 of the ComEd Energy Master Agreement (as modified in the coversheet) is not a mistake. Please note that all suppliers relying on a guarantor under the ComEd Energy Master Agreement are required to use the standard form of the guaranty appended as Schedule 2 to the Collateral Annex, or incorporate only acceptable modifications to the standard form of guaranty (a list of acceptable modifications to the form of guaranty has been to the procurement website (www.ipa-energyrfp.com)).  The standard form of guaranty requires both ComEd and the Guarantor to execute the guaranty for the guaranty to be effective.

It is unlikely that Ameren or ComEd would assign the agreement to an affiliate and even more unlikely that the transferee affiliate would present a problem for institutions subject to “know your customer” procedures or processes.  If an assignment were to occur, the transferee affiliate would undoubtedly be an entity formed under the laws of one of the states in the United States and would be subject to regulation by the Illinois Commerce Commission.  Consequently, it is not expected that there would be any difficulty for Ameren or ComEd to provide, or for third parties to evaluate, the transferee affiliate’s governing documentation or identity.

A Product is a constant quantity of energy to be supplied to the ComEd in either the On-Peak Segment or the Off-Peak Segment of a specific month. There are thus potentially twenty-four (24) Products for each Company and each year.  Each month is considered a separate Delivery Period under the ComEd Master Agreement. In the case where a bidder is awarded blocks of the 12-month combination Jun14 to May15 on-peak, then each month between June 2014 and May 2015 is considered a separate delivery period.

The Procurement Plan provides for purchase of electric supply to serve certain customers of Ameren Illinois Company (“Ameren” or “AIC”) and Commonwealth Edison Company (“ComEd”). Each of ComEd and Ameren is referred to as a “Company”.

The evaluation of Bids proceeds separately for each Company. For each Company, there are two steps. In the first step, all Bids that fail to meet the benchmarks established by the Procurement Administrator, the Procurement Monitor and the IPA are eliminated. In the second step, the Procurement Administrator evaluates the Bids that meet or beat the benchmarks and selects a package of Bids that procures all needed blocks for the Company at the lowest average cost per MWh.

Within two (2) business days of the Bid Date, the Procurement Administrator submits to the Illinois Commerce Commission (“ICC”) a confidential report that provides the results of the bidding related to each procurement event, as well as a recommendation on whether these results should be accepted or rejected.  Within two (2) business days of the Bid Date, the Procurement Monitor also submits to the ICC a confidential report regarding the results of each procurement event. The ICC will decide whether to accept or reject the results of each procurement event within two (2) business days of receiving the confidential reports from both the Procurement Administrator and the Procurement Monitor.

Public notices regarding the ICC’s prior decisions in procurement events since 2008 are provided here:

http://www.icc.illinois.gov/electricity/ElectricityProcurement.aspx

The ICC has not rejected the results of procurement events held during that time.

The Final Energy Master Agreements for Ameren and ComEd were posted to the IPA procurement website on Thursday, March 28, 2014. Each Master Agreement provides a single method for calculation of the Maximum Collateral Threshold Amount.  Please refer to Paragraph 10 of the Ameren Confirmation Agreement and Paragraph 10 of the ComEd EEI Master Agreement and Coversheet posted to the Standard Products Section of the IPA procurement website for these methods.

Pursuant to the Final Ameren Confirmation Agreement posted here, the Ameren delivery point is the MISO CP Node AMIL.BGS6, or any successor thereto. Pursuant to the Confirmation Sheet for the Final ComEd Energy Master Agreement posted here, the ComEd delivery point is the ComEd Zone.

For both the ComEd and the Ameren Energy Master Agreements, we have previously posted on March 11, 2014 a redline of the Draft 2014 Energy Master Agreements and the 2012 Energy Master Agreements. We have also posted on March 11, 2014 a redline of the 2012 Rate Stability Master Agreements and the 2012 Energy Master Agreements.

No, there is no mandated number of suppliers for the Commission to accept the results of  a procurement event either on a procurement wide basis or for one or more particular products.

The two registrations are separate.  If you want to obtain an account for purposes of using the online forms to submit your proposal to the RFP, you must click on the “Qualification Form” link on the left-hand side navigation bar and then click on the “Register to use the Qualification Form” to enter your information, even if you are already registered to receive announcements from the Procurement Administrator.

Benchmarks are established by the Procurement Administrator, in consultation with the IPA, the Procurement Monitor, and the ICC Staff.  The benchmarks are confidential and are subject to review and approval by the ICC.

The procurement event is not unit-specific and thus neither precludes nor mandates participation from specific resources or resource types.  Under the terms of the applicable Energy Master Agreements, suppliers deliver a constant quantity of energy to the appropriate delivery point for a Company in either the on-peak Segment or the off-peak Segment of a specific month.  Please review the RFP Rules and the applicable Energy Master Agreements so that you understand the conditions under which the Standard Products RFP is conducted.

