No, projects may be located in Illinois or in a State that is adjacent to Illinois. However, for renewable energy credits to qualify for the Illinois RPS for projects located in a state adjacent to Illinois, then the project must meet the public interest criteria specified in Section 1-75(c)(1)(I) of the IPA Act. All further information related to application of the public interest criteria will be first proposed in the Illinois Power Agency’s long-term renewable resources procurement plan (due to be released within 120 days of June 1, 2017), with the Illinois Commerce Commission having final approval of the application of these criteria through its administrative order approving the IPA’s plan. Please review Section 5(d) of the REC Contract regarding the consequences for an adjacent-state project being subsequently found to be ineligible for the Illinois RPS under application of the public interest criteria.

Revised 8-01-2017 first posted 6-09-2017

As required under Section 16-111.5 of the Public Utilities Act (through Section 1-75(c)(1)(G)(v) of the IPA Act), the Procurement Administrator develops the contracts in consultation with each of the applicable utilities, the Illinois Power Agency, the ICC Staff, and the Procurement Monitor. Only if these parties are unable to come to a consensus would the ICC then make a determination on the final contract form.

This provision is set forth in the Illinois Power Agency (“IPA”) Act, Section 1-75(c)(1)(J), with renewable energy credits from generating units “whose costs are being recovered through rates regulated by this State or any other state or states on or after January 1, 2017” being ineligible for Illinois RPS compliance. Primarily, the IPA believes that this requirement was intended to ensure that RECs from rate-based projects approved by a state’s public utilities commission are not eligible to be used to satisfy the Illinois RPS, and thus is generally not intended to encompass off-take agreements, power purchase agreements, or the wholesale sales of energy, unless those transactions were expressly approved by the state’s public utilities commission or other relevant regulatory authority in a proceeding to set regulated utility rates. However, a final interpretation of this language is not being offered through this RFP process; further detail around the determination of whether a generating unit’s “costs are being recovered through” regulated “rates” will be included in the IPA’s long-term renewable resources plan, and any final determinations about the scope of projects included in that prohibition will be subject to final determination by the Illinois Commerce Commission in its Order regarding the IPA’s proposed plan.

No, this procurement is for RECs only. The contract does not include an energy component.

No. All prices and quantities used in the examples in the presentation are provided for illustrative purposes only.

This is not a discrepancy. The example on this slide illustrates a hypothetical Seller that was awarded 6,000 RECs to be delivered on an annual basis. These winning RECs are then allocated to the Buyers (the three electric utility counterparties to the contracts) as follows: 1,350 RECs to AIC; 3,650 RECs to ComEd; and 1,000 RECs to MEC.  For illustrative purposes, Table 1 from the REC Contract is shown for the corresponding MEC contract, which indicates the Annual Quantity of 1,000 RECs and the Maximum Contract Quantity, or the maximum quantity of RECs to be delivered to MEC over the 15 year term of the contract, of 15,000 RECs.

If a Seller or a Seller’s guarantor is creditworthy and meets the credit rating requirements under the REC Contract, the $2.5MM unsecured credit is granted by each utility separately to you for all your contracts with the applicable utility. For example, if you have several projects that are associated with winning bids, the unsecured credit of $2.5MM will apply across all of your contracts with a given utility.

No. RECs must be delivered from the project to which the contract was awarded.

Revised 8-01-2017 first posted 6-09-2017

Yes, a separate webcast was held to explain the RFP process and requirements. This webcast was held on July 19, 2017 after the final contract was posted.

Revised 8-1-2017 first posted 6-09-2017

No. The REC Contract terms for the Wind and Solar RFP (Initial Forward Procurement) are in draft form and are still under development, it would be premature to compare these terms with other contracts that are not yet under development and will not be under development until sometime after the IPA’s long-term renewable resources plan is approved by the Illinois Commerce Commission (early 2018). The projects eligible for the Adjustable Block Program, however, are distributed generation or community solar projects (and not utility-scale), and are governed by different provisions of the IPA Act (Section 1-75(c)(1)(G) for the Initial Forward Procurement, and Section 1-75(c)(1)(L) for the Adjustable Block Program). It is therefore expected that the terms of the two contracts will differ.

The comment process ended on July 10, 2017.  During the comment process you could provide comments on the entire draft REC Contract.

Revised 8-01-2017 first posted 6-09-2017

No. As required by Section 16-111.5 on the bid solicitation process, after the standard form contract is finalized and posted on June 27, 2017, all bidders in the Wind and Solar RFP will be required to accept the terms of the final contract prior to submission of bids.

Revised 8-1-2017 first posted 6-09-2017

No, accounting is made for the Delivery Year Requirement at the end of each Delivery Year. You cannot make up for shortfalls in a Delivery Year with subsequent Delivery Years’ excess production of RECs.

This provision ensures that the site provided for the Project as part of the Proposal, and for which a description is provided in Table 1, is substantially similar to the site of the Project when such Project is fully developed. The Seller must certify that the RECs delivered come from the Project and that such Project is in majority at the site provided in the Proposal.  Thus, the Seller cannot substitute another Project in a different location for the Project presented in its Proposal and the development of the Project at the Proposal stage must be sufficient to substantially describe the site.

Revised 8-01-2017 first posted 6-09-2017

The Procurement Administrator answers questions related to the IPA procurement events. Potential participants are entirely responsible for research of other state RPS programs.

The Illinois Renewable Portfolios Standard (“RPS “) is the “Applicable Program” under this REC Contract. Information on the Illinois RPS can be found in Section 1-75(c) of the IPA Act.

Only RECs based on electricity generated during the Delivery Term and 2 months prior to the start of the Delivery Term would be eligible for delivery during the Delivery Term as such term is defined in the REC Contract.

New York law is provided as the governing law to be consistent with other contracts for the procurement of RECs by the utilities.

Revised 8-1-2017 first posted 6-09-2017

Yes, a comment process for the contract form is a standard practice in connection with all IPA competitive procurement events as required by the Public Utilities Act.

Revised 8-1-2017 first posted 6-09-2017

Failure by Buyer to make payment for RECs is an Event of Default under Article 5.1(a) of the Master REC Agreement included as part of the REC Contract. Remedies afforded to Seller include remedies set forth in Articles 5.2, 5.3 and 5.5 of the Master REC Agreement as modified by the Cover Sheet of the REC Contract.

Section 1-75(c)(1)(J) of the Illinois Power Agency Act provides that renewable energy credits from generating units “whose costs are being recovered through rates regulated by this State or any other state or states on or after January 1, 2017” are ineligible for Illinois RPS compliance. Primarily, the IPA believes that this requirement was intended to ensure that RECs from rate-based projects approved by a state’s public utilities commission are not eligible to be used to satisfy the Illinois RPS, and thus is generally not intended to encompass off-take agreements, power purchase agreements, or the wholesale sales of energy, unless those transactions were expressly approved by the state’s public utilities commission or other relevant regulatory authority in a proceeding to set regulated utility rates.  However, a final interpretation of this language is not being offered through this RFP process; further detail around the determination of whether a generating unit’s “costs are being recovered through” regulated “rates” will be included in the IPA’s long-term renewable resources plan, and any final determinations about the scope of projects included in that prohibition will be subject to final determination by the Illinois Commerce Commission in its Order approving the IPA’s proposed plan.

Wind and Solar bids will be evaluated separately.

The webcast for the Wind and Solar RFP was scheduled for 90 minutes.  The webcast presentation and audio recording are posted to the Draft Documents page of the Wind and Solar Section of the procurement website.

Revised 8-01-2017 first posted 6-13-2017

Each participant in the Wind and Solar RFP will be required to pay a non-refundable Bid Participation Fee of $500 (unless such participant has already paid a Bid Participation Fee in 2017 pursuant to its participation in the Block Energy RFP or the Distributed Generation RFP).  A participant that presents several projects is only required to pay a single Bid Participation Fee.  The Bid Participation Fee will be used to cover part of the costs of the 2017 procurement events.  The Supplier Fees, which are levied only on those participants that have bids approved by the Illinois Commerce Commission, are also used to cover part of the costs of the procurement events.  An estimate of the Supplier Fees, which will be in $/REC and will be applied to the annual quantity of RECs for a winning project, was provided during the webcast on July 19.

Revised 8-01-2017 first posted 6-13-2017

The webcast presentation and audio recording were posted to the Draft Documents page of the Wind and Solar Section of the procurement website on June 6, 2017.

In its definition of the utility-scale wind, utility-scale solar, and brownfield photovoltaic, Public Act 099-0906 does not specify whether the system is in-front-of or behind the meter.

The IPA cannot issue guidance on a case pending before the International Trade Commission.  It is the responsibility of the bidder to decide if or how to take the potential outcome of the case into account in their participation in the Wind and Solar RFP.  We note that there are multiple procurement events for utility-scale solar and that more information regarding this issue may be available in later procurement events.

No.  The statutory support for the initial forward procurements envisions that procurements of RECs occur only from “new” projects.  The definitions of “new” wind and photovoltaic projects found in Section 1-75(c) of the IPA Act refers to new “renewable energy generating facilities,” with “facility” defined in the IPA Act as “an electric generating unit or a co-generating unit that produces electricity along with related equipment necessary to connect the facility to an electric transmission or distribution system.”  As a substantial portion of what constitutes the “facility” would not be “new,” and as repowered facilities would be competing for selection on the basis of price with facilities featuring entirely “new” components, the IPA does not consider repowered projects to be “new” projects that qualify for the initial forward procurement.  To the extent that parties believe that such projects should be considered “new” for future RFPs, parties may offer those comments as part of their comments on the draft of the IPA’s long-term renewable resources procurement plan scheduled to be released in September 2017.

While the IPA is responsible for the procurement of RECs in the initial forward procurements, the IPA is not buyer of these RECs.  The buyers of the RECs, and the counterparties to the contract with winning bidders in the upcoming Wind and Solar RFP, are the utilities,  Ameren Illinois Company d/b/a Ameren Illinois, Commonwealth Edison Company, and MidAmerican Energy Company (“MidAmerican” or “MEC”).

To view the FAQs for the Wind and Solar RFP, navigate to the FAQs page of the procurement website, and either:

• select “Click here to view Wind and Solar”; or
• scroll down the page until you see the heading “Wind and Solar FAQs”.

No.  Public Act 99-0906 (“Act”), which became effective June 1, 2017, calls for an initial forward procurement of one million renewable energy credits (“RECs”) annually from new utility-scale wind projects and of one million RECs annually from new utility-scale solar projects and brownfield site photovoltaic projects.  The first procurement event will seek the entirety of the one million RECs annually from new utility-scale wind projects and will seek a portion of the one million RECs annually from new utility-scale solar projects and brownfield site photovoltaic projects.  There will be multiple events to procure RECs from new utility-scale solar projects and brownfield site photovoltaic projects.  No other renewable energy source are contemplated by the Act for these procurement events.

Thank you for your comment.  As announced on Friday, June 23, the IPA will be soliciting a second round of comments on the REC Contract.  The schedule has changed and the Bid Date will be August 31, 2017 (instead of August 10, 2017).

Public Act 099-0906 defines these two types of projects as follows.  (1) A “utility-scale solar project” is facility that: (a) generates electricity using photovoltaic cells; and (b) has a nameplate capacity that is greater than 2,000 kW.  (2) A “brownfield site photovoltaic project” is a facility that: (a) is interconnected to an electric utility, a municipal utility, a public utility, or an electric cooperative; and (b) is located at a site that is regulated by any of the following entities under the following programs: (i) the United States Environmental Protection Agency under the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, as amended; or (ii) the United States Environmental Protection Agency under the Corrective Action Program of the bituminous rank and greater than 1.7 pounds of sulfur per million btu content, unless the clean coal facility does not use gasification technology and was operating as a conventional coal-fired electric generating facility on June 1, 2009 (the effective date of Public Act 95-1027) federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, as amended; or (iii) the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency under the Illinois Site Remediation Program; or (iv) the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency under the Illinois Solid Waste Program.

There is no size criterion for a brownfield site photovoltaic project and thus it is possible for a project to satisfy both definitions.  This would be the case for a photovoltaic project that is:  interconnected at the distribution level as defined in 2(a) above; located on a brownfield site as defined in 2(b) above; and with a nameplate capacity of 2,000 kW or more as in 1(b) above.  In that case, the participant in the Wind and Solar RFP would be able to elect to describe its Project as either a utility-scale solar project or a brownfield site photovoltaic project, at its option (but not both).

Under the REC Contract, the Annual Quantity is specified as the number of RECs to be delivered in each year of the 15-year term of the REC Contract.  The Maximum Contract Quantity is a quantity over the course of the entire term of the REC Contract and the number of RECs to be delivered to the Buyer cannot exceed this quantity, which is calculated as 15 (years) times the Annual Quantity.

The Delivery Year Requirement is the Annual Quantity except for the first 365 days during which the delivery requirement is 50% of Annual Quantity (and the Annual Quantity is pro-rated during the last Delivery Year if it does not consist of a full twelve months.

The participant in the RFP will provide the Annual Quantity for the project as part of its bid.  There is no requirement for this Annual Quantity to be calculated in a specific way and there is no preference that will be assigned in the evaluation based on how the Annual Quantity relates to the capacity of the project.

No, the Letter of Credit to support the bid will be cancelled and returned to the bidder.  If the bidder is not a winning bidder in the RFP, such cancellation and return will occur as soon as practicable after the Commission decision on the results of the procurement event.  If the bidder is a winning bidder in the RFP and the winning bidder will sign a REC Contract with a Company, such cancellation and return will occur once all formalities of contract execution with the Company have been completed and once all suppliers fees have been paid to the IPA.

Revised 8-1-2017 first posted 6-25-2017

Under the REC Contract, the Seller will deliver RECs to the account of the Buyer in PJM EIS GATS or M-RETS, as applicable.  The RECs will be in an unretired state.

The Letter of Credit provided with the Part 2 Proposal to support the bid will expire as part of its terms and does not convert to covering the Collateral Requirement during the term of the REC Contract.  If the bidder is a winning bidder in the RFP and uses a Letter of Credit to meet the Collateral Requirement during the term of the REC Contract, this Letter of Credit is a separate instrument that has different terms from the Letter of Credit provided with the Part 2 Proposal.

Revised 8-01-2017 first posted 6-28-2017

There is no commitment to a particular in-service date required of the bidder.  Please note, however, that the Date of First Operation of the Project cannot be on or before June 1, 2017 and that at least one REC must be delivered from the Project by June 1, 2021.  The delivery term under the REC Contract begins the later of June 1, 2019 and the date at which the first REC from the Project is issued by PJM EIS GATS or M-RETS.

