In the Part 2 Proposal, a Bidder was able to provide special instructions for the return of the Pre-Bid Letter of Credit for a Company. If a Bidder chose not to provide special return instructions then the Pre-Bid Letter of Credit will expire on the date stated as a part of its terms (which was required to be no earlier than fourteen (14) business days after the expected Commission decision).

There is no webinar or online tutorial for purposes of training on the Bid Form. Rather, there is a dedicated period of time when you can practice the submission of bids and during which members of the Procurement Administrator are available to answer your questions regarding the Bid Form or bid submission procedure.

All Bidders that have a successful Part 1 Proposal received an invitation with their Part 1 Notification and received announcements regarding this training session.

It is the responsibility of each bidder to review the terms of the applicable supplier contracts (for each of AIC, ComEd and MidAmerican) posted to the Renewable Energy Resources Section of the procurement website.  Each bidder accepts these terms as a condition of its participation in the REC RFP.  In particular, please review Exhibit C of Final (AIC) Renewable Energy Credit Agreement and the corresponding provisions in the Final ComEd Master Renewable Energy Certificate Purchase and Sale Agreement and (MidAmerican) Renewable Energy Credit Agreement for the Minimum Delivery Schedule Requirements. In general, a bidder that fails to deliver a quantity of RECs in excess of the Minimum Delivery Requirement for which the bidder gas signed a contract may forfeit the performance assurance provided to support those RECs.

While the Targets in the RFP Rules were provisional and were subject to change, the final REC targets for the Spring 2016 Procurement Events have not changed and are identical to those included in the RFP Rules. The final REC Targets are:

• Ameren Illinois Company – 33,271 (Photovoltaics resources)
• Commonwealth Edison Company- 67,952 (Photovoltaics resources)
• MidAmerican Energy Company – 65,104 (All eligible renewable energy resources excluding distributed generation devices)

The Procurement Administrator issued an announcement regarding the Final Targets on April 2, 2016. The announcement is posted here:

https://www.ipa-energyrfp.com/2016/04/20/rec-rfp-announcement-final-rec-targets/

The Procurement Administrator issued an announcement regarding the Final Budgets on April 21, 2016. The announcement is posted here:

https://www.ipa-energyrfp.com/2016/04/21/rec-rfp-announcement-final-rec-budgets-2/

Thank you for your suggestion of a document providing the Targets and Budgets for posting to the procurement website. We will post a document as soon as practicable.

No.  All Inserts should be provided either by email to the Procurement Administrator at Illinois-RFP@nera.com or by upload to the Part 1 Form or Part 2 Form (as appropriate).

All of the Part 1 Inserts for the Standard Products RFP (“STP RFP”) were posted on March 28, 2016 to the Standard Products Section of the procurement website under the heading “Spring 2016 Standard Products RFP Documents (FINAL)” below the link for Appendix 4 (Part 1 Form Illustrative).

Proposals must be submitted on separate timelines. While the Part 1 Windows for both the Standard Products RFP (“STP RFP”) and the Renewable Energy Resources RFP (“REC RFP”) opened on March 28, 2016, Part 1 Proposals for the STP RFP are due 12 PM (noon) CPT on April 7, 2016, which is earlier than the date at which Part 1 Proposals for the REC RFP are due, which is by 12 PM (noon) CPT on April 13, 2016.

Please see the Calendar page of the procurement website for the important dates and deadlines for both the STP RFP and the REC RFP separately.

Such instructions are available from the Procurement Administrator upon request along with the IPA’s W-9. Please note that E-Pay is only available during the Part 1 Window for a given procurement event.

As stated in Section 2.2, you may only submit one invoice for each Delivery Period.  You will be required to invoice on or before the 10th day of the month of September, December and March and on or before the 20th day of July. All invoices are payable not later than the last Business Day of the month that follows the end of the prior Delivery Season.