The pre-bid letter of credit and post-bid letter of credit each serve a different purpose and have different terms and conditions for drawing.

The post-bid letter of credit is appended to the applicable Energy Master Agreement and may be used to fulfill the creditworthiness requirements under the Energy Master Agreement.  The pre-bid letters of credit, which are appended to the RFP Rules as Appendix 7 and Appendix 8 for Ameren Illinois Company and the Commonwealth Edison Company respectively, serve as bid assurance collateral.  A pre-bid letter of credit must be in an amount sufficient to support the bids and if it is not, the bidder will have to agree that the Procurement Administrator may amend the bid form so that the pre-bid letter of credit is sufficient.

The supplier fee is due seven business days after the ICC decision, and is paid to the IPA by winning bidders only. The Bid Participation Fee is paid by all bidders; it is paid only once for both procurement events.  Please email Illinois-RFP@nera.com for instructions regarding payment.

The Supplements to the Part 1 Form can be found on www.IPA-energyrfp.com by clicking on the “Standard Products Section” on the left navigation bar. The applicable Supplements are provided as Annexes under the Part 1 Form link.  The Part 1 Form is provided as Appendix 3 to the RFP Rules.  These documents are dated March 31, 2014.

Bidders use the application website to submit the online Part 1 Form and to upload required documents. To obtain login credentials, please register for an application account by clicking here.

This information can be found in Table I-1 on page 4 and Table I-2 on page 5 of the RFP Rules for Ameren and ComEd, respectively. The final RFP Rules are dated March 31, 2014 and are posted on the Standard Products section of the procurement website: click here.

Part 1 Proposals are due at 12PM CPT (noon) on April 8, 2014.  Part 1 proposals require information on the Bidder’s (or the entity on whose financial standing the Bidder is relying) credit ratings and financial information. In its Part 1 Proposal, a Bidder may, by completing the Comment Upload, provide comments on or propose modifications to the changes that have been made to the Pre-Bid Letter of Credit for a Company relative to the previously used Pre-Bid Letter of Credit for that Company.

The executed Pre-Bid Letter of Credit is to be sent to the applicable Company by 12 PM CPT (noon) on the Part 2 date, which is April 22, 2014.

Assuming that you are relying on the financial standing of a guarantor, the maximum unsecured credit that could be granted to you would be based on the credit rating and tangible net worth (“TNW”) of your guarantor.  If the guarantor’s relevant credit rating is BBB- from S&P, then the maximum unsecured credit that could be granted would be up to the lesser of $20,000,000 or 6% of the guarantor’s TNW.  The amount of unsecured credit granted is tied to the guaranty amount indicated by the guarantor in paragraph 1 of the applicable guaranty, which may be an amount equal to or less than the maximum unsecured credit that can be granted as described above.

The applicable supplier contracts as posted to the procurement website (ipa-energyrfp.com) cannot be modified at this time.  There is nothing in the applicable supplier contracts that prohibits suppliers from phone recordings if such recordings are required by law. However, it is the intent of Ameren and ComEd for the Confirmation to control in the event of any conflicts given the steps leading up to the execution of the Confirmation as described in FAQ-5. As stated in FAQ-5, given the steps leading up to the execution of the Transaction Confirmation, there is little scope for phone recordings to be used to establish a Confirmation under the applicable Energy Master Agreements.

Under the terms of the ComEd Energy Master Agreements, suppliers will deliver a constant quantity of energy to the appropriate delivery point in either the on-peak Segment or the off-peak Segment of a specific month.  Please review the ComEd Energy Master Agreements so that you understand the seller’s obligations.

As stated in Section 3.2 of the applicable Energy Master Agreement, Seller shall arrange and be responsible for transmission service to the Delivery Point and the applicable Company shall arrange and be responsible for transmission service at and from the Delivery Point.

The obligations of the Seller are provided in the ComEd Energy Master Agreement, including the Confirmation. With respect to PJM’s InSchedule application, upon being notified as a winning bidder, ComEd will contact the individual listed on the Cover Sheet of the ComEd Energy Master Agreement (under Scheduling) to advise of the steps needed to establish a Contract Short Name within PJM and of the steps needed to schedule their obligation properly.

ComEd is not a “seller” (it owns no generating assets) and as such is not in a position to discuss all the potential line items that may appear on a Seller’s invoices from PJM. Each bidder should contact PJM directly for more information on this. Please also note that PJM posts various guides on their website that describe the charges and credits and how they are applied.