Revised 8-01-2017 first posted 6-28-2017

The call-in and WebEx login information for the second webcast for the Wind & Solar RFP were provided to all webcast registrants early on June 28, 2017, the day of the webcast.  If you were unable to join the webcast, the webcast presentation and audio recording were posted to the Draft Documents page of the Wind and Solar Section of the procurement website on June 28, 2017.

Yes. As a part of your Proposal, you will be required to certify, among other things, that you agree to sign the REC Contract within the required timeframe if your project is selected and approved by the Illinois Commerce Commission (“ICC”). Should you fail to execute the REC Contract, then your Bid Assurance Collateral would be forfeited.

The benchmarks and the process by which the benchmarks are developed are confidential under the Act.

Benchmarks are applied in the first step of the evaluation of bids. Bids that fail to meet or beat the benchmarks are eliminated.  The bids that remain are, within a resource category, evaluated on the basis of price alone.

Revised 8-01-2017 first posted 7-05-2017

The Proposal for a Project is submitted in two parts, with specific requirements for each part, and which are referred to as the Part 1 Proposal and the Part 2 Proposal.  The Part 1 Window refers to the time during which Bidders can provide materials to respond to the requirements of the Part 1 Proposal.  Under the revised schedule, the Part 1 Window will open on July 20 and close on August 7, 2017.

For more information about the specific requirements for the Part 1 Proposal, please review Article IV of the RFP Rules.

Revised 8-01-2017 first posted 7-05-2017

Yes.  The Procurement Administrator will allocate to each utility the number of RECs that the winning bidder will deliver to that utility, with the same REC price for all utility contracts.  Winning bidders are not able to choose their counterparties to the REC Contract. Please note that for this procurement, the contract terms have largely been harmonized among the utilities.

No, bidders can only submit a flat price per REC so that the REC price is the same in every Delivery Year during the term of the REC Contract.

If a project is built and begins operation before June 1, 2019, the Collateral Requirement does not change.  The Collateral Requirement is only tied to the date certain of June 1, 2019. Upon contract execution, the Collateral Requirement is 50% of the Annual Contract Value.  The Collateral Requirement increases to 100% of the Annual Contract Value on June 1, 2019. The increase happens regardless of when the project becomes operational or when the first REC is delivered.

Revised 8-01-2017 first posted 7-05-2017

The requirement to deliver at least one (1) REC is not due by June 1, 2019, but by June 1, 2021, which is a date certain required by law (See Section 1-75(c)(1)(G) of the Illinois Power Agency Act). As envisioned under the statute, this leaves project developers with somewhere between three and four years from contract execution until the project is built, interconnected, and able to deliver its first REC.

Collateral Requirements can have many purposes depending on the context and the Product that is traded.  One such purpose is to ensure that the Seller has an additional incentive to perform under the Contract even when conditions change and the Seller could potentially receive a higher price for the Product elsewhere in the market.

Southern California Edison Company’s 2014 REC RFP had a Collateral Requirement of up to 20% of the total contract value (over the entire term of the contract).  The Collateral Requirement of 100% of the Annual Contract Value in the REC Contract is equivalent to less than 7% of the total contract value.  In addition, Pennsylvania Power Company’s SPAEC RFP had a Collateral Requirement equivalent to 200% of the annual contract value.

Revised 7-21-2017 first posted 7-5-2017

There is no comment process on the Preliminary Proposal Requirements.  However, the “Ask a Question” page of the procurement website has a space for your question or comment.

Yes. A similar provision was included in the IPA’s 2010 long-term procurement of renewable resources.  Furthermore, those contracts  (the 2010 LTPPAs)  included a provision under which the number of RECs purchased under the contract could be curtailed in case of insufficient budget, which could (and did) occur if load migrated from the utilities to alternative retail electric suppliers.  Similar provisions are used in REC contracts used by the utilities in the New England states such as by the Connecticut Light and Power Company and the United Illuminating Company as well as contracts used by the utilities in Pennsylvania such as PPL Electric Utilities Corporation, PECO Energy Company and Pennsylvania Power Company, and there may be other contracts with similar provisions of which the Procurement Administrator is unaware.

Revised 7-21-2017 first posted 7-5-2017

While some changes have been made to these provisions from the initial draft contract to the final REC Contract, the general concept of a regulatorily continuing clause in the contract will not be changed.  From Public Act 099-0906 (“Act”), the objective of the initial forward procurements is the purchase of RECs to satisfy the Illinois Renewable Portfolio Standards over a period of 15 years.  To meet this objective, the RECs delivered by the Sellers must satisfy the Renewable Portfolio Standards as may be amended from time to time.  The Illinois Power Agency, as the Agency tasked with implementing the Renewable Portfolio Standards through the development of its Long-Term Renewable Resources Plan, will strive to ensure that any such changes are handled fairly and equitably and take into account the interests and needs of all relevant parties.

Revised 8-01-2017 first posted 7-05-2017

Suppliers will not be required to submit a date at which the first REC will be delivered. However, suppliers do not have complete flexibility to start deliveries in the June 2019 to June 2021 window.  The Delivery Term under the terms of the REC Contract begins on the later of June 1, 2019 and the date at which the first REC is issued by PJM EIS GATS or M-RETS for the project regardless of when the initial date of REC delivery occurs. Once the Delivery Term starts, the supplier must comply with the delivery obligations under the REC Contract.

This is a legal requirement from Public Act 099-0906, which states: “renewable energy credits shall not be eligible to be counted toward the renewable energy requirements […] if they are sourced from a generating unit whose costs were being recovered through rates regulated by this State or any other state or states on or after January 1, 2017. Each contract executed to purchase renewable energy credits under this subsection (c) shall provide for the contract’s termination if the costs of the generating unit supplying the renewable energy credits subsequently begin to be recovered through rates regulated by this State or any other state or states; and each contract shall further provide that, in that event, the supplier of the credits must return 110% of all payments received under the contract.”

The Project company must be formed ahead of the Part 1 Proposal as the Seller must be identified in the Part 1 Proposal.

The entire schedule has changed including the Bid Date, which will now be on August 31, 2017 (instead of August 10, 2017). Please consult the Wind and Solar Calendar posted to the Calendar page of the procurement website for the new dates.

The Pre-Bid Letters of Credit for the Wind and Solar RFP have been posted to the Final Materials page of the Wind and Solar Section of the procurement website on July 14, 2017.

There is no capacity factor pre-designated for the Wind and Solar RFP. A participant in the RFP will provide the annual quantity of RECs that the project will deliver under the terms of the REC Contract as part of its bid.

Yes, your understanding is correct.

Revised 8-01-2017 first posted 7-14-2017

The Supplier Fees are levied only on bidders that have bids approved by the Illinois Commerce Commission (“ICC”). An estimate of the Supplier Fees, which will be in $/REC, will be provided during the webcast planned for July 19.  The timing of the announcement of the final Supplier Fee amount will also be provided at that time.

Instructions for payment of the Supplier Fee is typically provided to winning bidders only once the ICC renders a decision on the results of the procurement event.  Details are not available at this time.

Please see FAQ-W&S-1. No further guidance on the public interest criteria is available at this time.

Revised 7-25-2017; first posted 7-20-2017.

No. The project must be located in Illinois or a state adjacent to Illinois.

Each participant in the Wind and Solar RFP will be required to pay a non-refundable Bid Participation Fee of $500 (unless such participant has already paid a Bid Participation Fee in 2017 pursuant to its participation in the Block Energy RFP or the Distributed Generation RFP). A participant that presents several projects is only required to pay a single Bid Participation Fee.

Additionally, there is a Supplier Fee, which is levied only on those participants that have bids approved by the Illinois Commerce Commission. An estimate of the Supplier Fees, which will be in $/REC and will be applied to the annual quantity of RECs for a winning project, will be provided during the webcast planned for July 19.

The Bid Assurance Collateral is due on the Part 2 Date, August 23, 2017.

No, there is no carve-out for brownfield site photovoltaic projects. There is a Target for each category (i.e., a Target for wind and a Target for solar) but there is no separate Target or maximum for brownfield site photovoltaic projects. All RECs from utility-scale solar projects and from brownfield site photovoltaic projects will be evaluated together.

The evaluation first eliminates the bids that fail to meet or beat the benchmarks. Second, bids are ranked in order of price per REC until the target for the category in this procurement event is met (on an annual basis) or until all bids have been ranked. The lowest priced projects thus selected are identified by the Procurement Administrator to the Commission as winning projects.

A Project may be located in the territory of an electric cooperative in Illinois as defined in Section 3-119 of the Public Utilities Act. The Procurement Administrator will allocate the RECs among the utilities without regard to where the Project is located. As such, it is possible for AIC and MEC to receive RECs from a winning Project that is located in ComEd’s territory.

The bid participation fee cannot be paid through the application website that Bidders use to submit the Part 1 Proposal. However, payment of the bid participation fee can be made online through e-pay.  You may request a complete set of instructions from the Procurement Administrator via email at Illinois-RFP@nera.com.

There is no limit to the number of RECs that may be delivered on June 1, 2019. However, it would not be possible for the Project to deliver all RECs from the year prior to June 1, 2019 because RECs delivered under the REC Contract must be based on electricity generation that occurred no earlier than April 1, 2019.

Projects of a given type (wind or solar) will be selected on the basis of price. In the example you provide, the lowest and the second lowest priced projects would be selected. The second lowest priced project would win only a portion of the RECs bid (40,000 of the 90,000 RECs).  If the results are approved by the Commission, the Bidder would have the option to accept or reject the partial award.

Projects from all submissions that meet the qualification standards of the Part 1 Proposal will be invited to submit a Part 2 Proposal. Please note that the requirements of the Part 1 Proposal are not only requirements regarding the Project.  The Part 1 Proposal also requires providing information about the Seller and requires specific representations by the Seller.  Please see Article IV of the RFP Rules.

No. The RECs bid into the Wind and Solar RFP and purchased through the REC Contract are associated with a specific Project.  Providing specific information about the Project is a requirement of the Part 1 Proposal of the Wind and Solar RFP.

The webcast presentation and recording are posted to the Final Materials page of the Wind and Solar section of the procurement website. These documents are dated July 19, 2017.

The price in the REC Contract will be the Bidder’s bid price for the Project.

Confirmed. The Collateral Requirement due before June 1, 2019 is 50% of the Annual Contract Value from the effective date of the REC Contract and will increase to 100% of the Annual Contract Value on June 1, 2019. The Annual Contract Value is the purchase price multiplied by the annual quantity specified in Table 1 of the REC Contract.

No, both conditions must be triggered for such event of default to occur.

Proposal requirements are provided in the RFP Rules posted on the Final Materials page of the Wind and Solar section of the procurement website. These documents are dated July 19, 2017.

For renewable energy credits to qualify for the Illinois RPS for projects located in a state adjacent to Illinois, the project must meet the public interest criteria specified in Section 1-75(c)(1)(I) of the IPA Act. All further information related to application of the public interest criteria will be first proposed in the Illinois Power Agency’s long-term renewable resources procurement plan (due to be released within 120 days of June 1, 2017), with the Illinois Commerce Commission having final approval of the application of these criteria through its administrative order approving the IPA’s plan. Please review Section 5(d) of the draft REC Contract regarding the consequences for an adjacent-state project being subsequently found to be ineligible for the Illinois RPS under application of the public interest criteria.

As explained in Section IV.2.3. of the RFP Rules, if an Interconnection Agreement has not been executed for a Project, the Bidder must provide contact information for owners, demonstrate exclusive control of the project site, and describe the stage of development. The Bidder is required to describe the stage of development of the Project appropriate to the point of interconnection and to the size of the Project. The Bidder must:  (i) indicate the utility or Regional Transmission Organization (e.g., PJM or MISO) to which the Seller has applied or will apply for interconnection; and (ii) if an application for interconnection has been made, indicate the specific milestones toward interconnection that have been met at this time or (iii) if an application for interconnection has not yet been made, provide other milestones in the development of the Project that have been reached to date.  For brownfield site photovoltaic projects, the Bidder must additionally describe the status of remediation of the site.

Yes. Bidders may, with the Part 1 Proposal, submit comments to the Pre-Bid Letter of Credit and/or the Post-Bid Letter of Credit.  The Bidder provides comments and proposes modifications exclusively by submitting a redline of the document in Microsoft Word format.  This document is provided by email or by upload to the application website.

No, the purchase price under the REC Contract will be fixed throughout the term of the REC Contract and will be the bid price that you have offered in the RFP for RECs for that winning project.

Yes, the guarantor can be the parent of the Seller. The guarantor must meet the minimum credit rating requirement as provided in Table A of Section 4.3 of the Master REC Agreement as modified in the Cover Sheet, and must deliver and execute the guaranty in accordance with the REC Contract.

There is no draft or sample letter of intent or memorandum of understanding available to bidders. Bidders can use the documents that they would use in their normal course of business as long as those documents satisfy the list of requirements provided as Appendix 4 of the RFP Rules.  These requirements include: (1) the owner must be identified by its legal name and the document must be signed by the owner; (2) the project must be identified; (3) the Seller (or Bidder) must be identified by its legal name and the document must be signed by the Seller (or Bidder); (4) the land over which the owner has control must be identified and described; (5) either: the owner must state its intent to give the Seller (or Bidder) site control or the owner must state its intent to enter into an agreement on a lease, an easement, an exclusive option for the period of REC Contract; or: the Owner must state that it has entered into exclusive discussions with the Seller (or Bidder) for purposes of coming to an agreement on a lease, an easement, an exclusive option or a sale; (6) the owner must state that it understands that the document will be used for purposes of presenting a Proposal in the IPA procurement events.  Please see Appendix 4 to the RFP Rules for further information.

No, there is no minimum milestone required; however, in the Part 1 Proposal the Officer of the Seller must certify that the Project has reached the appropriate development milestones to fully expect that the Project will deliver its first REC on or before June 1, 2021. Furthermore, as explained in Section IV.2.3 of the RFP Rules, if an Interconnection Agreement has not been executed for a Project, the Bidder must provide contact information for owners, demonstrate exclusive control of the project site, and describe the stage of development. Please see FAQ-W&S-94.

The Project has or will have a single revenue quality meter that satisfies the requirements of the applicable regional transmission organization, transmission provider, or distribution company and that measures or will measure its generation output.  For a Project, you must submit a single Bid, which has two elements: (i) a quantity of RECs that represents the annual quantity to be delivered in a delivery year under the terms of the REC Contract; and (ii) a price per REC that represents the price at which the Seller is willing to deliver RECs.

Yes, you may submit the information in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. The spreadsheet must provide all of the required information from the Owner’s Insert (#P1-2) for each of the Owners. If an Owner is an individual, you must provide a phone number and email address.  If the Owner is an entity, you must provide the name, title, phone number, and email address for a representative of such Owner.  Since there are multiple Owners, you must indicate the proportion of the project site controlled by each owner.