If you deliver RECs in the period June 1, 2016 through August 31, 2016, then you are expected to submit your invoice no later than September 10, 2016, and the invoice becomes payable on September 30, 2016.  In your first example, if you deliver all your RECs for the first Delivery Season on June 15, 2016 and submit a corresponding invoice on the same date, then Buyer is expected to pay you by September 30, 2016.  In your second example, if you deliver all your RECs on November 15, 2016 for that Delivery Season and submit a corresponding invoice on the same date, then Buyer is expected to pay you by December 31, 2016.

There are various procurement events as approved in the IPA’s procurement plans through which Solar Renewable Energy Credits (“SRECs”) are sold and purchased.  These include Supplemental Photovoltaic RFP (“SPV RFP”), the Utility Distributed Generation RFP (“DG RFP”) and the Renewable Energy Resources RFP (“REC RFP”).

To be eligible to be presented as part of the Proposal in the Supplemental Photovoltaic RFP (“SPV RFP”), a system must be “new”, which means that it must have been energized (turned on for a period of 24 consecutive hours) on or after January 21, 2015. If the systems that you are considering presenting as part of your Proposal were energized prior to this date, then this Proposal cannot be presented under the SPV RFP.

Systems energized prior to January 21, 2015 may be presented in a Proposal presented under the DG RFP. However, we note that under the DG RFP a bidder must present systems that together are at least 1 MW and the bidder (an aggregator) must be the signatory of the contract with the utility for any winning systems.

There are various criteria for participation in the Renewable Energy Resources RFP (“REC RFP”).  You may see these criteria from last year’s RFP here: https://www.ipa-energyrfp.com/2015-renewable-energy-resources-section/. These include agreeing to the terms of the applicable supplier contracts with the utilities and the submission of a letter of credit to support the bids. The REC RFP is strictly for the sale and purchase of RECs and does not involve presenting particular systems as part of the Proposal. The bidder is the single signatory of the contract with the utility.

There are various procurement events where Solar Renewable Energy Credits (“SRECs”) could be purchased.  Only systems located in Illinois are eligible to be presented in a Proposal in the Supplemental Photovoltaic RFP (“SPV RFP”) or in the Utility Distributed Generation RFP (“DG RFP”).  The Renewable Energy Resources RFP (“REC RFP”) includes the possibility of purchase of SRECs from outside of Illinois.  Please see the schedule for this procurement event on the Calendar page: https://www.ipa-energyrfp.com/calendar/.

We cannot respond to this question generally and we can only address whether self-installation or the size of a residential system could preclude you from selling SRECs in the procurement events under the procurement plans of the Illinois Power Agency (“IPA”).

There are various procurement events as approved in the IPA’s procurement plans through which Solar Renewable Energy Credits (“SRECs”) are sold and purchased.  To be eligible to be presented as part of the Proposal in the Supplemental Photovoltaic RFP (“SPV RFP”), a system must be “installed” by a “qualified person” as described in and required by Section 1-56(i) of the Illinois Power Agency Act (20 ILCS 3855/1-56(i)).  The Act defines a “qualified person” as a person who performs installations of photovoltaics, including, but not limited to, distributed photovoltaic generation, and who:

(A) has completed an apprenticeship as a journeyman electrician from a United States Department of Labor registered electrical apprenticeship and training program and received a certification of satisfactory completion; or

(B) does not currently meet the criteria under clause (A) of this paragraph (1), but is enrolled in a United States Department of Labor registered electrical apprenticeship program, provided that the person is directly supervised by a person who meets the criteria of (A) above; or

(C) has obtained one of the following credentials in addition to attesting to satisfactory completion of at least 5 years or 8,000 hours of documented hands-on electrical experience: (i) a North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP) Installer Certificate for Solar PV; (ii) an Underwriters Laboratories (UL) PV Systems Installer Certificate; (iii) an Electronics Technicians Association, International (ETAI) Level 3 PV Installer Certificate; or (iv) an Associate in Applied Science degree from an Illinois Community College Board approved community college program in renewable energy or a distributed generation technology.