The reference is from the standard EEI Master Power Purchase & Sale Agreement, and is further qualified by the instructions provided in the Confirmation that states: “Seller must schedule and deliver in the PJM Day-Ahead Market” to the Delivery Point (ComEd Zone). This means that Seller is responsible for arranging with PJM the required quantity to be made available at the ComEd zone for the hours that are scheduled. PJM allows market participants a variety of methods to make such arrangements. For example, injections of energy may occur at different points in the grid and PJM will settle the difference with the Seller. In other cases, the Seller may not have any energy injections for a given set of hours, PJM will commit or dispatch other units to cover the obligation on the Seller’s behalf and then charge the Seller for all such commitment/dispatch costs. Nonetheless, in all cases, the responsibility for settling all such arrangements with PJM will fall to the Seller.

For the Spring 2014 procurement events, the transactions will be under the applicable Energy Master Agreements posted on the procurement website and suppliers may not rely on any existing Master Agreements previously executed with the Companies.

For the Part 1 Proposal, a Bidder will be asked to provide all information necessary for the preparation of the applicable supplier contract documents by completing the applicable Supplement to the Part 1 Form.  If a Bidder fails to submit the Supplements, the Officer of the Bidder must acknowledge that, if the Procurement Administrator notifies the Bidder that the Bidder has Bids on the Company’s Products and/or Combinations that are identified as winning Bids to the ICC, the Bidder will be required to provide all necessary information by 12 PM (noon) CPT on the day after such notification is received. The Officer of the Bidder makes such acknowledgment by completing the applicable Contract Delay Upload prepared for this purpose. The applicable Contract Delay Upload is submitted by email or by upload to the application website with the Part 1 Proposal.

The applicable supplier contract documents are prepared by the Company after the Procurement Administrator notifies the Bidder that the Bidder has Bids on the Company’s Products and/or Combinations that are identified as winning Bids to the ICC. If such Bidder relies on the financial standing of an RFP Guarantor, ComEd will prepare the guaranty for the execution of the Bidder as well.  For Ameren, such Bidder will be responsible for preparation and delivery of its own Guaranty.

Your question relates to Section VI, Subsection B of Paragraph 10 to the Collateral Annex as amended in the Coversheet of the ComEd Energy Master Agreement. Under the referenced section, the bidder may elect to either: (1) not allow ComEd to hold Performance Assurance in the form of cash, in which case ComEd will pay to the Seller the amount of interest, net of all fees, it receives from the Qualified Institution (and Seller will be responsible for payment of all fees assessed by the Qualified Institution), or (2) allow ComEd to hold cash, in which case the interest rate will be zero (0) percent.

All materials for the Part 1 Proposals, including the Bid Participation Fee, must be received by 12 PM (noon) on the Part 1 Date which is April 8, 2014.

A Bidder must pay the Bid Participation Fee to the IPA as a condition of completing the Part 1 Proposal. A Bidder can pay: (i) by e-check through https://www.illinoisepay.com; or (ii) by check payable to “Illinois Power Agency”. Unfortunately, the IPA does not accept alternative methods of payment at this time.

The Bid Participation Fee is due on the Part 1 Date and the Bidder must provide evidence of compliance with this requirement with its Part 1 Proposal. Such evidence includes a photocopy of the check, a confirmation page from the e-check website, or a receipt from the IPA. The Bidder provides such evidence by email or by upload to the application website.

On the Part 1 Date, if the Part 1 Proposal is incomplete or requires clarification, the Procurement Administrator sends a deficiency notice to the Bidder. If a Bidder receives a first deficiency notice from the Procurement Administrator regarding any item of the Part 1 Proposal, the Bidder has until 6 PM on the business day following the business day during which a first deficiency notice is sent to the Bidder to respond. If the Procurement Administrator is unable to confirm receipt of your Bid Participation Fee with the IPA, the bidder may not be able to proceed further in the process.

Once a Bidder’s Part 1 Proposal is complete, including information required by the Part 1 Form and all supporting documents, the Procurement Administrator will send a complete notice via email only.   The reference to a copy of the first page of the Part 1 Form no longer applies since the Part 1 Proposal is submitted online.

If a Bidder fails to satisfy all the requirements of the Part 2 Proposal, the Procurement Administrator will send a notice to that effect via email only. The notice will list the information that was not received from the Bidder.  The references to originals of the Part 2 Form and supporting documents no longer apply since the Part 2 Proposal is submitted online.

The Federal Funds Effective Rate is not applicable under the ComEd Energy Master Agreement.  This is indicated by the checkbox pre-populated with an interest rate of zero (0) percent if a bidder elects for ComEd to hold cash. The only election that a bidder can make is either to allow ComEd to hold cash or not to allow ComEd to hold cash.  As described in FAQ-32, the bidder cannot elect for the Federal Funds Rate to apply.