While you are required to identify all Owners, for purposes of submitting documentation to demonstrate exclusive control of the Project site, you must provide documentation for Owners that together control at least 50% of the Project site.

A Seller that has a winning Bid for a Project of $10/REC associated with an Annual Quantity of 1,000 RECs will be paid $10,000/year for 15 years as long as the Seller delivers 100% of the Annual Quantity in each year.

Yes, there are no restrictions that would prevent a special purpose or project entity to be the Seller under the REC Contract.  However, the company must be formed before the Proposal is submitted.  The Project and company can fulfill the requirements of the Wind and Solar RFP even if there is no financial information regarding the entity.

The amount of bid assurance collateral required for a Project by AIC is $4,000/MW for Solar Projects and $1,600/MW for Wind Projects subject to a minimum of $35,000. The amount of bid assurance collateral tendered to AIC across all Projects presented by a Bidder need not exceed $120,000. The amount of bid assurance collateral required for a Project by ComEd is $10,000/MW for Solar Projects and $4,000/MW for Wind Projects subject to a minimum of $35,000. The amount of bid assurance collateral tendered to ComEd across all Projects presented by a Bidder need not exceed $300,000. The amount of bid assurance collateral required by MEC is $30,000 regardless of the size of the Project or the number of Projects presented by a Bidder.

The different bid assurance collateral amounts among the three Companies reflects the differences in their budgets to procure RECs and thus in the expected number of RECs that would be allocated to each Company.

If a Project is not selected and the Bid is not approved by the Commission, the bid assurance collateral can be returned as soon as practicable after the Commission decision. The Commission decision is expected four business days after the Bid Date.  If the Project is selected and the Bid is approved by the Commission, the bid assurance collateral can only be returned once all REC Contracts are executed, any Collateral Requirement under the REC Contract is posted, and the Supplier Fees are paid.  Supplier fees are due seven business days after the Commission decision.

Please note that if bid assurance collateral is provided in the form of a letter of credit, the letter of credit will expire on the date stated as part of its terms. The Bidder must provide special instructions in its Part 2 Proposal for the return of the letter of credit at an earlier date.  If bid assurance collateral is provided in the form of cash, the prompt return of the bid assurance collateral is predicated on the Bidder providing full instructions on the letterhead of the entity to which cash must be returned.

For purposes of the initial forward procurement, there is no carve-out for brownfield site photovoltaic projects.  The first procurement event Target of 200,000 RECs is thus for brownfield site photovoltaic projects and utility-scale solar projects combined, each of which is eligible to participate in this procurement process under Section 1-75(c)(1)(G)(ii) of the IPA Act.  Both types of projects are evaluated together on the basis of price alone.

You are correct that there is a 2% requirement for brownfield site photovoltaic projects in the Illinois RPS (20 ILCS 3855/1-75(c)(1)(C)).  Depending on the results of the initial forward procurements, the IPA will adjust future targets through procurements proposed in its long-term renewable resources procurement plan, currently under development, to meet that 2% brownfield site photovoltaic requirement.  Thus, if brownfield site photovoltaic projects are selected through the initial forward procurements in a manner that exceeds the 2% requirement, then the future targets for brownfield site photovoltaic projects will be set lower than they otherwise would have been (and vice versa with future targets representing more than the 2% overall requirement if less than this percentage is procured through the initial forward procurements) for future procurements proposed in the IPA’s long-term renewable resources procurement plan.

Your understanding of fees associated with your project is not completely correct. We take each fee that you mention in turn.

Your understanding of the Bid Participation Fee is correct. Each participant in the Wind and Solar RFP will be required to pay a non-refundable Bid Participation Fee of $500 (unless such participant has already paid a Bid Participation Fee in 2017 pursuant to its participation in a prior 2017 procurement event). A participant that presents several projects is only required to pay a single Bid Participation Fee.

Your understanding of the Supplier Fee is correct based on the estimate of the Supplier Fee of $1 for each REC of the annual quantity provided during the webcast of July 19. Please note that this is an estimate only and that the final level of the Supplier Fee will be announced no later than two business days prior to the Bid Date.  Please also note that the Supplier Fee is levied only on those projects with bids approved by the Illinois Commerce Commission.

Your understanding of the bid assurance collateral requirement is incorrect. The bid assurance collateral for a Project consists of either cash or a letter of credit to each AIC, ComEd, and MidAmerican as a requirement of the Part 2 Proposal. The amount of bid assurance collateral required for a Project is determined separately for each Company.  For a 10 MW solar project:

• The amount of bid assurance collateral required for a Solar Project by AIC is $4,000/MW for a total of $40,000.
• The amount of bid assurance collateral required for a Solar Project by ComEd is $10,000/MW for a total of $100,000.
• The amount of bid assurance collateral required by MEC is $30,000 regardless of the size of the Project.

Thus the total bid assurance collateral required is $170,000. Please note that this is not a “fee” to the project as bid assurance collateral is returned to the bidder or expires after completion of the procurement event.

The calculation in your question at 50% of the annual contract value is not the level of the bid assurance collateral but rather the Collateral Requirement that is due upon contract execution. The Collateral Requirement increases to 100% of the Annual Contract Value on June 1, 2019. The increase happens regardless of when the project becomes operational or when the first REC is delivered. In your example above, the Collateral Requirement would be equal to 50% of (13,000 x $10.00) = $65,000 until June 1, 2019 when it increases to $130,000. The Collateral Requirement, like the bid assurance collateral, is not a “fee” as the Collateral Requirement is returned to the seller or expires at the end of the contract.

We confirm that there are no other fees due to the IPA or the utilities under the terms of the RFP Rules or the terms of the REC Contract. We do not itemize any fee or costs associated with the development of the project or with interconnection.

A Bidder that has paid the Bid Participation Fee will not be reimbursed, even if all Projects presented by the Bidder fail to meet the requirements of the Part 1 Proposal or the Part 2 Proposal or if the Bidder decides not to continue its participation in the RFP.

If you are unable to proceed and you do not present a bid, and if the bid assurance collateral is provided in the form of a letter of credit, the letter of credit will expire on the date stated as part of its terms (unless you provided special instructions with the Part 2 Proposal, in which case the bid assurance collateral can be returned as soon as practicable after the Commission decision). If you are unable to proceed and you do not present a bid, and if the bid assurance collateral is provided in the form of cash, such amounts will be returned as soon as practicable after the Commission decision (assuming that the Bidder provided full instructions on the letterhead of the entity to which cash must be returned).

The bid assurance collateral requirement for a Project consists of either cash or a letter of credit to each AIC, ComEd, and MidAmerican. The amount of bid assurance collateral required for a Project is determined separately for each Company. The method for calculating the amount of bid assurance collateral that will be required given the aggregate size of the Projects you are presenting are provided in Paragraphs V.2.2 and V.2.3 of the RFP Rules.   Also see FAQ-104.

If a Project has a winning bid that is approved by the Commission, upon contract execution, the Collateral Requirement required is 50% of the annual contract value. The annual contract value is the winning bid price times the annual quantity.  The Collateral Requirement under the terms of the REC Contract increases to 100% of the Annual Contract Value on June 1, 2019. The increase occurs regardless of when the project becomes operational or when the first REC is delivered.

Yes. Bid assurance collateral, due with the Part 2 Proposal, may be submitted in the form of cash or a letter of credit. Cash is also an acceptable form of Performance Assurance under the REC Contract.

The webcast presentation and webcast recording are posted to the Final Materials page of the Wind and Solar Section of the procurement website.

A Bidder that successfully completes the requirements of a Part 1 Proposal for a Project may, but is not required to, submit a Part 2 Proposal for the Project.

The Bid Date for the 2017 Wind and Solar RFP is August 31, 2017. The Commission decision to either accept or reject the results of the procurement event is expected four (4) business days after the Bid Date. If the ICC accepts the results of the procurement event, the names of winning bidders and the average of the winning bid prices are expected to be made public at that time. Public Act 99-0906 states that participants in the procurement process will maintain the confidentiality of all other supplier and bidding information.

Please note that there is no budget for this procurement event. The renewable resource budget for each Company will be used as proxy of its size for purposes of allocating RECs from winning Projects to the Companies. The Procurement Administrator will provide information to bidders regarding the allocation procedure at a later time, including the budget for each Company and the other factors that may be taken into account in the implementation of the procedure.

The initial forward procurements under Public Act 99-0906 (“Act”) are for the procurement of 1,000,000 RECs annually from utility-scale wind projects and 1,000,000 RECs annually from utility-scale solar projects or brownfield site photovoltaic projects. The Act specifies that there will be a single procurement event for utility-scale wind projects and there will be multiple procurement events for utility-scale solar projects and brownfield site photovoltaic projects.  For this first procurement event, the targets are the procurement of 1,000,000 RECs annually from utility-scale wind projects and the procurement of 200,000 RECs annually from utility-scale solar projects or brownfield site photovoltaic projects.  At this point, the targets for future procurement events for solar projects have not been developed.

There is no capacity target for this procurement events; only targets of annual RECs.

A REC represents all the environmental attributes corresponding to one megawatt-hour of energy generated from renewable energy resources. The Fall 2017 Wind and Solar RFP seeks to procure 200,000 RECs from utility-scale solar projects or brownfield site photovoltaic projects. This quantity represents an annual quantity of RECs to be delivered in aggregate to all three (3) Companies (Ameren Illinois Company, Commonwealth Edison Company, and MidAmerican Energy Company).

That is correct. For a Solar Project, the bid assurance collateral required by a Bidder is capped at $450,000 across the three Companies ($120,000 for AIC, $300,000 for ComEd, and $30,000 for MEC).  This cap corresponds to 30 MW of Solar Projects.  A Bidder presenting one or several Projects with capacity totalling 30 MW will be required to post a total of $450,000 in bid assurance collateral and a Bidder presenting one or several Projects with aggregate capacity over 30 MW will also be required to post a total of $450,000 in bid assurance collateral.

The amount of bid assurance collateral is capped on a per Bidder basis. If a Bidder proposes multiple solar projects (with one or with several different Sellers), the total amount of bid assurance collateral for solar Projects need not exceed $450,000.

Information regarding the procurement of RECs that the IPA may conduct in 15 years’ time is not currently available. The upcoming procurement event pursuant to Public Act 99-0906 is for 1,000,000 RECs annually from utility-scale wind projects for a term of 15 years.

We address your question in two parts. First, under the terms of the REC Contract, it is an event of default if (a) Seller fails to meet the delivery year requirement in 3 or more delivery years and (b) the Shortfall Amount equals or exceeds the annual quantity. If you cannot meet the delivery year requirement in a delivery year, then this will count as a year in which you have failed to meet the delivery year requirement regardless of whether or not you have RECs in excess of your delivery year requirement in a subsequent year.  Please see Section 3(g) of the Cover Sheet and Section 5.1(b) of the Master REC Agreement as modified in the Cover Sheet for more information.

Second, while a Seller cannot deliver RECs in excess of the Delivery Year Requirement in a given delivery year, the REC Contract provides for an exception in the last Delivery Year.  In the last Delivery Year,  the Seller may deliver excess RECs from prior years for payment provided that cumulatively the quantity does not exceed the Maximum Contract Quantity under the REC Contract. Please see Section 3(i) of the Cover Sheet and Section 2.2 of the Master REC Agreement as modified in the Cover Sheet for more information.

No.  All Sellers as part of their Proposal will have to accept the terms of the REC Contract as posted on July 18, 2017.

No, there is no distinction made depending on whether the Project is located in the MISO or the PJM footprint.

The Part 1 Date for the current procurement event under the Wind and Solar RFP is August 7, 2017. September 18 is the Part 1 Date for the Utility Distributed Generation RFP.  Information and documents for this other RFP will be released at a later time.

No, while you are required to identify all Owners, for purposes of submitting documentation to demonstrate exclusive control of the Project site, you must provide documentation for Owners that together control at least 50% of the Project site.

If the Seller is not rated by any one of the rating agencies, then it does not meet the Minimum Rating and the Seller will not be granted unsecured credit under the REC Contract. In such a case, you will not be asked to provide financial statements.  Please be assured that the Seller not being rated will not impede the qualification of the Project for continued participation in the RFP.

The name of Bidder should be provided as a list of all the names of the affiliated entities with each name separated by a comma or semicolon.  For example, if there are two Projects and two Sellers with the same parent company, and if the Sellers are called Solar Project I and Solar Project II, then the Bidder should be identified as “Solar Project I, Solar Project II”.

Yes, a Bidder may, in its Part 1 Proposal, provide comments on or propose modifications to each Pre-Bid Letter of Credit. The Bidder provides comments and proposes modifications exclusively by submitting a redline of a Pre-Bid Letter of Credit in Microsoft Word format.  This document is provided by email or by upload to the application website.

Please see Paragraph IV.2.3. of the RFP Rules. The Bidder must provide one of the following to demonstrate the exclusive control of the project site: (i) document showing that Bidder or Seller owns the Project site; or (ii) an executed lease agreement or easement between the Bidder or the Seller and the Owner or Owners; or (iii) an executed option, between the Bidder or Seller and the Owner or Owners, with a unilateral right to lease or purchase the Project site; or (iv) a memorandum of understanding between the Owner or Owners and the Bidder or Seller regarding a lease, easement, exclusive option, or sale of the Project site; or (v) a letter of intent executed by the Owner or Owners stating the intention to deal exclusively with the Bidder or the Seller to enter into an agreement for a lease, an easement, an exclusive option, or the sale of the Project site; or (vi) other document demonstrating a right to develop the Project on the site.

The description can be a few words or a short paragraph. The Bidder should first indicate whether an application for interconnection has been made.  If it has, the Bidder indicates the utility or Regional Transmission Organization (“RTO”, i.e., PJM or MISO) to which the Seller has applied and the Bidder can state which of the utility’s/RTO’s milestones for interconnection the Project has met.  If an application for interconnection has not yet been made, the Bidder can indicate the utility or RTO to which the application is expected to be made and provide any other milestones in the development of the Project that have been reached to date.  For brownfield site photovoltaic projects, the Bidder additionally describes the status of remediation of the site.

Please note that to qualify as “utility-scale”, a Project must have a nameplate capacity GREATER than 2,000 kilowatts.

The bid assurance collateral is required with the Part 2 Proposal. The amount required for a Project where the size is rounded down to 2 MW is:  $35,000 to AIC in the form of cash or a Pre-Bid Letter of Credit; $35,000 to ComEd in the form of cash or a Pre-Bid Letter of Credit; and $30,000 to MEC in the form of cash or a Pre-Bid Letter of Credit.  The collateral requirement is a requirement of the REC Contract and will depend on the winning bid price for the project.  The collateral requirement would be in an amount of 50% of the annual contract value (50% of 12,597 x winning bid price).