In addition, there is a minimum bid of 500 RECs (or approximately 79.39 kW) for the SPV RFP.

While installation by a qualified person is not a requirement under the Utility Distributed Generation RFP (“DG RFP”), a bidder must present systems that together are at least 1 MW.

There are various criteria for participation in the Renewable Energy Resources RFP (“REC RFP”).  You may see these criteria from last year’s RFP here: https://www.ipa-energyrfp.com/2015-renewable-energy-resources-section/. These include agreeing to the terms of the applicable supplier contracts with the utilities and the submission of a letter of credit to support the bids.

Bidders must provide all materials for the Part 2 Proposal by noon on the Part 2 Date and if the Part 2 Proposal is incomplete, the Procurement Administrator will issue a deficiency notice to the Bidder.  A Bidder must respond to a deficiency notice issued by the Procurement Administrator by the deadline provided in the notice.  The RFP Rules set out the timeframes for Bidders to provide additional information and complete the Part 2 Proposal.

A first deficiency notice from the Procurement Administrator regarding any item of the Part 2 Proposal (excluding Bids and excluding the IPA Letter of Credit) will have a deadline of 12 PM (noon) on the Part 2 Date or 6 PM on the business day following the business day during which a first deficiency notice is sent to the Bidder, whichever comes later.  A first deficiency notice that includes deficiencies regarding the IPA Letter of Credit will have a deadline of 12 PM (noon) on the Part 2 Date, or of 6 PM on the second business day following the business day during which a first deficiency notice is sent to the Bidder, whichever comes later.  Should there be further deficiencies regarding the information or documentation for the systems presented in the Proposal, in no event will the Bidder be allowed to submit additional information after 12 PM (noon) on the third business day prior to the Bid Date.  A Bidder’s Bids can only be evaluated if the Part 2 Proposal (excluding Bids) is complete and fully complies with the requirements of Article V of the RFP Rules, including any requests for additional information from the Procurement Administrator,  by 12 PM (noon) on the Bid Date.

No. Cash is not an acceptable method to post bid assurance collateral for the Utility Distributed Generation Request for Proposals (“DG RFP”). You must provide a letter of credit in the form of the Standard IPA Letter of Credit or incorporating only modifications approved by the IPA as posted to the procurement website and in an amount sufficient to support your bids.

If you wish, you may provide the details on the Guarantor that you propose to the Procurement Administrator, and we can strive to confirm the guarantor’s eligibility with the utilities in advance of the Bid Date.

Note, however, that if at any point during the contract, the Collateral Threshold falls below 10% of the Remaining Contract Value, then the Company may require assurance of the supplier’s ability to perform any obligation under the Contract.  Such assurance may include (i) posting of a Letter of Credit or (ii) posting of cash collateral. The amount would be equal to the positive difference between 10% of the Remaining Contract Value and the Guarantor’s Collateral Threshold, rounded up to the nearest $10,000.

If you have a supplier contract with a Company (AIC, ComEd, and/or MidAmerican), and you wish to name a Guarantor, the Guarantor’s Collateral Threshold will be determined by the Company on the basis of the credit ratings for the proposed Guarantor’s as follows:

If the Guarantor is rated by all three rating agencies, then the lower of the two highest ratings will be used; (b) if the two highest ratings are common, such common rating will be used; and (c) if the Guarantor is rated by only two rating agencies, then the lower of the two ratings will be used.  Please see each applicable supplier contract for further detail.

The Annual Volume of RECs for a system can be found in the Trial Bid Form provided with the Part 1 Notification on June 3, 2016. Please go to Section 3 of the First Block tab in the Trial Bid Form to find the Annual Volume of each system that the Procurement Administrator has assigned based on the capacity factor for the particular technology and size of the system.

The IPA Letter of Credit must be in an amount of $8 times the number of RECs that the Bidder can win across all systems for the five (5) Delivery Years under the applicable supplier contracts.