For the Ameren Energy Master Agreement documents, the only document with changes between the draft 2014 and final 2014 versions is the Confirmation Agreement.  The change is limited to Section 10.2 where the Company corrected for references to the Commodity Exchange Act. A redline document showing this change has been posted to the procurement website on March 27, 2014. There are no other changes between the draft 2014 and final 2014 versions of the Ameren Energy Master Agreement documents.

For the ComEd Energy Master Agreement, there are no changes between the draft 2014 and final 2014 versions.

For the purposes of the Ameren Energy Master Agreement, On-Peak hours include Hour Ending (“HE”) 0700 through HE 2200 Eastern Standard Time (“EST”) Monday through Friday, excluding North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”) holidays.  Off-Peak hours are all hours of all calendar days in EST that are not On-Peak hours. Ameren does not make any adjustments for Daylight Saving Time.

For the purposes of the ComEd Energy Master Agreement, On-Peak hours include HE 0800 through HE 2300 Eastern Prevailing Time (“EPT”) Monday through Friday, excluding NERC holidays.  Off-Peak hours are HE 0100 through HE 0700 EPT and HE 2400 Monday through Friday, EPT; and HE 0100 through HE 2400 EPT Saturdays, Sundays, and NERC holidays.

For a list of NERC holidays please click here.

Ameren’s “Included Retail Customers” for purposes of the Delivery Periods will be residential and non-residential customers below 150 kW that are currently taking generation service under a fixed-price tariff and are included in the following customer classes: residential (DS-1); non-residential less than 150 kW (DS-2); and lighting service (DS-5).  Ameren used this definition of Included Retail Customers when developing its load forecasts on which the procurement targets are based.

The RFP Rules dated March 31, 2014 state that non-residential customers from 150 kW to 400 kW (DS-3A) were also part of Ameren’s Included Retail Customers.  While this statement was correct as of the date written, the class consisting of non-residential customers from 150 kW to 400 kW (DS-3A) has been declared competitive and will no longer be part of Ameren’s Included Retail Customers as of May 1, 2014.

The online Part 2 Form will not open until the Part 2 Window opens on Tuesday, April 15, 2014. Please note, if you would like to begin the Part 2 Proposal process, you can access the Part 2 Form Uploads posted to the Standard Products Section of the procurement website.

The process for providing comments on or proposing modifications to the changes that have been made to the Pre-Bid Letter of Credit for a Company relative to the previously used Pre-Bid Letter of Credit for that Company is complete.  Any one of a Bidder’s comments or proposed modifications may result in an addition to the list of modifications to the Pre-Bid Letter of Credit approved by the Company for use by all Bidders on an optional basis.   The final list of acceptable modifications has been posted to the procurement website for the use of all Bidders on an optional basis.  At this stage, Bidders are preparing their pre-bid letters of credit using this document.  Thus it is not possible to consider any additional modifications to the Pre-Bid Letter of Credit while at the same time providing for all Bidders to be treated on an equal and fair basis.

The beneficiary information as well as other instructions needed to submit the Pre-Bid Letters of Credit will be provided to the Bidder’s Representative and Nominees via email on April 14, 2014.

The agent for acceptance of service of process for a Foreign Entity as RFP Guarantor must permanently reside in the United States and must accept to receive service of process on the RFP Guarantor’s behalf.  The individual for whom you provide contact information for purposes of the Part 2 Proposal must satisfy both requirements.  These requirements apply only to Bidders relying on a Foreign Entity as RFP Guarantor and intending to bid on ComEd’s Products and/or Combinations.

The account information needed to complete both the ComEd and the Ameren Pre-Bid Letters of Credit will be provided to the Bidder’s Representative (and Nominees) named in the Part 1 Proposal via email on April 14, 2014.

If a supplier bids on all Products and all Combinations for a Company, the maximum number of blocks (with each block representing a given Segment and month) that a supplier could win is 179 blocks for Ameren (the sum of the Targets from Table I-1 in the RFP Rules) and 795 blocks for ComEd (the sum of the Targets from Table I-2 in the RFP Rules).   These are maximums on the number of blocks that a supplier may win, whether the supplier wins these months/segments as a result of submitting Bids on individual Products or as a result of submitting Bids on Combinations.  Thus, the maximum amount for the Pre-Bid Letter of Credit for Ameren is $895,000 ($5,000 x 179) and the maximum amount for the Pre-Bid Letter of Credit for ComEd is $3,975,000 ($5,000 x 795).