If a Bidder does not submit a Bid on the bid date, the Project will not be considered in selecting the winning Projects. There is no penalty for not submitting a Bid.

It means that at least 50% of the Project must be located within the physical location identified in the Proposal. With each REC delivery, the Seller will be required to represent this is the case.

The schedule for future procurements is not available at this time. Please register here:

https://www.ipa-energyrfp.com/contact-us/register/

to receive further announcements from us including when the next initial forward procurement for solar RECs will be held.

Please see FAQ-W&S-85. Yes, the evaluation of Bids can result in a Bidder having winning Bids for only a portion of the annual quantity from a Project. Should the Bid be approved by the Commission, such Bidder will have the option to reject the partial award of a portion of the annual quantity for a Project.

Yes. We note that there will be additional procurement events for solar projects.

Registration of the Projects with PJM EIS GATS or M-RETS is not a requirement of the Wind and Solar RFP and thus such registration need not occur prior to the Bid Date of August 31, 2017. The Delivery Term under the terms of the REC Contract begins on the later of June 1, 2019 and the date at which the first REC is issued by PJM EIS GATS or M-RETS for the Project regardless of when the initial date of REC delivery occurs. Once the Delivery Term starts, the Seller must comply with the delivery obligations under the REC Contract.  There is no specific date for registration of the Project with PJM EIS GATS or M-RETS under the REC Contract.

A “Project” has or will have a single revenue quality meter that satisfies the requirements of the applicable regional transmission organization, transmission provider, or distribution company, and that measures or will measure its generation output. The answer to your question depends on how many meters are installed and thus how many accounts are or will be registered in PJM EIS GATS or M-RETS.  To the extent that, for example, each phase has its own single revenue quality meter and account with PJM EIS GATS or M-RETS, then each phase is a “Project” for which a Proposal and Bid may be submitted.  To the extent that the output from all phases is measured by a single meter and the output is reflected in a single account with PJM EIS GATS or M-RETS, then the wind farm consists of a single Project for which you may submit a single Proposal and Bid.

No. Each utility has an account with both PJM EIS GATS and M-RETS.  Thus, any one Project only needs to be registered with either PJM EIS GATS or M-RETS, but NOT both.  The Seller can transfer RECs from its account to each of the utilities either from PJM EIS GATS or from M-RETS.

A “Project” has or will have a single revenue quality meter that satisfies the requirements of the applicable regional transmission organization, transmission provider, or distribution company, and that measures or will measure its generation output.  The answer to your question depends on whether the two adjacent facilities have one or two meters installed and thus whether there are one or two accounts registered in PJM EIS GATS or M-RETS.  If each facility has its own single revenue quality meter and account with PJM EIS GATS or M-RETS, then each facility is a “Project” for which a Proposal and Bid may be submitted.  To the extent that the output from both facilities is measured by a single meter and the output is reflected in a single account with PJM EIS GATS or M-RETS, then the two facilities together consists of a single Project for which you may submit a single Proposal and Bid.

The deadline for submitting the Part 1 Proposal is 12PM (noon) CPT on August 7, 2017. The calendar with all of the deadlines for the Wind and Solar RFP is available on the calendar page of the procurement website here:

https://www.ipa-energyrfp.com/calendar/

Bid assurance collateral in the form of cash or of a letter of credit to each of AIC, ComEd, and MEC is due with the Part 2 Proposal by 12PM (noon) CPT on August 23, 2017. In regards to the Supplier Fee, which is due after the Commission decision, the Procurement Administrator will inform Bidders of the amount required on a per REC basis no later than 6 PM two (2) business days before the Bid Date on August 31, 2017.

The calendar with all of the deadlines for the 2017 Wind and Solar RFP is available on the calendar page of the procurement website here:

https://www.ipa-energyrfp.com/calendar/

This paragraph of the RFP Rules means that a given Seller with a Project selected through this RFP will have its RECs allocated to either two (2) or three (3) of the Companies. The Seller will be required to execute the REC Contract within three (3) business days of the Commission decision with all Companies to which its RECs are allocated (either two (2) or three (3) Companies).  The Paragraph that you quote in no way says or implies that the REC Contract will have to be executed within three (3) business days with only two (2) of the three (3) Companies in the event that the RECs from the Project are allocated to all three (3) Companies.  The Companies are not of the same size so that it may not be the case that all Companies will have contracts with all Sellers selected through the RFP.

The comments solicited as part of the IPA workshop on the Initial Forward Procurement are available at https://www.illinois.gov/sites/ipa/Pages/WorkshopComments.aspx.  The comments on standard contracts prepared by the Procurement Administrator are made available to the Commission but are not publicly posted. There was no comment process for other aspects of the RFP.

Yes.

If an Interconnection Agreement has not been fully executed for the Project, you are required to provide each Owner’s legal name and contact information as well as to provide documentation that you have control of the Project site. If you have a lease for the Project site, you have control of the Project site but you do not have ownership of the Project site.  You are expected then: (i) to provide in the Owners Insert the legal name and contact information of the entity or individual with whom you have entered into the lease and that has ownership of the Project site; (ii) to provide a copy of the executed lease agreement or easement between you and the Owner or Owners.  If there are multiple Owners of the Project site, you must provide documentation for Owners that together control at least 50% of the Project site.

The Procurement Administrator will archive or update the FAQs to be consistent with the release of the final documents.

The DRAFT Part 1 Illustrative Form dated July 4, 2017 and posted to DRAFT documents page is entirely superseded by “Appendix 2: Illustrative Part 1 Form” dated July 19, 2017 and posted to the Final Materials page. Please consult the Final Materials page for any document related to the Proposal submission process.

Bid assurance collateral must be provided to each Company. A Bidder may provide the bid assurance collateral by posting cash or by providing an executed Pre-Bid Letter of Credit.

Yes, assuming budget availability, the IPA expects to conduct additional wind REC procurements.  Section 1-75(c)(1)(C) contains quantitative requirements for the procurement of RECs from “new wind projects,” and the amounts procured through the initial forward procurements are not expected to meet the full requirements for all three utilities for 2020, let alone for the next fifteen (15) years.

Additional procurement events may be proposed as part of the IPA’s long term renewable resources procurement plan, the first draft of which is required to be published within 120 days after June 1, 2017.  That plan is subject to Illinois Commerce Commission approval, with such approval expected in March 2018.   As that Plan has not yet been finalized, information regarding any additional procurements is not currently available.

Yes, the requirement applies to each procurement event separately. If the Bidder is submitting a Proposal for a single Project in this procurement event, the Bidder and the Seller must be the same entity.

Naming a Guarantor is not required but is an option that is offered to each Seller. If you wish to rely on the financial standing of another entity for purposes of the REC Contract, if this entity meets the minimum rating, then this entity is a Guarantor, and the Guarantor may provide a Guaranty to meet some or all of the Collateral Requirement under the REC Contract.  Alternatively, the Collateral Requirement may be met with cash or with a Letter of Credit.

The REC Contracts must be fully executed within three business days of the Commission decision. With the Commission decision expected on Thursday, September 7, 2017, the REC Contracts would be fully executed by Tuesday, September 12, 2017.

The process is expected to be as follows. By 12 PM CPT (noon) on the first business day after the ICC decision, the Company sends a partially executed electronic copy of the REC Contract and related documents to the Seller. By 12 PM CPT (noon) on the second business day after the ICC decision, the Seller executes the signature pages and sends such fully executed signature pages to the Company electronically.  The creditworthiness requirements of the REC Contract must be met by the Seller within five (5) business days of such ICC decision.

No. The Procurement Administrator will allocate among the utilities the RECs from Projects with Bids approved by the Commission.  The location of the Project is NOT a factor that will be considered in the allocation.  Even if your Project is in ComEd’s territory, it is entirely possible that, should your Project have a Bid that is approved by the Commission, the RECs would be delivered to AIC and/or MEC.  A Bidder does not choose its counterparty under the REC Contract.

You must submit bid assurance collateral for all three (3) Companies as required by the RFP Rules. If a Bidder does not submit bid assurance collateral to each of the Companies in an amount that is sufficient given the capacity and Type of the Project, the Bid on the Project will be rejected.

You are correct that this is an event of default and there is a penalty. If the Project fails to deliver at least one REC by June 1, 2021, this is an event of default and such failure will not be excused by force majeure. For such an event of default, the Seller will be required to pay the Buyer an amount equal to the Collateral Requirement.

Section 5(f) of the Coversheet of the REC Contract requires that “at least 50% of the Project is located within the physical location identified.” Failure to comply with this requirement is an event of default. For such an event of default, the Seller will be required to pay the Buyer an amount equal to the Collateral Requirement.  There are no exceptions to this requirement.

There is a Target for each of the two Categories of Projects (i.e., wind Projects and solar Projects) because Projects are evaluated separately in each of these two Categories. You can bid up to the Solar Target of 200,000 RECs for all of your Solar Projects and you can bid up to the Wind Target of 1,000,000 RECs for all of your Wind Projects. There is no separate cap on the number of RECs across all Projects combining Wind and Solar (or, to put it another way, you can bid up to the sum of the Targets of 1,200,000 RECs from all your Projects, both Wind and Solar).

Correct. There are no exceptions.

Bid assurance collateral is posted for all Projects together. A Bidder with multiple Projects that elects to provide bid assurance collateral in the form of a letter of credit for a Company may present a single letter of credit to that Company for all Projects. A Bidder presenting Proposals for multiple Projects and that elects to provide bid assurance collateral in the form of cash for a Company may effect a single wire transfer to provide to that Company the required bid assurance collateral for all Projects.

Assignments are possible under the REC Contract.   Generally, the Seller may not assign the REC Contract without the prior written consent of the Buyer, which shall not be unreasonably withheld.  However, consent of the Buyer is not required for transfer or assignment to an Affiliate of the Seller if the Affiliate’s creditworthiness is equal to or higher than that of the Seller on the Effective Date.  The full conditions under which an assignment can occur are provided in Section 9.2, as amended on the cover sheet (page 18 of the REC Contract as posted on July 18).

If one Bidder has three Projects, the Bidder submits a Part 1 Proposal three times, using login credentials from three different accounts from which you will access the online Part 1 Form. Some information, such as information regarding the Bidder and Sellers, is only required to be submitted once.  After you submit the Part 1 Proposal for your first Project, you will be able to indicate in the Proposals for the second and third Projects that this information has already been submitted.

You do not need to wait to submit all Proposals at one time. You may submit one Proposal for one Project before the others.  In fact, the review of the first Proposal by the Procurement Administrator may assist you in avoiding deficiencies in your Proposals for your other Projects.

Regarding providing information about the Owners, Please see FAQ-WS-101. You may submit the information in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. The spreadsheet must provide all of the required information from the Owner’s Insert (#P1-2) for each of the Owners. If an Owner is an individual, you must provide a phone number and email address.  If the Owner is an entity, you must provide the name, title, phone number, and email address for a representative of such Owner.  Since there are multiple Owners, you must indicate the proportion of the project site controlled by each owner.

While you are required to identify all Owners, for purposes of submitting documentation to demonstrate exclusive control of the Project site, you must provide documentation for Owners that together control at least 50% of the Project site. If this would still require you to provide a large number of leases, if you are using a small number of standard documents across all Owners, you may: (i) present one complete sample of each such document (as used with and signed by one of the Owners), (ii) provide a representation that the documents not presented are substantially of the same form; and (iii) provide the signature pages for other leases for which a complete document is not presented.

Yes.

A Company may draw upon the bid assurance collateral if a Seller has failed to execute the REC Contract for a Project within three (3) business days of being notified that the ICC has approved the bid on the Project. Failing to execute the REC Contract is not considered an event of default.

If you decide to submit a single Part 1 Proposal for a Project, the Bidder and the Seller must be the same entity. If you submit two Part 1 Proposals, each for a different project, then the Bidder and the Seller may be different entities. In the latter case, if you decide not to bid on one of the two Projects, the Bidder and the Seller will remain different entities and no retroactive change to the identity of the Bidder or Seller will be required.

No. Bid assurance collateral, due with the Part 2 Proposal, may be submitted in the form of cash or a letter of credit. The Collateral requirement under the REC Contract must also be in the form of cash or a letter of credit.

If a Bidder is given the option to accept or reject a partial award, the Bidder will not forfeit its bid assurance collateral in the event that the Bidder decides to reject the award.

The Pre-Bid Letters of Credit for AIC, ComEd and MEC are provided as Appendices 5, 6 and 7, respectively, under the FINAL Wind and Solar RFP Documents header on the Final Materials page of the procurement website.

For any information required by the Part 1 Proposal that you cannot provide, please fill in the field with “unavailable” or “n/a” as appropriate, and provide an explanation for any such missing information in the justification of omissions.

Bidders must use the Certification Inserts as prepared by the Procurement Administrator and posted to the procurement website. No revisions to these inserts, even minor, are permitted.

Please see Appendix 4: Minimum Requirements for Letter of Intent or Memorandum of Understanding posted under the FINAL Wind and Solar RFP Documents header on the Final Materials page of the procurement website. The Seller or Bidder must be identified by its legal name and the name of a representative for the Seller or Bidder must be provided along with the representative’s title and email address.

If the LOI names an affiliated company of the Bidder/Seller rather than the Bidder/Seller themselves, then the terms of the LOI must make it clear that the counterparty to the lease, easement, or option, may be the named company or its affiliates. Furthermore, an explanation or documentation must be provided to the Procurement Administrator to link the company named on the LOI to the Bidder or Seller.

Please see FAQ-W&S-175. Any information provided by a Bidder or Seller in its Part 1 Proposal and its Part 2 Proposal is provided on a confidential basis to the Procurement Administrator, and may be provided on a confidential basis to the Procurement Monitor, to the IPA, or to ICC Staff.

Additionally, the Procurement Administrator, the Procurement Monitor, representatives from the IPA, the ICC Staff, and representatives of each Company as applicable who are involved in the evaluation of Proposals will consider all data and information provided by Bidders and Sellers in response to this RFP to be confidential and will attempt to limit its disclosure to the public. Additional information is provided in Section VI.3. (Personnel and Confidentiality) of the RFP Rules posted on the Final Materials page of the procurement website.

Please note that financial information is requested but not required for the Part 1 Proposal.

Revised 8-4-2017; first posted 8-3-2017.

We confirm that an agency agreement is neither required nor expected in the case where the Bidder is a parent company and the Seller is a special-purpose entity.  An agency agreement is a specific relationship whereby a first party, the “principal”, agrees that specific actions by a second party, the “agent” can bind the principal.  It is expected by the RFP Rules that in the case of a Bidder presenting proposals for multiple projects with different Sellers, the Bidder and the Sellers are affiliated entities.