For existing systems, you multiply:

• the annual volume of RECs for that system (which can be found in the Bid Form provided with the Part 1 Notification);
• by $8/REC;
• by 5 years (for years 1 through 5 of the delivery term).

For new systems, you:

• multiply the annual volume of RECs for that system (which can be found in the Bid Form provided with the Part 1 Notification) by $8/REC and by 4 years (for years 2 through 5 of the delivery term);
• to this total, you add the sum of the first year volumes times $8/REC.

For example, if you plan to bid on two 500 kW systems as follows:

¹     Please note that the first year volume of RECs for new systems cannot exceed the annual volume of RECs for that system.

Please consult your tax advisor regarding any taxes that may apply to payments for RECs sold as well as any tax credits or allowable expenses that may be available. As a general matter, each Bidder should ascertain that revenue from selling RECs must be reported to taxing authorities.

Bidders are entirely responsible for the development of their bids. You may consult the results of prior procurement events, including the results of procurement events under the SPV RFP and under the DG RFP.

See the items under “Supplemental Photovoltaic RFP Results” here:

https://www.ipa-energyrfp.com/supplemental-pv-procurement-section/

and items under “Renewable Energy Resources RFP Results” here:

https://www.ipa-energyrfp.com/renewable-energy-resources-section/

Bids that fail to meet or beat the benchmarks are eliminated from further consideration. Benchmarks used by the Procurement Administrator to evaluate bids may depend on system size and/or technology.  The methodology for the setting of benchmarks is confidential. The benchmarks are approved by the Commission.

No. Purchases under the DG RFP use the already collected funds from Alternative Compliance Payments for AIC and ComEd and using the renewable resources budget for MidAmerican.

You cannot add a system to your Proposal after 12PM on the Part 1 Notification Date.

The DG RFP requires the submission of the IPA Letter of Credit with the Part 2 Proposal.  Prior cash submitted under the terms of the SPV RFP cannot be used for purposes of fulfilling the Part 2 Proposal requirements under the DG RFP.

With its Part 1 Proposal for the DG RFP, a Bidder is required to certify that the system is located, or will be located when installed, on the customer side of a Customer’s electric meter and the system is, or will be primarily used to offset that customer’s electricity load.  This requirement implies that the Customer and the system must be located on the same site (and thus the requirements of the DG RFP are not met by “virtual net metering” or by the resale of electricity from the system to a Customer in a location other than the location of the system).

With its Part 1 Proposal for the Utility Distributed Generation RFP (“DG RFP”), a Bidder is required to certify that a revenue quality meter has been or will be installed to measure the output of the system, compliant with the determination made by the Illinois Power Agency in its document “Revenue-Quality Metering Accuracy Standard and Acceptable Technologies”.

Under the Utility Distributed Generation (“DG”) RFP, systems must be interconnected to AIC, ComEd, MidAmerican, Mount Carmel, a municipal utility in Illinois, or a rural electric cooperative in Illinois.  A system interconnected to City Water, Light and Power utility located in Springfield would be eligible for the DG RFP.

You are correct that there is no requirement that the RECs produced by a system in a given utility’s territory be sold to that particular utility.  The Procurement Administrator will assign the winning Bids to each utility/Company using as a guide each Company’s Target and Budget.  Such allocation aims to minimize the number of winning Bidders that have contracts with more than one Company.

Under the applicable supplier contracts, the Seller must provide at least 80% of the RECs contracted for a Size Class for a given Delivery Year (or, if there are less than 10% of the RECs under contract from a given Size Class or if the Delivery Year Quantity for both Size Classes for a Delivery Year is less than 100 RECs, at least 80% of the aggregate quantity across both Products must be delivered). Failure to meet this requirement is considered a default under the terms of the applicable supplier contracts.