Bidders submitting bids for ComEd Products and/or Combinations much check “Yes” in response to the question “Do you intend to bid on ComEd Products and/or Combinations?” in Section 3 of the Part 2 Form. Once “Yes” is checked, the Part 2 Form will expand to allow Bidders to enter the information required in Section 3 of the Part 2 Form, including Special Instructions for the return of the Pre-Bid Letter of Credit for ComEd.

Bidders relying on the financial standing of a foreign guarantor and that are submitting bids for ComEd Products and/or Combinations must provide the Foreign Guarantor Upload via the online Part 2 Form. In addition to providing the Foreign Guarantor Upload, the Bidder must also submit scanned originals of the following documents by email to Illinois-RFP@nera.com:

• One (1) scanned original executed opinion of independent counsel qualified to practice law and render legal opinions in the foreign jurisdiction in which the Foreign Entity is formed or organized that: (a) under the law of the jurisdiction where the Foreign Entity is organized, the necessary steps have been taken to cause the Guaranty, when executed and delivered on behalf of the Foreign Entity, to become a valid and enforceable obligation of the Foreign Entity; (b) the Guaranty, when executed and delivered on behalf of the Foreign Entity, will be, to the extent that the law of the Foreign Entity’s jurisdiction of organization is applicable to the enforcement of the Foreign Entity’s obligations thereunder, a valid and enforceable obligation of that Foreign Entity, enforceable against it in accordance with its terms, subject to any enumerated customary exceptions under the law of such jurisdiction; and (c) under law of the jurisdiction where the Foreign Entity is organized, the choice of Illinois or New York law to govern the Guaranty is valid and enforceable against such Foreign Entity
• One scanned (1) original sworn certificate of the corporate secretary (or similar officer) of the Foreign Entity that the person executing the Guaranty on behalf of the Foreign Entity has the authority to execute the Guaranty and that the governing board of such Foreign Entity has approved the execution of the Guaranty.
• One scanned (1) original sworn certificate of the corporate secretary (or similar officer) of the Foreign Entity that the Foreign Entity has been authorized by its governing board to enter into agreements of the same type as the Guaranty.

Please refer to the Acceptable Modifications to the Standard Pre-Bid Letter of Credit for each Company for the final list of acceptable modifications. These documents are currently posted on the Standard Products Section of the IPA procurement website (www.IPA-energyrfp.com). Generally, modifications to the Pre-Bid Letter of Credit for a Company that were deemed acceptable to the previously used Pre-Bid Letter of Credit in 2012 are also acceptable for the 2014 Standard Products RFP.

The Pre-Bid Letter of Credit must be sufficient to support the total number of blocks that the Bidder intends to bid across all Segments and months available for a Company (which is the Indicative Quantity submitted in the Part 2 Proposal).  To determine the Indicative Quantity a supplier would:

1. Calculate the maximum number of blocks that the supplier can win for each month and Segment, which is the lesser of (i) the number of blocks that the supplier intends to bid across the Product and all Combinations that include that month and Segment; and (ii) the Target for that month and segment; and
2. Sum the quantities calculated in 1) above across all months and Segments.

This is an example for illustrative purposes.   Suppose that a supplier intends to bid for ComEd on:

• 2 blocks of the October 2014 on-peak Product
• 20 blocks of the November 2014 on-peak Product
• 18 blocks of the Oct-Nov-Dec 14 on-peak Combination
• 15 blocks of the Jun14-May15 on-peak Combination

The supplier does not intend to bid on any blocks in the June 2015 to May 2017 period (or on any other Products or Combinations in the June 2014 to May 2015 period except those given above).

In that case, the calculation of the Indicative Quantity would be as follows:

To be sufficient to support the Indicative Quantity, the Pre-Bid Letter of Credit for a Company must be in an amount of $5,000 per block of the Indicative Quantity for that Company or $250,000, whichever is greater.  In the example above, the required amount for the Pre-Bid letter of Credit for ComEd would be 214 *$5,000 or $1,070,000.

The Procurement Administrator expects to notify a Bidder that had Bids that were evaluated whether any of the Bidder’s Bids are identified by the Procurement Administrator as winning Bids to the ICC by 6 PM on the Bid Date. Such notification is made earlier to the extent practicable or may be made on the next business day as circumstances warrant.

Within two (2) business days of the Bid Date, the Procurement Administrator will submit to the ICC a confidential report that will provide the results of the bidding related to each procurement event, as well as a recommendation on whether these results should be accepted or rejected.  The ICC will decide whether to accept or reject the results of each procurement event within two (2) business days of receiving the confidential reports from the Procurement Administrator and the Procurement Monitor.

Instructions for payment of the Supplier Fee are expected to become available early in the week of April 21.

Thank you for bringing this to our attention.  A corrected version of the Bid Form will be distributed after Bidder Training.