If providing the information in regards to the Seller, please provide the information for the Seller and not the Bidder, even if the Seller is newly formed.  You may explain any omissions or information that is not available for the Seller in the Justification of Omissions.

The Bid Participation Fee is due by the Part 1 Date and a Bidder must provide evidence of compliance with this requirement with the Part 1 Proposal. Such evidence includes a photocopy of the check, a confirmation page from the e-check website, or a receipt from the Illinois Power Agency (“IPA”). Please provide this evidence by upload to the online Part 1 Form or by email to Illinois-RFP@nera.com.

The Procurement Administrator will confirm with the IPA that the payment of the Bid Participation Fee has been received before the Part 1 Proposal can be considered complete.

For a procurement event held by a Procurement Administrator on behalf of the Illinois Power Agency, the Commission makes public only the names of the successful bidders and the average of the winning bid prices.  As required by Section 16-111.5(h) of the Public Utilities Act, “all participants in the procurement process shall maintain the confidentiality of all other supplier and bidding information.” Participants include the Procurement Administrator, the Procurement Monitor, the Commission, and the Illinois Power Agency. As further provided for in that section, any such confidential information “shall not be made publicly available and shall not be discoverable by any party in any proceeding, absent a compelling demonstration of need.”  Additionally, for any confidential information shared with the Illinois Power Agency, the IPA is subject to a separate, standalone requirement found in Section 1-120 of the IPA Act (20 ILCS 3855); this Section requires that the Agency “shall provide adequate  protection for confidential and proprietary information furnished,  delivered, or filed by any person, corporation, or other entity.” This requirement to provide protection for third-party confidential information submitted to the Agency includes, but is not limited to, situations in which that information is provided to the Agency as part of a competitive procurement process.

Documents are limited to a file size of 30Mb. Zip files are acceptable.

If your document is larger than 30Mb, please email the Procurement Administrator at Illinois-RFP@nera.com for further instructions.

The Procurement Administrator will send all notices related to your Proposal to the Representatives, including documents such as the confidential information required to submit Bids on the Bid Date. The Procurement Administrator does not “sign up” the Representative to receive all announcements and reminders; however, the Procurement Administrator would send to the Representatives final reminders regarding bidder training and the Bid Date for the Wind and Solar RFP. You may request that a Representative be excluded from these reminders if you wish.

Bid Assurance Collateral in the form of cash must be provided via wire transfer to the Companies (AIC, ComEd and MEC). Full instructions and the W-9 forms for the Companies are available from the Procurement Administrator upon request.

The “form” of the return of cash letter can be the same for each Company. However, each letter should be addressed to each Company separately, including contact information for an individual at the Company, and thus three separate, different return of cash letters are required.

The Contract Insert (#P2-5) posted to the procurement website is in final form. The Contract Insert purposefully contains marked deletions and additions starting on page 5 in the section dealing with optional changes to the Form of Guaranty. A Bidder that is relying on a Guarantor that wishes to elect optional changes provided in this document should review each such modification and then indicate by checking “yes” or “no” whether it wishes to adopt the change.

Yes, this is acceptable.

A sample template for the return of cash for each Company was distributed to Bidders by the Procurement Administrator on August 17, 2017. If you did not receive these templates, please request them from the Procurement Administrator via email at Illinois-RFP@nera.com.

The return of cash letters for AIC and ComEd should be uploaded in Section 2 of the online Part 2 Form and the return of cash letter for MEC should be uploaded Section 6 of the online Part 2 Form. These letters can also be submitted to the Procurement Administrator via email.

There is no cap on the Collateral Requirement as it depends on the Annual Contract Value. Upon contract execution, the Collateral Requirement is 50% of the Annual Contract Value.  The Collateral Requirement increases to 100% of the Annual Contract Value on June 1, 2019. The Annual Contract Value is the number of RECs to be delivered annually under the contract times the winning bid price for the system. The Collateral Requirement is subject to a $50,000 minimum through the first 10 delivery years.

All Inserts required for the Part 2 Proposal, including the Cash Certifications Inserts, are posted on the Final Materials page of the Wind and Solar section of the procurement website. Click on the “P2 Form: P2 Inserts” to download the file; it is dated July 31, 2017.

The Procurement Administrator provided bid assurance collateral instructions upon request prior to the Part 1 Notification date.  The Procurement Administrator provided bid assurance collateral instructions to all Bidders with the Part 1 Notification on August 14, 2017.  If you did not receive these documents or if the documents have been misplaced, please make a request by email at Illinois-RFP@nera.com to receive bid assurance collateral instructions and the W-9s for each Company.

The Glossary is posted on the Final Materials page of the Wind and Solar Section of the procurement website under the Illustrative Part 2 Form.

The Part 2 Proposal includes a completed online Part 2 Form, including all required Inserts, and the submission of bid assurance collateral to each Company in the form of a Pre-bid Letter of Credit or cash.

The online Part 2 Form is accessible on the Qualification Forms page of the procurement website. Bid Assurance Collateral Instructions and W-9s for each company were provided with the Part 1 Notification sent on Monday, August 14. All Inserts required for the Part 2 Proposal, including the Cash Certifications Inserts, are posted on the Final Materials page of the Wind and Solar section of the procurement website. Click on the “P2 Form: P2 Inserts” to download the file; it is dated July 31, 2017.

Yes, we confirm that an affiliate entity of the Bidder may post cash as bid assurance collateral on behalf of the Bidder. If such is the case, i.e., the Bidder is posting cash as bid assurance collateral, and the entity posting cash is not the Bidder, please include a note with the wire transfer to identify the Bidder on behalf of whom the bid assurance collateral is posted. We would appreciate, but do not require, that you also advise the Procurement Administrator by email that bid assurance collateral has been posted.  This will make it easier for the Procurement Administrator to confirm receipt with the Companies and to ensure that proper credit is given for fulfilling this requirement of the Part 2 Proposal.

The Procurement Administrator provided to Bidders a sample letter for the return of cash for each Company on August 17, 2017. If you did not receive these documents or if the documents have been misplaced, please make a request by email at Illinois-RFP@nera.com for the sample return of cash letters to be sent to you.

No, it is not intended or required (and may not be practical) for Seller to have all permitting for the proposed project completed as of the Effective date, or for Seller to have all necessary permits filed as of the Effective Date. As envisaged by Public Act 99-0906, the initial forward procurement is for the procurement of RECs from only “new” renewable energy projects (energized after June 1, 2017) and contemplates a period of time for the development and construction of these projects such that RECs generated from such projects may be delivered starting no earlier than June 1, 2019 and no later than June 1, 2021.

Section 5 of the Coversheet sets forth select requirements related to the development of the proposed project and Section 3 of the Coversheet sets forth select requirements related to the delivery of RECs from the proposed project. It is expected that as of the Effective Date of REC Contract, Seller has obtained or submitted all necessary approvals and authorizations appropriate for this stage of development of the project and has made all necessary investigations to determine that there are no impediments for it to obtain any further approvals and authorizations required to meet its obligations under the REC Contract.

The delivery term under the REC Contract begins the later of June 1, 2019 and the date at which the first REC from the Project is issued by PJM EIS GATS or M-RETS. Please note that the Date of First Operation of the Project cannot be on or before June 1, 2017 and that at least one REC must be delivered from the Project by June 1, 2021.

The Seller is not required and is not permitted to provide the RECs up front. In each delivery year, the Seller must deliver a quantity of RECs that meets the Delivery Year Requirement as defined in the REC Contract.

A Bidder that does not provide information for a guarantor in the Part 1 Proposal may nevertheless rely on the financial standing of a creditworthy guarantor during the term of the REC Contract. The Bidder would make a request to each Company to assess the creditworthiness of the entity that is to serve as guarantor.  As provided in Table A of Section 4.3, the guarantor must be rated by at least one of S&P, Moody’s and Fitch, and the guarantor’s credit rating must be at least BBB- (if from S&P or Fitch) or Baa3 (if from Moody’s).

The Procurement Administrator and the IPA do not expect to need to contact landowners directly.

If the Part 1 Proposal is incomplete it does not mean that the Proposal is null and void.   If the Part 1 Proposal is incomplete or requires clarification, the Procurement Administrator sends a deficiency notice to the Bidder.  If the Bidder receives a first deficiency notice from the Procurement Administrator regarding any item of the Part 1 Proposal, the Bidder has until 12 PM (noon) on the Part 1 Date, or until 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, to respond.

Yes, the Seller can choose how it chooses to meet the Collateral Requirement. However, if a Letter of Credit is used, this Letter of Credit must be acceptable to the Company.

The amount of bid assurance collateral is capped on a per Bidder basis. The amount of bid assurance collateral tendered for all Projects presented by a Bidder need not exceed $120,000 for AIC, $300,000 for ComEd, and $30,000 for MEC. If a Bidder is only presenting brownfield site photovoltaic projects and all such projects total less than 2 MW in capacity (AC rating), the amount of bid assurance collateral required is $20,000 for AIC, $20,000 for ComEd, and $10,000 for MEC.

You do not need to register for Bidder Training. The Bidder Training consists of time set aside for Bidders to practice completing and submitting their Bid Forms.  The Procurement Administrator is available at that time to evaluate the Bid Forms and to answer questions.

The schedule for Bidder Training is provided in attachment 3a – Confidential Information for Training provided to you with the attachment to your Part 1 Notification entitled “Invitation to Bidder Training”. Instructions for completing and submitting the Bid Form are provided in the Bid Form Guide, also provided as an attachment to your Part 1 Notification. Finally, you must use the confidential information provided in the attachment 3a (with the green border) for access to the secure file transfer interface that you will use to submit your Bids.

The Cash Inserts for each Company (#P2-1 for AIC, #P2-2 for ComEd, and #P2-3 for MEC) must be duly signed by a representative of the Bidder.  If the Bidder and Seller are the same entity, the individual can be the Officer of the Seller or another representative named in the Part 1 Proposal.  If the Bidder is presenting Proposals for multiple Projects, the individual must be a representative of the Bidder.  The representative of the Bidder can be any individual from the Bidder named in the Part 1 Proposal.  The representative of the Bidder can also be an officer of the Bidder not named in the Part 1 Proposal; if that is the case, please explain that this individual can bind the Bidder in a note included in the Justification of Omissions.

This question in the Contract Insert strictly is asking whether the Seller intends to rely on a Guaranty. You should say “no” if you intend to meet the Collateral Requirement under the REC Contract with a letter of credit or cash.

The Pre-Bid Letters of Credit require same day payment for a drawing that is presented prior to 11 AM (Eastern Prevailing time). Payment at the opening of the next business day is required for drawings presented after 11 AM (Eastern Prevailing Time).  There is no acceptable modification to this paragraph (Paragraph 5) that allows three business days for payment.

Please note that if you elect to submit your bid assurance collateral as a Pre-Bid Letter of Credit for a Company, you must use the Standard Pre-Bid Letter of Credit for that Company provided as an appendix to these RFP Rules or include only those modifications to the Standard Pre-Bid Letter of Credit acceptable to that Company and posted to the procurement website. The final list of acceptable modifications is posted to the Final Materials page of the Wind and Solar section of the procurement website.

The Collateral Threshold Amount is on a per Company but not on a per contract basis. The Collateral Requirement is $2,500,000 across all REC Contracts with a Company.

An estimate of the Supplier Fee was provided to bidders during the webcast on July 19, 2017. This estimate is $1 times the annual quantity of RECs (or approximately $0.07 per REC across the 15-year delivery term).  The final Supplier Fee will be announced no later than two (2) business days prior to the Bid Date.

Bid assurance collateral is due by noon (central) on Wednesday, August 23, 2017. If bid assurance collateral is not submitted at that time, any information you can provide on the timing of submission would be appreciated.  If you submit scans then the Companies can evaluate whether the Pre-Bid Letters of Credit are acceptable.  Nevertheless, your Part 2 Proposal will be deficient if bid assurance collateral in its final executed form is not provided by the deadline.  You will receive a deficiency notice from the Procurement Administrator that will include a deadline for curing such deficiency.

The Representative of the Bidder can be any individual from the Bidder named in the Part 1 Proposal. The Representative of the Bidder can also be an officer of the Bidder not named in the Part 1 Proposal; if that is the case please explain that this individual can bind the Bidder in a note included in the Justification of Omissions.

If a Project has a winning bid that is approved by the Commission, upon contract execution with a Company, the Collateral Requirement required for that Company is 50% of the annual contract value. The annual contract value is the winning bid price times the annual quantity.  The Collateral Requirement under the terms of the REC Contract increases to 100% of the Annual Contract Value for a Company on June 1, 2019. The increase occurs regardless of when the project becomes operational or when the first REC is delivered.

The REC Contracts must be fully executed with all companies within three business days of the Commission decision to approve the results of the procurement event. The creditworthiness requirements of the REC Contract must be met by the Seller within five (5) business days of such ICC decision.  If the Seller or its Guarantor does not qualify for an unsecured line of credit under the REC Contract, then the amount of the Collateral Requirement must be provided in the form of cash or a letter of credit within five (5) business days of the Commission decision to approve the results of the procurement event.

The Act requires that the names of the successful bidders and the average of the winning bid prices be made public at the time of Commission approval of a procurement event. However, the Act also requires that individual bidding information be kept confidential.  At times such requirements may conflict and, in such cases, decision on the information to be released is made on a case-by-case basis.

An Order of the Commission in Docket 08-0519 also requires that information related to winning quantities be released at the time of Commission approval as long as there are at least three winning bidders in a procurement event. The condition of at least three winning bidders applies to the release of winning quantities and does not apply to the release of information about winning bid prices or the names of the winning Bidders.

Yes, it is one of the conditions. If the Project is selected and is approved by the Commission, the bid assurance collateral can only be returned once all REC Contracts are executed, any Collateral Requirement under each REC Contract is posted, and the Supplier Fees are paid.  Supplier fees are due seven business days after the Commission decision.

The $450,000 cap that you reference is a maximum that applies solely to bid assurance collateral. As stated in FAQ-W&S-183, there is no cap on the Collateral Requirement under the REC Contract as it depends on the Annual Contract Value. The annual contract value is the winning bid price times the annual quantity.  The Collateral Requirement under the terms of the REC Contract increases to 100% of the Annual Contract Value for a Company on June 1, 2019. The increase occurs regardless of when the project becomes operational or when the first REC is delivered.

The name of the Bidder provided in the Part 1 Proposal must be maintained in the Part 2 Proposal even if there is a change in circumstances whereby the Bidder is now presenting a single Project and the Seller is different from the Bidder.

Please contact the Procurement Administrator directly by email for instructions.