Importantly, the 80% requirement is not imposed on each system separately.  Rather, the requirement is imposed on all the systems of a certain Size Class under the applicable supplier contract.  The number of RECs to be delivered cannot be modified once the applicable supplier contract is signed.  That quantity  is calculated using the capacity factors specified in the RFP, namely:  14.38% for solar thermal energy, photovoltaic cells and panels; 11% for Small Size Class wind; 16% for Large Size Class wind; 31.06% for hydropower that does not involve new constructions or significant expansion of hydropower dams; and 47.74% for biodiesel, crops and untreated and unadulterated organic waste biomass, and tree waste. The quantity to be delivered in the first Delivery Year for a new system may be specified by the Bidder to be less than the quantity calculated using these capacity factors.

The Bidder-Owner Agreements are due by the Part 1 Date. If the document is not available at that time for a system, the Bidder must justify this omission in the Part 1 Proposal. The Bidder will then be given more time to provide the document within the Part 2 Window. However, in no event will a Bidder be allowed to submit the Bidder-Owner Agreement or to complete any other missing information regarding its systems after 12 PM (noon) CPT on the third business day prior to the Bid Date.

The First Block of systems can include systems from both the Small Size Class and the Large Size Class. If it does, the Bidder must submit a Bid for each Product. The Bidder must specify two prices for the First Block: 1) a price per REC for the Small Size Product and 2) a price per REC for the Large Size Product.

In the evaluation of Bids, whether the Bid for the Small Size Product in the First Block fails to meet or beat the benchmarks is evaluated separately from whether the Bid for the Large Size Product in the First Block fails to meet or beat the benchmarks (so that a portion, but only a portion, of the First Block could be eliminated from further consideration in the evaluation process on the basis of the benchmarks). Furthermore, if in the evaluation of Bids the Target is met on an annual basis and one Size Class is less than 50% of the Target, then the next most competitive offer in that Size Class can be selected to replace RECs in the other Size. The RECs that are selected to replace or to be replaced can come from a portion of a First Block.

The Host Acknowledgement is required only for the new systems and it is due by the Part 1 Date. If the document is not available at that time, the Bidder must justify this omission in the Part 1 Proposal. The Bidder will then be given more time to provide the document within the Part 2 Window. However, in no event will a Bidder be allowed to submit the Host Acknowledgment or to complete any other missing information regarding its systems after 12 PM (noon) CPT on the third business day prior to the Bid Date.

This information will not be made public.

While the proposal submission process is held as a joint event, it is not expected that if you have winning Bids, you would execute a contract with each of the Companies. The last step of the evaluation is for the Procurement Administrator to allocate the winning Bids from this jointly held bid process to each Company. This allocation aims in part to minimize the number of winning Bidders that have contracts with more than one Company. Your invoice would be sent to the Company (or Companies) that are your counterparties under the applicable supplier contracts.

Your description in (a) is correct. The last step of the evaluation is for the Procurement Administrator to allocate the winning Bids to each Company. While this allocation aims in part to minimize the number of winning Bidders that have contracts with more than one Company, a successful Bidder could have a contract with more than one Company. In that case, the value of the winning bids would be split among the Companies and the Bidder would be posting 10% of the contract value to each Company (only for the amount of RECs associated with the contract for that Company).

Yes, successful Bidders may either post cash or a letter of credit Letter under each of the applicable supplier contracts. If you post cash, there may be fees associated with this option as explained in the applicable supplier contracts.

The Annual Volume is determined on the basis of the system size and pre-determined capacity factors as provided in the RFP Rules. For existing systems (i.e., those systems that are energized as of June 1, 2016) the “Annual Volume” is a quantity of RECs that is the same for each of the five “Delivery Periods” (from June 1 of a year to May 31 of the next year). For new systems, a Bidder must specify with its Bid a “First Year Volume”, which is a quantity of RECs to be delivered in the first Delivery Period. For this First Year Volume, you may specify a number of RECs that is less than the Annual Volume including specify zero RECs. As such, while there is no exception to the 80% delivery requirement under the applicable supplier contract, with respect to new systems, the calculation of the annual quantity for RECs associated with the first Delivery Period may be less than the annual quantity with respect to each of the remaining Delivery Periods.