Please see the information included in the Cover Sheet of the ComEd Energy Master Agreement and the information included in Section 3, “Notice”, of the Ameren Confirmation Agreement.  Both are posted to the Standard Products page of the procurement website and both are dated March 27, 2014.

Any information that is not included in those documents will be provided in due course by a Company to a supplier after the Procurement Administrator notifies that supplier that it has Bids on that Company’s Products and/or Combinations that are identified as winning Bids to the ICC.

The process for providing comments on or proposing modifications to the changes that have been made to the Pre-Bid Letter of Credit for a Company relative to the previously used Pre-Bid Letter of Credit for that Company is complete.  Any one of a Bidder’s comments or proposed modifications may result in an addition to the list of modifications to the Pre-Bid Letter of Credit approved by the Company for use by all Bidders on an optional basis.   The final list of acceptable modifications has been posted to the procurement website for the use of all Bidders on an optional basis.  At this stage, Bidders are preparing their pre-bid letters of credit using this document.  Thus it is not possible to consider any additional modifications to the Pre-Bid Letter of Credit while at the same time providing for all Bidders to be treated on an equal and fair basis.

Yes, your understanding is correct.

The schedule for Bidder Training was provided in Attachment 4 to your Notification of Qualification and is as follows:

Training Session
Thursday, April 24, 2014
11:00 AM to 11:30 AM

• Procurement Administrator is available to answer questions on the completion and encryption of the Bid Form.

 11:30 AM to 12:00 PM (noon)

• Window for trial bid submission through the online method of secure electronic transfer

 12:00 PM (noon) to 1:00 PM

• Procurement Administrator confirms receipt and of Bid Form answers remaining questions
• Window for optional fax or email bid submission

All times are Central Prevailing Times.

The electronic bid form was provided to each Bidder with the Notification of Qualification.  Each Bidder is asked either to confirm receipt of this and other documents included with the Notification of Qualification or to request that such documents be re-issued.  All  requests for the documents of the Notification of Qualification to be re-issued have been processed.  If you do not have these documents, please contact us.

The Procurement Administrator announced the Supplier Fees on April 22, the Part 2 Date.  The Supplier Fees are:  $245 per off-peak block and $358 per on-peak block.

The fee is per month for a combination of a given year and segment.  For example, an on-peak Q4 combination would carry a Supplier Fee of three times the on-peak per block Supplier Fee, namely 3 x $358 = $1,074.

A Bidder must respond to a deficiency notice from the Procurement Administrator requiring a clarification or additional information within the timeframe specified in the deficiency notice.  Failure to respond within the specified timeframe may result in the rejection of the Bidder’s Part 2 Proposal.  As stated in Paragraph VI.1.21, in no event will such deadline for a response to a deficiency notice by a Bidder be placed after 12 PM (noon) on the Bid Date.  The Procurement Administrator will evaluate any such response by 1 PM on the Bid Date, at which point the Procurement Administrator will notify the Bidder whether its Bids will be evaluated.  Thus, the 12 PM deadline is the time after which a Bidder will no longer be allowed to respond to a deficiency in the Part 2 Proposal while the 1 PM time is the deadline for the Procurement Administrator to evaluate responses to deficiencies in the Part 2 Proposal.

Once a Bidder’s Part 2 Proposal (excluding Bids) is complete, including information required by the Part 2 Form and all supporting documents, the Procurement Administrator will send a complete notice via email only.   The reference to a copy of the first page of the Part 2 Form no longer applies since the Part 2 Proposal is submitted online.

In the Part 2 Proposal the Bidder must certify that its Part 2 Proposal, including its Bids, will remain in full force and effect until nine (9) business days after the Bid Date.

The account information needed to complete each of the ComEd and the Ameren Pre-Bid Letters of Credit is scheduled to be provided to Bidders with their Part 1 Notification on September 9, 2014. However, we will request this information from the utilities and update this response as soon as the information is available.

The Part 2 Inserts were posted to the Standard Products Section of the IPA procurement website on August 25, 2014. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

The Bidder Information webcast presentation and recording were posted to the Standard Products Section of the procurement website on August 25, 2014.

The executed Pre-Bid Letter of Credit must be sent to the applicable Company by 12PM (noon) CPT on September 16, 2014, the Part 2 Date.

A winning Bidder in a September 2014 procurement event will be required to execute a new agreement with the applicable utility (the (AIC) Confirmation Agreement or the (ComEd) Master Agreement). The form of these agreements, except for dates, has not changed since the Spring 2014 procurement events.

The form of credit instruments, as well as the lists of modifications that are acceptable to the utilities on an optional basis, have not changed since the Spring 2014 procurement events. Thus, a Bidder that submitted a pre-bid letter of credit or a post-bid letter of credit that was acceptable to the applicable utility in a Spring 2014 procurement event will be able to use the same form and this form will remain acceptable to that utility.