The return of cash tendered as bid assurance collateral can only occur after the REC Contract is fully executed, the Collateral Requirement has been met, and the Supplier Fees have been paid. If the cash posted as bid assurance collateral were used for the Collateral Requirement, there would be no bid assurance collateral to serve as guarantee for payment of the Supplier Fees by the Bidder or Seller.  In other words, the Collateral Requirement must be posted prior to the time when the bid assurance collateral can be fully released.  For that reason, a Bidder that submitted cash as bid assurance collateral also was required to submit a request for each Company for the return of cash for the full amount of the bid assurance collateral.

If bid assurance collateral provided for multiple Projects was at the maximum for each Company and a draw is required on the bid assurance collateral for one of the Projects, the amount of the draw would not exceed the amount that would have been required as bid assurance collateral for that Project alone. If draws are required for multiple Projects, it would be known before the draws are made that multiple draws are required for multiple Projects.  In that case, the entire amount of the bid assurance would be drawn and assigned to each Project proportionately (proportionately to the amounts that would have been required as bid assurance collateral for each Project separately).

To the extent that the reason for the draw on the letter of bid assurance collateral is a failure of the Seller to execute the REC Contract, we remind you that in the P2 Certifications Insert (#P2-4), required by the Part 2 Proposal, the Officer of the Seller has acknowledged and certified that if the Seller’s Bid on the Project is approved by the Commission, the Seller WILL execute the REC Contracts with the Companies as instructed by the Procurement Administrator. Failure to do so is a failure to abide by one of the central representations and requirements of the Proposal.

Please also note that there could well be other consequences to the Seller of failing to execute a contract for a Project selected through an IPA procurement event and approved by the Commission (in addition to forfeiture of bid assurance collateral). The Procurement Administrator expects that such a Project could not be bid again in a future initial forward procurement event.  Furthermore, the IPA expects to release a draft Long-Term Renewable Resources Procurement Plan in September 2017, which will be subject to review by the Illinois Commerce Commission. It is possible that eligibility criteria for procurement events or programs under this Long-Term Renewable Resources Procurement Plan would be proposed to include whether a Bidder or Seller has previously failed to execute a contract for a Project that was selected through an IPA procurement event and approved by the Commission.

If bid assurance collateral provided for multiple Projects was at the maximum and a draw is required on the bid assurance collateral for one of the Projects, the amount of the draw would not exceed the amount that would have been required as bid assurance collateral for that Project alone. The rest of the bid assurance collateral could be returned.  If submitted as cash, the Seller would be required to submit a new request for return of cash to each Company for the appropriate amount (given that the return of cash letters provided with the Part 2 Proposal are for the full amount of the cash deposit).

Whether the Project is in PJM or MISO, the tracking system for the RECs of the system in no way affects the allocation of RECs to the Companies.  As announced by the Procurement Administrator on August 29, the RECs from a Project that is selected through the Wind and Solar RFP and that is approved by the Illinois Commerce Commission will be allocated to the Companies in the following proportions:  29.33% to AIC, 70.34% to ComEd, and 0.33% to MEC.  Thus, there will be three REC Contracts for each selected Project, one with each of the three Companies.

The Annexes are an integral part of the Pre-Bid Letter of Credit and must be included. However, the Annexes should not be filled out.  For example, Paragraph 3 in Annex 1 should be left blank at this time. This paragraph would be completed by the Company if drawing under the Pre-Bid Letter of Credit.

There is no venue for the bidder training. There is time set aside for bidder training during which the Procurement Administrator is available to answer questions from Bidders regarding the bid submission procedure.  Technical assistants are available to go over all aspects of the bid submission procedure with Bidders.

You may provide a specific time at which you wish a member of the Procurement Administrator team to phone you for this training. Instructions on the bid submission procedures and confidential information necessary to submit your Bids were provided with your Part 1 Notification.

If providing bid assurance collateral in the form of cash for a Company, a Bidder must provide a W-9 with the Part 2 Proposal, for the entity to which will be returned the cash tendered as bid assurance collateral. A W-9 must be provided for the same entity and cannot be supplied at a later date.  If the Seller (or Bidder) is newly formed and a W-9 cannot be obtained for that entity, the return of cash letter can name another entity (such as the parent company of the Bidder) as long as the W-9 is provided for that same entity with the Part 2 Proposal.

If the Procurement Administrator notifies the Bidder that the Bid on the Project is being identified as a winning Bid to the Commission, the Bidder will have until 12PM (noon) on the day after the Bidder is notified to provide any changes to the information required by the Contract Insert (#P2-5). The Procurement Administrator expects to notify the Bidder whether its Bids on the Projects are identified as winning Bids by 6 PM on the Bid Date.

If you submitted cash to a Company, including the request for return of cash, and you later provide a Pre-Bid Letter of Credit that is acceptable to the Company, you may request that the Procurement Administrator forward your request for return of cash to the Company.

The window to propose modifications to the Post-Bid Letter of Credit is the period for submission of the Part 1 Proposals.  The Wind and Solar RFP does not contemplate multiple rounds of comments provided by Bidders, and the Companies will not consider additional modifications that are submitted outside of the Part 1 Window.

Please consult the final list of modifications to the Post-Bid Letter of Credit that are acceptable to the Companies on an optional basis, posted to the Final Materials page of the Wind and Solar section of the procurement website.

No, there was an update to the letters of credit posted on July 18, 2017.  Please use the Post-Bid Letters of Credit posted to the Final Materials page of the Wind and Solar section of the procurement website and dated August 29, 2017.  These versions include an update to the definition of S&P.  You may also use any of the modifications acceptable to the Companies and posted to the top of the same page of the procurement website.

The Procurement Administrator is in the process of determining whether the beneficiary information is the same as for the Pre-Bid Letters of Credit and will provide a further communication in this regard as soon as the information is available.

No, the IPA will not be awarding more than 200,000 RECs for solar Projects.  The IPA will be awarding up to 200,000 RECs but not exceeding 200,000 RECs for solar Projects.

The counterparty under the REC Contract is not required to have a Dun and Bradstreet number. We will contact you regarding your additional questions regarding the completion of the Contract Insert if the Bid on your Project is identified as a winning Bid to the Commission.

The offer needs to be capped at 200,000 RECs for a solar Project.  An offer greater than 200,000 RECs will be rejected.

ALL PROJECTS with winning bids selected through the current procurement event under the Wind and Solar RFP and that are approved with the Commission will have three contracts, one with each Company (AIC, ComEd, and MEC).  The REC Contract is the same for all Companies.

Payment instructions will be sent to winning Bidders at the time of the Commission decision.

No.  Section 1-75(c)(1)(G) of the IPA Act (20 ILCS 3855) provides statutory authority only for the IPA to conduct “initial forward procurements” of RECs from “new utility-scale wind projects” and “new utility-scale solar projects and brownfield site photovoltaic projects.”  Section 1-75(c)(1)(C)(iii) defines new wind and solar “projects” as “renewable generating facilities,” while Section 1-10 of the IPA Act defines a “facility” as “an electric generating unit or a co-generating unit that produces electricity along with related equipment necessary to connect the facility to an electric transmission or distribution system.”

As many repowered facilities would feature a substantial portion of what by law constitutes the “facility” as something other than “new,” they would be disqualified from participation in the initial forward procurements.  However, as any repowered facilities (even those with entirely new components) would be competing for selection on the basis of price with facilities representing entirely incremental generation first “energized” after the effective date of Public Act 99-0906, the IPA does not consider repowered projects with “new” components to be “new” projects that qualify for the initial forward procurement.  Providing an incentive for existing generation to simply repower more efficiently would be inconsistent with statutory authority encouraging the development of “new” projects to “to diversify Illinois electricity supply, avoid and reduce pollution, reduce peak demand, and enhance public health and well-being of Illinois residents” (20 ILCS 3855/1-75(1-5)(6)), as the incremental benefits offered to Illinois residents by a repowered project would be significantly less than those offered by an entirely new facility.

To the extent that parties believe that such projects should be considered “new” for future RFPs, parties may offer those comments as part of their comments on the draft of the IPA’s long-term renewable resources procurement plan scheduled to be released in September 2017.

The final document containing the acceptable modifications to the Pre-Bid Letter of Credit for each Company includes all modifications reviewed and accepted during the Part 1 Proposal process. No further modifications will be considered by the Companies.  This document is posted to the Final Materials page of the Wind and Solar section of the procurement website.

If you elect to submit your bid assurance collateral as a Pre-Bid Letter of Credit for a Company, you must use the Standard Pre-Bid Letter of Credit for that Company provided as an appendix to these RFP Rules or include only those modifications to the Standard Pre-Bid Letter of Credit acceptable to that Company and posted to the procurement website.

The Procurement Administrator is not able to provide this information but appreciates the feedback. The Procurement notes that there are modifications acceptable to the utilities and posted on the procurement website. A winning supplier always has the option to post cash as security for the period during which it is finding an Issuing Bank for its Letter of Credit.

A Bidder with a partial award can expect to be notified that its Bids are identified as winning Bids to the Commission on the Bid Date. Should the Commission accept the results of the procurement event, which typically would occur four (4) business days after the Bid Date, the Bidder at that time would have the option to accept or reject the partial award and must notify the Procurement Administrator of its decision.

A Project for which a Bid is not submitted is automatically pulled from further consideration in the W&S RFP. Bid assurance collateral is returned for all Projects presented at once and not on a project-by-project basis.

As noted in the announcement to Bidders on August 29, the RECs from a Project that is selected through the Wind and Solar RFP and that is approved by the Illinois Commerce Commission will be allocated to the Companies in the following proportions:  29.33% to AIC, 70.34% to ComEd, and 0.33% to MEC.

The Collateral Requirement due upon contract execution with a utility is 50% of the annual contract value for that utility. The contract value is the winning bid price times that number of RECs for that utility.

Yes, representatives from the utilities, during the contract execution process, can respond to your questions regarding the eligibility of your guarantor.

No, the Initial Forward Procurements will only procure RECs.

The RFP documents including the rules will be issued by Wednesday, February 7, 2018 and posted on the procurement website here:

https://www.ipa-energyrfp.com/new-solar/final-materials/

You will receive credentials to access the online Qualification Form for the New Solar RFP no later than the opening of the Part 1 Window on Friday, February 9, 2018.

The main elements of the qualification process from the Fall 2017 procurement event will be maintained. The Procurement Administrator has posted a document with preliminary proposal requirements to the “Draft Documents” page of the New Solar tab of the procurement website. The Procurement Administrator has also posted, to that same page, the final forms of the Pre-Bid Letters of Credit and of the requirements for the letter of intent. The Procurement Administrator expects to release on January 31, 2018 parameters for the procurement events, including amounts for the bid assurance collateral as well as parameters for site control.

The final RFP documents including the rules will be issued by Wednesday, February 7, 2018 and posted on the procurement website here:

https://www.ipa-energyrfp.com/new-solar/final-materials/

There is no size requirement related to brownfield site photovoltaic projects.

From the information provided we are unable to determine whether or not a project constructed by your customer is eligible to participate in the New Solar RFP scheduled for March. The New Solar RFP aims to procure RECs annually from new Solar Projects that are either utility-scale solar or brownfield site photovoltaic projects. Projects that were energized as of June 1, 2017 are not eligible. A utility-scale solar project means an electric generating facility that generates electricity using photovoltaic cells and that has a nameplate capacity greater than 2,000 kW (AC rating). A brownfield site photovoltaic project means photovoltaics that are interconnected to an electric utility, a municipal utility, a public utility or an electric cooperative as defined by the Act. There are additional requirements for brownfield site photovoltaic projects to be eligible to participate in this procurement event.

A bidder information webcast for the procurement events has been scheduled for Thursday, February 8, 2018. The webcast will address contract terms, qualification requirements, procedure to submit bids, and many more topics. If you have not done so already, you may register to receive updates and announcements regarding the IPA RFPs on the Contact Us page:

https://www.ipa-energyrfp.com/contact-us/

No, both new utility-scale solar projects and new brownfield site photovoltaic projects will be eligible to participate in both procurement events.

The number of renewable energy credits (“RECS”) to be procured from new Solar Projects in each of the two procurement events is 400,000 RECs annually.

The calendar for these upcoming procurements is available on the procurement website:

https://ipa-energyrfp.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/IPA-2018-New-Solar-RFP-Calendar_10-JAN-2018.pdf

RFP documents for the New Solar RFP including the rules, which will provide the bidding procedures, will be issued by Wednesday, February 7, 2018 and posted on the procurement website here:

https://www.ipa-energyrfp.com/new-solar/final-materials/

The procurement events held under the New Solar RFP are for the annual delivery of renewable energy credits from new Solar Projects (utility-scale projects or brownfield site photovoltaic projects). As defined in Public Act 099-0906, a utility-scale solar project means an electric generating facility that generates electricity using photovoltaic cells and that has a nameplate capacity greater than 2,000 kW (AC rating). A brownfield site photovoltaic project means photovoltaics that are interconnected to an electric utility, a municipal utility, a public utility or an electric cooperative as defined by the Act. There is no size requirement related to brownfield site photovoltaic projects.

The Procurement Administrator has posted a document with preliminary proposal requirements to the “Draft Documents” page of the New Solar tab of the procurement website. The Procurement Administrator has also posted, to that same page, the final forms of the Pre-Bid Letters of Credit and of the requirements for the letter of intent. On January 31, 2018, the Procurement Administrator released parameters for the procurement events, including amounts for the bid assurance collateral as well as parameters for site control.

Each Bidder in the New Solar RFP will be required to provide bid assurance collateral in the form of cash or a letter of credit separately to each of the three Companies (Ameren Illinois Company (“AIC”), Commonwealth Edison Company (“ComEd”), and MidAmerican Energy Company (“MEC”)) for all the Projects for which the Bidder is presenting a Proposal. The required amounts are as follows:

• $4,000/MW for AIC up to a maximum of $850,000;
• $10,000/MW for ComEd up to a maximum of $2,100,000; and
• $1,000/MW for MEC up to a maximum of $250,000.

For purposes of determining the amount of bid assurance collateral, the size of the Project will be rounded up to the nearest megawatt.

For purposes of determining the amount of bid assurance collateral, the project size in MW (AC rating) will be used.

Your calculation is correct. Please note that $0.07 may or may not be the level of the supplier fee per REC for the 2018 procurement events. Projects with winning Bids receive an invoice and instructions regarding payment directly from the Illinois Power Agency. The Supplier Fee must be paid to the IPA by the Bidder or Seller no later than seven (7) business days after the date at which the Illinois Commerce Commission approves the Bids.

The Seller must have title or the right to legally transfer or assign RECs from the Project as the Seller has the obligation to transfer RECs to the account of the applicable Company, ComEd, Ameren or MEC, in the relevant tracking system in an unretired state. At that point the Companies retire the RECs.

The Average Winning Price of $4.26/REC is an average of the winning Wind RECs and Solar RECs. The quantity of RECs for solar projects was not released as there were not at least three (3) successful bidders.