Second, the 80% delivery requirement is applied to RECs in the portfolio of systems in each of the large size product and small size product. This means that it is acceptable if in aggregate you deliver 80% of the Annual Quantity associated with systems collectively in a product, even if there are individual system(s) that fall short of delivering 80% of the expected quantity for the Delivery Period.

Please note that, in its Part 1 Proposal, a Bidder is required to certify that the characteristics of the systems presented in the Proposal are true and accurate to the best of the Bidder’s knowledge and belief. Therefore, if a system is “existing” (i.e. energized as of the June 1, 2016) it must be presented as such.

Payment under the IPA Letter of Credit can be demanded if the Bidder makes a material omission or misrepresentation in the Part 1 Proposal or the Part 2 Proposal.

To get access to the qualification website, please register for an application account by completing the form here and selecting the “Utility Distributed Generation” category.

You may request these instructions from the Procurement Administrator at Illinois-RFP@nera.com.

The slides, audio recording, as well as the questions and answers from the Bidder Information Webcast will all be posted to the Renewable Energy Resources Section or the FAQ page of the procurement website.

Each system must begin accumulating metered deliveries of renewable energy prior to the end of the 2016-2017 delivery year (May 31, 2017) in order to be eligible for the Utility Distributed Generation Request for Proposals (“DG RFP”).

Only RECs generated from systems located in Illinois are eligible to be bid under the Utility Distributed Generation Request for Proposals (“DG RFP”).

There are various requirements for systems in order for them to be eligible to be bid into the Utility Distributed Generation Request for Proposals (“DG RFP”). We recommend that you review the RFP Rules for these requirements once they are posted to the Renewable Energy Resources section of the procurement website.

However, in order to be eligible a system must be a “Distributed renewable energy generation device”. As defined by the Illinois Power Act this means a device that is:

(1) powered by wind, solar thermal energy, photovoltaic cells and panels, biodiesel, crops and untreated and unadulterated organic waste biomass, tree waste, and hydropower that does not involve new construction or significant expansion of hydropower dams;

(2) interconnected at the distribution system level of either an electric utility as defined in this Section, an alternative retail electric supplier as defined in Section 16-102 of the Public Utilities Act, a municipal utility as defined in Section 3-105 of the Public Utilities Act, or a rural electric cooperative as defined in Section 3-119 of the Public Utilities Act;

(3) located on the customer side of the customer’s electric meter and is primarily used to offset that customer’s electricity load; and

(4) limited in nameplate capacity to no more than 2,000 kilowatts.

Such instructions are available from the Procurement Administrator upon request along with the IPA’s W-9. Please note that E-Pay is only available during the Part 1 Window for a given procurement event.

Under the Supplemental Photovoltaic RFP (“SPV RFP”), a Bidder may bid a quantity of RECs that are not associated with identified systems. This is called a “forecast quantity”. Forecast quantities of RECs must be from systems less than 25 kW in size.

Forecast quantities are not allowed under the terms of the Utility Distributed Generation RFP (“DG RFP”). A Bidder must identify all of the systems in their Proposal no later than the Part 2 Date.

No.  In its Part 1 Proposal, a Bidder in the Supplemental Photovoltaic RFP (“SPV RFP”) is required to certify that none of the systems presented in the Proposal have been selected as part of winning Bids in a previous procurement event under the SPV RFP or the Utility Distributed Generation RFP (“DG RFP”).  As such, winning systems from a Utility DG procurement event are not eligible to be presented as part of a Proposal in a procurement event under the SPV RFP.

There are various procurement events as approved in the IPA’s procurement plans through which Solar Renewable Energy Credits (“SRECs”) are sold and purchased.  These include Supplemental Photovoltaic RFP (“SPV RFP”), the Utility Distributed Generation RFP (“DG RFP”) and the Renewable Energy Resources RFP (“REC RFP”).