Generally speaking, previously qualified Bidders may rely on the information submitted in the Spring 2014 procurement events for their Part 1 Proposal, except that they must submit anew for the September 2014 procurement events: (1) financial statements; (2) information regarding their Nominees; and (3) appropriate certifications for each Company. Previously qualified Bidders must update any previously submitted information as necessary or confirm that the previously submitted information remains valid.

If aContract Insert (formerly known as the Supplement) for the Spring 2014 procurement event was uploaded to your online Part 1 Form when your Part 1 Proposal was found to be complete, this insert will have retained in your online Part 1 Form, and no action is required on your part if the information remains valid and no changes are necessary. Otherwise, if a Contract Insert (formerly known as the Supplement) was not retained from the Spring 2014 procurement event, you may nevertheless re-submit this insert for the September procurement event. Please note, however, that by doing so, you are confirming that all previously submitted information remains valid and that no changes are necessary.

The Pre-Bid Letter of Credit will be left to expire on the stated Expiration Date, which is no earlier than seventeen (17) business days after the Bid Date (October 15, 2014 for these September 2014 procurement events). The Bidder may provide specific instructions in its Part 2 Proposal to a Company (AIC and/or ComEd) for the return of the Pre-Bid Letter of Credit. These specific instructions could, for example, request for the Pre-Bid Letter of Credit to be cancelled and returned to the bank or request that the Bidder receive a pdf of the cancelled Pre-Bid Letter of Credit.

If a Bidder has Bids that are approved by the Illinois Commerce Commission, the Bidder will be required to meet the creditworthiness requirements under the applicable supplier contract as part of the contract execution process. Bidders that rely on the creditworthiness of a guarantor will be required to submit an executed guaranty. Bidders that rely on their own financial standing would be required to provide Performance Assurance when the Company can make such a demand under the terms of the applicable supplier contract.

No. The required legal opinion must be from independent counsel qualified to practice law and render legal opinions in the foreign jurisdiction in which the Foreign RFP Guarantor is formed or organized.

In its Order approving September procurement events, the Illinois Commerce Commission specified that the contracts and letter of credit forms would be the same as those used in the Spring 2014 procurement events. Thus, no new or additional modifications may be proposed to the form of the Pre-Bid Letter of Credit.

The Pre-Bid Letter of Credit that you submit with your Part 2 Proposal for a Company either must use the standard form or must only include modifications that are acceptable to that Company and posted to the procurement website. All modifications that are acceptable on an optional basis to each Company (Ameren or ComEd) are posted to the Standard Products page of the procurement website under the heading “September 2014 RFP Rules (final) (August 21, 2014)” under the link for the Pre-Bid Letter of Credit (Appendix 7 for Ameren and Appendix 8 for ComEd).

In its Order approving September procurement events, the Illinois Commerce Commission specified that the contracts and letter of credit forms would be the same as those used in the Spring 2014 procurement events. Thus, no new or additional modifications may be proposed to the form of the Pre-Bid Letter of Credit.

The Pre-Bid Letter of Credit that you submit with your Part 2 Proposal for a Company either must use the standard form or must only include modifications that are acceptable to that Company and posted to the procurement website. All modifications that are acceptable on an optional basis to each Company (Ameren or ComEd) are posted to the Standard Products page of the procurement website under the heading “September 2014 RFP Rules (final) (August 21, 2014)” under the link for the Pre-Bid Letter of Credit (Appendix 7 for Ameren and Appendix 8 for ComEd). Please check this document to determine whether a particular modification requested by your bank is acceptable to the Company.

Yes, they are the same.

Assuming that you are relying on the financial standing of a guarantor, the maximum unsecured credit that could be granted to you would be based on the credit rating and tangible net worth (“TNW”) of your guarantor as provided in your Part 1 Notification. The amount of unsecured credit granted is tied to the guaranty amount indicated by the guarantor in paragraph 1 of the applicable guaranty, which may be an amount equal to or less than the maximum unsecured credit that can be granted as described above.

A legal opinion is required for all Bidders relying on the financial standing of a foreign RFP Guarantor. There are no exceptions to this requirement for Bidders that are previously qualified.

There are two letters of credit, which each serve a different purpose and have different terms and conditions for drawing, the Pre-Bid Letter of Credit and the Post-Bid Letter of Credit.

The Pre-Bid Letters of Credit, which are appended to the RFP Rules as Appendix 7 and Appendix 8 for Ameren Illinois Company and the Commonwealth Edison Company respectively, serve as bid assurance collateral. The Bidder must provide a Pre-Bid Letter of Credit sufficient to support the Bidder’s Indicative Quantity. The Pre-Bid Letter of Credit has an Expiration Date of October 15, 2014, which will not be extended.