The Act requires that the names of the successful bidders and the average of the winning bid prices be made public at the time of Commission approval of a procurement event. However, the Act also requires that individual bidding information be kept confidential.  At times such requirements may conflict and, in such cases, decision on the information to be released is made on a case-by-case basis.

An Order of the Commission in Docket 08-0519 also requires that information related to winning quantities be released at the time of Commission approval as long as there are at least three winning bidders in a procurement event. The condition of at least three winning bidders applies to the release of winning quantities and does not apply to the release of information about winning bid prices or the names of the winning Bidders.

The Fall 2017 Wind and Solar RFP results are available on the procurement website here:

https://www.ipa-energyrfp.com/2017-2018-initial-forward-procurements/

Yes, two procurement events to complete the initial forward procurements for the delivery of 800,000 total RECs annually from new utility-scale solar projects or brownfield site photovoltaic projects have been planned. The calendar for these upcoming procurements is available on the procurement website:

https://ipa-energyrfp.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/IPA-2018-New-Solar-RFP-Calendar_10-JAN-2018.pdf

In response to Public Act 99-0906, on December 4, 2017, the Illinois Power Agency filed its Long-Term Renewable Resources Procurement Plan (“LTRRPP”) which addresses a variety of new procurements and programs. The LTRRPP is subject to approval by the Illinois Commerce Commission (expected on April 3, 2018). The filed plan and related documents are available on the Illinois Power Agency website here:

https://www2.illinois.gov/sites/ipa/Pages/Renewable_Resources.aspx

Under the W&S RFP, if a Project was not selected, cash provided as bid assurance collateral would be returned as soon as practicable after the Commission decision assuming that the Company had received proper documentation from the Bidder. A Letter of Credit provided as bid assurance collateral would be left to expire as part of its terms. Under the New Solar RFP, if a Project is not selected in either of the two procurement events, cash provided as bid assurance collateral will be returned as soon as practicable after the Commission decision on the second procurement event (assuming that the Company has received proper documentation from the Bidder). A Letter of Credit provided as bid assurance collateral will be left to expire as part of its terms.

If the Bidder provides a Pre-Bid Letter of Credit, the Pre-Bid Letter of Credit is left to expire as part of its terms. If the Bidder provides cash as bid assurance collateral, the Bidder must provide the following documents: (i) a W-9 for the entity to which cash will be returned; and (ii) a request, on the appropriate entity’s letterhead, for the return of the cash tendered including wire instructions and an email address.

The Procurement Administrator has posted the presentation materials and the audio recording from the bidder information webcast held on February 8, 2018, to the Final Materials page of the New Solar section of the procurement website.

The Part 1 Inserts are available on the Final Materials page of the New Solar section of the procurement website.

The instructions for submission of the Bid Participation Fee were provided to bidders along with login credentials (February 12, 2018 for the first procurement event).

The Bid Participation Fee is paid by a Bidder once each calendar year.   A Bidder that paid the Bid Participation Fee in 2017 with its Part 1 Proposal in the Wind and Solar RFP must pay the Bid Participation Fee in 2018 with its Part 1 Proposal in the New Solar RFP.

A Bidder that submits Proposals for multiple Projects is only required to pay a single Bid Participation Fee. Furthermore, a Bidder that pays the Bid Participation Fee in the first procurement event under the New Solar RFP will not have to pay again in order to participate in the second procurement event under the New Solar RFP or in any other procurement event held by the IPA in 2018.

The instructions for submission of the Bid Participation Fee that were provided to bidders along with login credentials on February 12, 2018 name the only methods acceptable for submission of the bid participation (by check and by e-check).

Yes, the Seller can change how it chooses to meet the Collateral Requirement under the terms of the REC Contract. However, if a Letter of Credit is used, this Letter of Credit must be acceptable to the Company.

Projects will be selected on the basis of price. In the example you provide, the lowest and the second lowest priced projects would be selected. The second lowest priced project would win only a portion of the RECs bid.  If the results are approved by the Commission, the Bidder would have the option to accept or reject the partial award.

No. If a Seller has a Project with approved 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 REC Contract and related documents to the Seller. By 12 PM CPT (1 PM Eastern Prevailing Time) on the second business day after the ICC decision, the Seller executes the signature pages of the partially executed REC Contracts and related documents and sends such fully executed signature pages to the Company electronically.

However, in the Part 1 Proposal, the Seller will be required to certify that it understands and accepts the terms of the REC Contract and accepts the fact that the number of REC Contracts and the counterparties under such REC Contracts will be assigned to the Seller by the Procurement Administrator.

A redline comparison was not posted as there were no changes made between the draft REC Contract (posted January 12, 2018) and final REC Contract (posted February 6, 2018). A redline of the draft REC Contract to the REC Contract used in the 2017 Wind and Solar procurement event is posted to the Draft Documents page of the New Solar tab of the procurement website.

The procurement events held under the New Solar RFP are for the annual delivery of renewable energy credits from new Solar Projects (utility-scale projects or brownfield site photovoltaic projects). As defined in Public Act 099-0906, a utility-scale solar project means an electric generating facility that generates electricity using photovoltaic cells and that has a nameplate capacity greater than 2,000 kW (AC rating). A brownfield site photovoltaic project means photovoltaics that are interconnected to an electric utility, a municipal utility, a public utility or an electric cooperative as defined by the Act. There is no size requirement related to brownfield site photovoltaic projects.

Bid assurance collateral that is tendered for the first procurement event and that is still required for the second procurement event will roll over to the second procurement event.   In that manner, a Bidder that provides bid assurance collateral in the first procurement event and that participates in the second procurement event with the same Projects will already have the bid assurance collateral in place for the second procurement event.

However, if a Bidder participates in the first procurement event but does not participate in the second procurement event (as evidenced by the Bidder not submitting the Part 1 Proposal in the second procurement event for any of the Bidder’s Projects), the Bidder can submit an amendment to provide April 5, 2018 as the revised date of expiration of its Pre-Bid Letter of Credit or can submit a request for the return of cash tendered as bid assurance collateral to release the bid assurance collateral earlier (on or after the Part 1 Date of the second procurement event). Similarly, if a Bidder participates in both procurement events but the aggregate size of the Bidder’s Projects is less in the second procurement event than in the first procurement event, then the Bidder can submit an amendment to reduce the amount of its Pre-Bid Letter of Credit or can submit a request for the return of a portion of the cash tendered as bid assurance collateral on or after the Part 1 Date of the second procurement event.

A “Project” for purposes of the New Solar RFP has or will have a single revenue quality meter that satisfies the requirements of the applicable regional transmission organization, transmission provider, or distribution company, and that measures or will measure its generation output.  The New Solar RFP solicits new utility-scale solar Projects (over 2 MW) as well as brownfield site photovoltaic projects.

The answer to your question depends on whether the two adjacent facilities have one or two meters installed and thus whether there are one or two accounts registered in PJM EIS GATS or M-RETS.  If each facility has its own single revenue quality meter and account with PJM EIS GATS or M-RETS, then each facility is a “Project” for which a Proposal and Bid may be submitted.  To the extent that the output from both facilities is measured by a single meter and the output is reflected in a single account with PJM EIS GATS or M-RETS, then the two facilities together consists of a single Project for which you may submit a single Proposal and Bid.

Assuming not otherwise barred from participation (such as due to location or project maturity status), a brownfield site project participating in a net metering program would not be disqualified from participating, as the IPA does not consider a project’s mere participation in a net metering or virtual net metering program to constitute “a generating unit whose costs were being recovered through rates regulated by this State or any other state or states on or after January 1, 2017.”  (20 ILCS 3855/1-75(c)(1)(J)). However, such projects may instead seek to participate in the Adjustable Block Program described in Section 1-75(c)(1)(K)-(L) of the IPA Act and proposed in the IPA’s Long-Term Renewable Resources Procurement Plan or in the brownfield site procurement event proposed in the IPA’s Long-Term Renewable Resources Procurement Plan, as approved by the Illinois Commerce Commission.

The “Bidder” is the entity submitting the Proposal and “Seller” is the entity intended to be the signatory to the REC Contract for the Project. If the Bidder is presenting a single Proposal for a single Project, which appears to be the case, the Bidder and the Seller must be the same entity.

If the land Owner has not yet selected a developer, the land Owner would be both the Bidder and the Seller. The Owner would be required to submit the Proposal and sign the REC Contract should the Project be selected through the New Solar RFP and approved by the Commission. Please note, however, that there are two procurement events under the New Solar RFP and the Owner also may opt to participate in the second procurement event only, for which the Part 1 Window opens on March 30, 2018.

The qualification requirements do not specify a particular milestone in the development process that results in the qualification or disqualification of a Project. Please refer to Article IV of the RFP Rules, in particular Section IV.2, for requirements to qualify a Project.

Those requirements include providing the size of the Project in MW (AC rating), providing a complete address for the Project along with a map of the Project site clearly showing the site location, providing documentation showing site control, and providing an expected Date of First Operation consistent with the fact that the Project must deliver its first REC on or before June 1, 2021. Furthermore, the Officer of the Seller will be required to agree and to certify that the Project has reached whichever development milestones are appropriate to fully expect that the Project will deliver its first REC on or before June 1, 2021.

That is correct. The Part 1 Window for the second procurement event opens on March 30, 2018 and nothing is required before that time if a Bidder is considering participation in the second procurement event only.

However, we will note that if you do elect to submit materials in the first procurement event for a Project and the Project is qualified pursuant to the submission of the online Part 1 Form and all required documents, then if you wish to present the same Project in the second procurement event, you can do so simply by resubmitting the online Part 1 Form without changes during the Part 1 Window for the second procurement event.

In the Proposal, a Seller will be required to represent that the Project is a “utility-scale solar project” or a “brownfield site photovoltaic project” as these terms are defined in the Act and that the Seller has made all investigations it deems necessary to make this determination.

It is the sole responsibility of the Seller to determine that the Project meets the definition of “brownfield site photovoltaic project” as defined in the Act.

For purposes of qualifying in the New Solar RFP, a Project may be located in Illinois or in one of the states adjacent to Illinois. States adjacent to Illinois are Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky, Indiana and Michigan. A project located in a state adjacent to Illinois must meet the public interest criteria specified in Section 1-75(c)(1)(I) of the IPA Act.

Please note that, in addition to this location requirement, there is a size requirement for utility-scale projects. As defined in Public Act 099-0906, a utility-scale solar project means an electric generating facility that generates electricity using photovoltaic cells and that has a nameplate capacity greater than 2,000 kW (AC rating). Brownfield site photovoltaic projects can participate in this New Solar RFP and there is no size requirement related to brownfield site photovoltaic projects.

The obligations of the REC Contract are linked to the REC delivery and not to the size of the Project. However, if the project is not a brownfield site photovoltaic project, the RECs delivered under the terms of the REC Contract must be associated with generation from a utility-scale solar project, which is defined in the Act as having a nameplate capacity greater than 2,000 kW (AC rating).

Any document supporting the Part 1 Proposal can be submitted by email to the Procurement Administrator. You may also: (i) combine the PDFs into a single document; or (ii) upload documents in the extra spaces provided in the Justification of Omissions (Section 7).

For a bidder that requested multiple accounts to present proposals for multiple Projects, you may use any one of these accounts for a given Project (with the understanding that each Project should use a different account). The Procurement Administrator does not pre-assign a Project to a particular account.

Bid assurance collateral is returned or cancelled at the end of the second procurement events (more precise timing is provided in the RFP Rules).

One objective of the bid assurance collateral is for the bidder to show that the bidder will be able to meet the Collateral Requirement under the REC Contract. Not meeting the Collateral Requirement would lead to supplier default, termination of the REC Contract, and failure of the procurement event to procure the number of RECs intended.

The bid assurance collateral in 2017 was set assuming that the typical situation would be one where bid assurance collateral would be posted for an average solar Project. While Bidders that are presenting projects on behalf of multiple Sellers have the option to submit bid assurance collateral for each project separately, this option generally was not used. The consequence was that bidders that presented multiple projects, or bidders presenting large facilities, were potentially under-collateralized. For example, suppose a bidder presented two winning projects, a 30 MW project and a 20 MW project. If the Seller for the 30 MW project failed to sign the REC Contract, the entire amount of bid assurance collateral could be drawn. If subsequently the Seller for the 20 MW project failed to meet the Collateral Requirement or to pay the Supplier Fees, there would be no further draw possible as bid assurance collateral would have been exhausted. Thus “under-collateralized” here means that the bid assurance collateral amounts were insufficient to allow for a financial penalty in circumstances where such penalty was intended.

There are several consequences to this under-collateralization. First, bidders presenting a single smaller project could perceive that they were not treated on a completely even footing with bidders presenting multiple projects or large facilities. Second, the incentives to follow through with the transaction once projects are selected are weaker in the case of multiple Sellers as there may not be any financial consequence to failing to execute the REC Contract, not paying the supplier fees, or failing to meet the Collateral Requirement for one or more of the Sellers. This, in turn, increases the risk of an unsuccessful procurement event that fails to procure the targeted number of RECs. The Procurement Administrator’s perception of this risk is informed by a number of bidder questions relating to the consequences (or lack thereof) of a winning Seller not following through with execution of the REC contract.

The basis for the ceilings in the 2018 procurement events, instead of being an average situation related to a typical project, is a situation where a bidder is presenting one or multiple facilities that could be sufficient to win the entire target of 400,000 RECs. If the ceilings for the 2017 procurement event had been set on this basis, they would have been half of the ceilings in the 2018 procurement events because the target at that time was 200,000 RECs.

The Illinois Public Utilities Act restricts the disclosure of information related to Proposals submitted to the Procurement Administrator for a procurement held on behalf of the Illinois Power Agency. For such procurement events, the Illinois Commerce Commission makes public only the names of the successful bidders and the average of the winning bid prices. In accordance with Commission Orders, the quantities that are successfully procured may also be released. As required by Section 16-111.5(h) of the Public Utilities Act, “all participants in the procurement process shall maintain the confidentiality of all other supplier and bidding information”, i.e., participants are required to maintain the confidentiality of information other than the information released by the Illinois Commerce Commission. Participants include the Bidders and Sellers that submit Proposals to the procurement event. The stipulation in Section 16-111.5(h) of the Public Utilities Act is ongoing even after the procurement process ends.

For a procurement event held by a Procurement Administrator on behalf of the Illinois Power Agency, the Commission makes public only the names of the successful bidders and the average of the winning bid prices.  As required by Section 16-111.5(h) of the Public Utilities Act, “all participants in the procurement process shall maintain the confidentiality of all other supplier and bidding information.” Participants include the Procurement Administrator, the Procurement Monitor, the Commission, and the Illinois Power Agency. As further provided for in that section, any such confidential information “shall not be made publicly available and shall not be discoverable by any party in any proceeding, absent a compelling demonstration of need.”  Additionally, for any confidential information shared with the Illinois Power Agency, the IPA is subject to a separate, standalone requirement found in Section 1-120 of the IPA Act (20 ILCS 3855); this Section requires that the Agency “shall provide adequate  protection for confidential and proprietary information furnished,  delivered, or filed by any person, corporation, or other entity.” This requirement to provide protection for third-party confidential information submitted to the Agency includes, but is not limited to, situations in which that information is provided to the Agency as part of a competitive procurement process.