To be eligible to be presented as part of the Proposal in the Supplemental Photovoltaic RFP (“SPV RFP”), a system must be “new”, which means that it must have been energized (turned on for a period of 24 consecutive hours) on or after January 21, 2015. If the systems that you are considering presenting as part of your Proposal were energized prior to this date, then this Proposal cannot be presented under the SPV RFP.

Systems energized prior to January 21, 2015 may be presented in a Proposal presented under the DG RFP. However, we note that under the DG RFP a bidder must present systems that together are at least 1 MW and the bidder (an aggregator) must be the signatory of the contract with the utility for any winning systems.

There are various criteria for participation in the Renewable Energy Resources RFP (“REC RFP”).  You may see these criteria from last year’s RFP here: https://www.ipa-energyrfp.com/2015-renewable-energy-resources-section/. These include agreeing to the terms of the applicable supplier contracts with the utilities and the submission of a letter of credit to support the bids. The REC RFP is strictly for the sale and purchase of RECs and does not involve presenting particular systems as part of the Proposal. The bidder is the single signatory of the contract with the utility.

8,760 is number of hours in a year: 24 hours/day x 365 days/year.

There are various procurement events where Solar Renewable Energy Credits (“SRECs”) could be purchased.  Only systems located in Illinois are eligible to be presented in a Proposal in the Supplemental Photovoltaic RFP (“SPV RFP”) or in the Utility Distributed Generation RFP (“DG RFP”).  The Renewable Energy Resources RFP (“REC RFP”) includes the possibility of purchase of SRECs from outside of Illinois.  Please see the schedule for this procurement event on the Calendar page: https://www.ipa-energyrfp.com/calendar/.

We cannot respond to this question generally and we can only address whether self-installation or the size of a residential system could preclude you from selling SRECs in the procurement events under the procurement plans of the Illinois Power Agency (“IPA”).

There are various procurement events as approved in the IPA’s procurement plans through which Solar Renewable Energy Credits (“SRECs”) are sold and purchased.  To be eligible to be presented as part of the Proposal in the Supplemental Photovoltaic RFP (“SPV RFP”), a system must be “installed” by a “qualified person” as described in and required by Section 1-56(i) of the Illinois Power Agency Act (20 ILCS 3855/1-56(i)).  The Act defines a “qualified person” as a person who performs installations of photovoltaics, including, but not limited to, distributed photovoltaic generation, and who:

(A) has completed an apprenticeship as a journeyman electrician from a United States Department of Labor registered electrical apprenticeship and training program and received a certification of satisfactory completion; or

(B) does not currently meet the criteria under clause (A) of this paragraph (1), but is enrolled in a United States Department of Labor registered electrical apprenticeship program, provided that the person is directly supervised by a person who meets the criteria of (A) above; or

(C) has obtained one of the following credentials in addition to attesting to satisfactory completion of at least 5 years or 8,000 hours of documented hands-on electrical experience: (i) a North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP) Installer Certificate for Solar PV; (ii) an Underwriters Laboratories (UL) PV Systems Installer Certificate; (iii) an Electronics Technicians Association, International (ETAI) Level 3 PV Installer Certificate; or (iv) an Associate in Applied Science degree from an Illinois Community College Board approved community college program in renewable energy or a distributed generation technology.

In addition, there is a minimum bid of 500 RECs (or approximately 79.39 kW) for the SPV RFP.

While installation by a qualified person is not a requirement under the Utility Distributed Generation RFP (“DG RFP”), a bidder must present systems that together are at least 1 MW.

There are various criteria for participation in the Renewable Energy Resources RFP (“REC RFP”).  You may see these criteria from last year’s RFP here: https://www.ipa-energyrfp.com/2015-renewable-energy-resources-section/. These include agreeing to the terms of the applicable supplier contracts with the utilities and the submission of a letter of credit to support the bids.