A winning Bidder will be required to provide performance assurance to the applicable Company. Performance assurance can be in the form of cash, a (“Post-Bid”) Letter of Credit, or a guaranty if the Bidder is relying on the financial standing of an RFP Guarantor.

No, a Bidder is not required to be rated or to have its own financials to be qualified to bid in the RFP.

All Bidders must complete the Part 1 and Part 2 forms in their entirety. A Bidder that was notified in a Spring 2014 procurement event that it had successfully completed the Part 1 Proposal is said to have “previously qualified”. Such a Bidder is generally eligible to participate in an abbreviated process to submit the Part 1 Proposal.

Generally speaking, previously qualified Bidders may rely on the information submitted in the Spring 2014 procurement events for their Part 1 Proposal, except that they must submit anew for the September 2014 procurement events: (1) financial statements; (2) information regarding their Nominees; and (3) appropriate certifications for each Company. Previously qualified Bidders must update any previously submitted information as necessary or confirm that the previously submitted information remains valid.

All Bidders, whether previously qualified or not, must provide all information required by the Part 2 Proposal.

In the Foreign Guarantor P1 Insert (#P1-9), a Bidder relying on the financial standing of a foreign RFP Guarantor certifies that they will provide a legal opinion with the Part 2 Proposal. A Bidder that will not have these documents may not rely on the financial standing of the foreign entity as RFP Guarantor. However, the Bidder may participate in the RFP by relying on its own financial standing.

Yes, both the (ComEd) Master Agreement and the (AIC) Confirmation Agreement provide the same method for calculation of the Maximum Collateral Threshold amount. Please refer to Paragraph 10 of the Ameren Confirmation Agreement and Paragraph 10 of the ComEd EEI Master Agreement and Coversheet posted to the Standard Products Section of the IPA procurement website for these methods.

A bidder may initially post cash under the ComEd Master Agreement and later change to another type of security to satisfy the performance assurance requirements under the agreement. In the case of a Guaranty, ComEd suggests that you provide draft documents for review to ensure the acceptability of the Guaranty. Once the signed Guaranty in an acceptable form has been received by ComEd, ComEd will initiate the return of the posted cash using the information provided on the coversheet of the ComEd Master Agreement.

A list of ComEd’s Senior Leadership Team members, titles, and biographies can be found in the “About Us” section of the ComEd web site, https://www.comed.com/about-us/Pages/default.aspx, by clicking “Company Information” on the left navigation bar and selecting “Leadership Team”. If this is not sufficient, a request should be made to ComEd for a certificate of incumbency.

Supplier fees are paid by winning bidders either by check payable to the Illinois Power Agency or using e-pay, the electronic e-check payment program administered by the Illinois State Treasurer.  Complete instructions were provided to bidders in the final bidder memorandum.

The ICC is expected to make a decision regarding the results of the procurement by Friday, September 26. If the ICC accepts the results of the procurement, the Procurement Administrator will notify the representatives of each Bidder with Bids accepted by the Commission.  For Bidders relying on the financial standing of a Guarantor, ComEd will prepare the guaranty but AIC expects the Bidder to prepare the guaranty.

Winning Bidders are required to fully execute applicable supplier contracts and related documents by 4 PM CPT (5 PM Eastern Prevailing Time) on the second business day after the ICC decision, tentatively Tuesday, September 30, and send such fully executed signature pages to the Company electronically. The Bidder must meet the creditworthiness requirements under the applicable supplier contract by the close of business on the second business day after the ICC decision.

Please see Section V1.2 of the RFP Rules specifically starting at Paragraph VI.2.15, which can be found in the Standard Products Section of the IPA web site (https://ipa-energyrfp.com/standard-products-section), for more information regarding the Post-Bid Process.

If the ICC approves some or all of the Bidder’s Bids for a Company, by 12 PM CPT
(Noon) on the first business day after the ICC decision, the Company prepares
and sends a partially executed electronic copy of the applicable supplier
contract and related documents to the winning Bidder.  Please note that the Company will populate the information in the contract on the basis of the information provided by the
Bidder in the Contract Insert. For Bidders relying on the financial standing of
a Guarantor, ComEd will prepare the guaranty but AIC expects the Bidder to
prepare the guaranty.

The ICC is expected to make a decision regarding the results of the procurement
events by Friday, September 26.  If you
have winning Bids for a Company, the representatives of that Company will
contact you shortly after the decision has been rendered.

If you have not heard from the Company by the end of the first business day after the Commission decision, please let us know and we will contact the Company on your behalf to find the right representative.