No information regarding the Community Solar Program is available at this time. You may register to our website to get information as it becomes available or you may monitor the IPA’s website (https://www2.illinois.gov/sites/ipa/Pages/default.aspx).

The Procurement Administrator for the Illinois Power Agency’s procurements events cannot provide advice regarding the valuation of SRECs.

Please note that, in accordance with the Act and Commission Orders, the Procurement Administrator releases the average of the winning bid prices for each product at the end of a procurement event. The results of the Wind and Solar RFP are available here:

https://ipa-energyrfp.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Fall-2017-Wind-and-Solar-Results_07-SEP-2017.pdf

The Bidder determines the annual quantity of RECs to include in the Bid for a given Project. This annual quantity may be less than the Maximum Bid Size (but cannot be greater). This annual quantity of RECs can be for a portion of the RECs from a Project.

A Bidder must submit bid assurance collateral for the Project in the form of cash or of a letter of credit to each of AIC, ComEd, and MEC. Whether providing bid assurance collateral in the form of cash or a letter of credit for a Company, the Bidder must follow all instructions provided by the Procurement Administrator for transmission of bid assurance collateral to the Company. Such instructions specify that the Bidder must provide cash by wire transfer and that the original executed Pre-Bid Letter of Credit must be sent by overnight delivery service. Such instructions are provided by the date of the Part 1 Notification. If you wish to receive such instructions earlier, please request them from the Procurement Administrator via email.

A Bidder will have the ability to use its bid assurance collateral posted as cash to meet its Performance Assurance under the REC Contract.  Depending on the details of the Project and the Bid, the Bidder may be required to post additional cash to fully meet its Performance Assurance under the REC Contract.

As context, the REC Contract requires the Bidder to post Performance Assurance in the form of a letter of credit or cash within five (5) business days of a request by the Company.  For a Bidder that is not rated at least BBB- from the rating agencies (or that does not have a guarantor that is so rated), the Performance Assurance is equal to the amount of the Collateral Requirement.  The Collateral Requirement is equal to 50% of the Annual Contract Value.  The Annual Contract Value is the price in the Bid for the Project times the annual quantity of RECs in the Bid for the Project.  For example, if the price in the Bid is $10/REC and the annual quantity of RECs is 42,000 RECs then the Collateral Requirement is $210,000 (50% * $10/REC * 42,000 RECs).  Within seven (7) business days of the Commission approval of a Project selected through the RFP, the Bidder must pay the Supplier Fees to the Illinois Power Agency (“IPA”).  The Supplier Fee per REC is announced no later than two (2) business days before the Bid Date.  The estimate of the REC provided to Bidders is $0.05/REC of the entire quantity of RECs over the fifteen (15) years of the REC Contract.

This response assumes that the Bidder has submitted cash as bid assurance collateral and that the Bidder has a Project that is selected through the New Solar RFP and approved by the Commission.

There are two cases.  The first case is one where, for a Company, the amount of bid assurance collateral provided by the Bidder in the Part 2 Proposal exceeds the sum of: (i) the Performance Assurance due under the REC Contract; and (ii) the Supplier Fees due to the IPA.  In that case, the Bidder will not be required to post additional cash to fully meet its Performance Assurance under the REC Contract.  The Bidder will have the ability instead to apply the bid assurance collateral posted with a Company to meet the Performance Assurance due to that Company.  For example, if the Bidder’s winning Project is 20 MW, the Bidder would have posted $80,000 (20 MW * $4,000/MW) with AIC.  Continuing the example above where the price in the Bid is $10/REC and the annual quantity of RECs is 42,000, the Performance Assurance due to AIC would be $61,593 (29.33% * 50% * $10/REC * 42,000 RECs, where 29.33% is AIC’s share of the Project).  Using the $0.05/REC as the estimate of the Supplier Fee, the Bidder will owe the IPA $31,500 ($0.05 * 42,000 RECs * 15 years), of which $9,238.95 is the portion attributable to the RECs to be delivered to AIC (29.33% * $31,500).  The bid assurance collateral to AIC ($80,000) covers the sum of the Performance Assurance and the AIC portion of the Supplier Fees ($61,593 + $9,238.95) and thus the Bidder is not required to post any additional cash with AIC for purposes of the Performance Assurance for the winning Project. A similar calculation would need to be performed for ComEd and MEC also.

The second case is one where, for a Company, the amount of bid assurance collateral provided by the Bidder in the Part 2 Proposal does not cover the sum of: (i) the Performance Assurance due under the REC Contract; and (ii) the Supplier Fees due to the IPA.  In that case, the Bidder will be able to use a portion of its bid assurance collateral for meeting the Performance Assurance but the Bidder will also be required to post additional cash to fully meet its Performance Assurance under the REC Contract for that Company.  For example, if the Bidder’s winning Project is 20 MW, the Bidder would have posted $80,000 (20 MW * $4,000/MW) with AIC.  Suppose the price in the Bid is $20/REC and the annual quantity is 42,000 RECs so that the Performance Assurance due to AIC would be $123,186 (29.33% * 50% * $20/REC * 42,000 RECs, where 29.33% is AIC’s share of the Project).  Using the $0.05/REC as the estimate of the Supplier Fee, the Bidder will owe the IPA $31,500 ($0.05 * 42,000 RECs * 15 years), of which $9,238.95 is the portion attributable to the RECs to be delivered to AIC (29.33% * $31,500).  The bid assurance collateral to AIC ($80,000) does not cover the sum of the Performance Assurance and the AIC portion of the Supplier Fees ($123,186 + $9,238.95).  The Bidder will have the ability to use $70,000 of its bid assurance collateral toward its Performance Assurance and the Bidder will be required to post an additional amount of $53,186 ($123,186 – $70,000).  The remaining $10,000 of the bid assurance collateral is not applied to the Performance Assurance as it is used to guarantee payment of the Supplier Fees ($10,000 is the amount of the Supplier fees, $9,238.95, round up to the nearest thousand). A similar calculation would need to be performed for ComEd and MEC also.

This response illustrates the calculations for the bid assurance collateral and the Performance Assurance for AIC only.  However, as stated above, the same calculations apply to each of the Companies (AIC, ComEd, and MEC) so that the amounts in this response represent only a portion of the bid assurance collateral and Performance Assurance due.  All prices and numbers of RECs are for illustrative purposes only.

Unless otherwise instructed by the Procurement Administrator, the size of the Project that a Bidder uses for calculating the bid assurance collateral due to each Company is the size of the Project provided in your Part 1 Proposal and thus is based on the Project’s MW AC rating.

There are circumstances where the Procurement Administrator sets a Maximum Bid Size based on a portion of the Project that is able to bid into the procurement event.  In such a case, bid assurance collateral can be based on the portion of the Project upon which the Maximum Bid Size was determined.

There is no process for “withdrawing” from a procurement event under the RFP Rules.  We interpret your question to be asking whether there are any penalties (or negative consequences for participation in the second procurement event) if you fail to submit a Part 2 Proposal in the first procurement after qualifying a Project pursuant to a successful Part 1 Proposal.

The answer is no.  There is no penalty for not submitting materials for the Part 2 Proposal for a Project after that Project has qualified pursuant to a successful Part 1 Proposal.  Should you wish to participate in the second procurement event, the process is streamlined.  You may simply resubmit the online Part 1 Form without changes during the Part 1 Window for the second procurement event.  Your Part 1 Proposal will be complete to the extent that you did not advise the Procurement Administrator that information contained in the Part 1 Proposal was no longer valid.

Confirmed. If a Bidder posts bid assurance collateral and does not submit a Bid, the full amount of the bid assurance collateral will be returned with the timeframes provided in the New Solar RFP.

The amount of bid assurance collateral should be calculated on the basis of the aggregate size of all Projects presented by a Bidder.  The maximum on the bid assurance collateral applies to the aggregate size of all Projects.

No.  There are two requirements that are based on strictly on the size of the Project, namely the area for which site control must be demonstrated and the amount of bid assurance collateral (unless otherwise instructed by the Procurement Administrator).  The Bidder is then able to bid any number of RECs up to a maximum established for the Project on the basis of a 26.5% capacity factor and the size of the Project.  A Bidder can always bid fewer RECs than the Project can produce and the Bidder can also change the number of RECs that it intends to bid from the Project during the course of the Proposal submission process.  If the collateral requirement were instead based on an indicative number of RECs, the Bidder would have less flexibility as the Bidder would be constrained by the amount of posted collateral and could be unable to bid, if desired, on a number of RECs larger than its indicative level.

No. Under the REC Contract, there is a requirement for at least one REC to be delivered by June 1, 2021, which shall not be excused by Force Majeure. Failure to deliver at least one REC by June 1, 2021 under any circumstance, including delays in the interconnection process, constitutes an Event of Default under the REC Contract.

In response to Public Act 99-0906, on December 4, 2017, the Illinois Power Agency filed its Long-Term Renewable Resources Procurement Plan (“LTRRPP”) which addresses a variety of new procurements and programs, including additional forward procurements. The timing of these procurement events is not known at this time. The LTRRPP is subject to approval by the Illinois Commerce Commission (expected on April 3, 2018). The filed plan and related documents are available on the Illinois Power Agency website here:

https://www2.illinois.gov/sites/ipa/Pages/Renewable_Resources.aspx

Assignments are possible under the REC Contract.  Generally, the Seller may not assign the REC Contract without the prior written consent of the Buyer, which shall not be unreasonably withheld.  However, consent of the Buyer is not required for transfer or assignment to an Affiliate of the Seller if the Affiliate’s creditworthiness is equal to or higher than that of the Seller on the Effective Date.  The full conditions under which an assignment can occur are provided in Section 9.2, as amended on the cover sheet (page 18 of the REC Contract as posted on February 6, 2018).

Bids are binding.  Each Bidder acknowledges that the price in the Bid constitutes a binding and irrevocable offer to supply RECs from the Project at that price under the terms of the REC Contract and the quantity in the Bid is the annual quantity in the REC Contract aggregated across all Companies.  In the Part 2 Proposal, the Officer of the Seller acknowledges and certifies that if the Seller’s Bid on the Project is approved by the Commission, the Seller WILL execute the REC Contracts with the Companies as instructed by the Procurement Administrator. Failure to do so is a failure to abide by one of the central representations and requirements of the Proposal.

Such failure will lead to forfeiture of the bid assurance collateral required with the Part 2 Proposal (up to $3.2M).  Furthermore, there could well be other consequences to the Seller of failing to execute a contract for a Project selected through an IPA procurement event and approved by the Commission (in addition to forfeiture of bid assurance collateral). The Procurement Administrator expects that such a Project could not be bid again in a future initial forward procurement event.  Furthermore, there may be eligibility criteria in the Programs proposed in the Long-Term Renewable Resources Procurement Plan (and which remains under Commission review) that would lead to exclusion of a Bidder or Seller that has previously failed to execute a contract for a Project that was selected through an IPA procurement event and approved by the Commission.

Yes, the Procurement Administrator will send you a deficiency notice and you will be given additional time to submit the bid assurance collateral based on the timeframes provided in the RFP Rules.

If on the Bid Date a Bidder submits Bids on Projects for which the bid assurance collateral is insufficient, the Procurement Administrator will require the Bidder increase the amount of bid assurance collateral.  If that is not possible, the Procurement Administrator will require the Bidder to remove some or all of the Bids so that the bid assurance collateral is sufficient to support the aggregate size of the Bidder’s Projects. The Bidder will have the option to resubmit its Bid Form or to provide the amended Bids by phone, provided, however, that the amended Bids are received by the end of the one-hour cure period, at 1 PM (CPT) on the Bid Date.

Yes. The evaluation of Bids can result in a Bidder having winning Bids for only a portion of the annual quantity from a Project. Should the Bid be approved by the Commission, such Bidder will have the option to reject the partial award of a portion of the annual quantity for a Project.

No. The RECs bid into the New Solar RFP and purchased through the REC Contract are associated with a specific Project on a site described in the Proposal.  With each REC delivery, the Seller will be required to represent that at least 50% of the Project is located within the physical location identified in the Proposal.

The address block in the draft return of cash letter must be the address of the Company to which cash will be returned and for which you provided a W-9 in the Part 2 Proposal.

Either cash or a letter of credit is acceptable for posting the Collateral Requirement under the REC Contract.

No.  The signature for the certification does not need to be an image file.  It can simply be the text of the signatory’s name (and as such must match exactly with how the name is provided at the beginning of the certification).

There is no budget for this procurement event. The renewable resource budget for each Company is simply used as proxy of its size for purposes of allocating RECs from winning Projects to the Companies.

In general, any eligible RECs generated during the Delivery Term and not delivered to the Company in a Delivery Year may be delivered in a subsequent Delivery Year for payment subject to the following: (a) RECs delivered to the Company may not be based on electricity generation that occurred more than 2 months prior to the start of the Delivery Term (understanding that the earliest start to the Delivery Term is June 1, 2019), and (b) all RECs delivered must allow the Company to meet its obligations under the Illinois RPS for the Delivery Year in which such RECs were delivered.

As a requirement of the New Solar RFP, a new photovoltaic Project must be installed by a qualified person.   The Administrative Code (Title 83, Part 461, available here: http://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/083/083004610000100R.html) provides the following definitions:

“Qualified person” means a person who performs installations on behalf of the certificate holder and who has completed at least one of the following programs requiring lab or field work and received a certification of satisfactory completion: an apprenticeship as a journeyman electrician from a USDOL-registered or an applicable state-agency-registered electrical apprenticeship and training program; a North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP) distributed generation technology certification program; an electrical training program for in-house employees established and administered by an electric utility regulated by the Commission; or an Associate in Applied Science degree from an Illinois Community College Board-approved community college program in solar generation technology.

“Install” means to perform the electrical wiring and connections necessary to interconnect the new solar project with the electric utility’s transmission or distribution system at the point of interconnection between the project and the utility. “Install” in this Part specifically does not mean:

• Electrical wiring and connections to interconnect the new solar project performed by utility workers;
• Electrical wiring and connections internal to the new solar project performed by the manufacturer;
• The on-site construction and installation of a solar panel or a collector substation; or
• Tasks relating to construction, planning and project management performed by individuals such as an inspector, management planner, consultant, project designer or contractor for the project or their employees.

Please review Part 461 of the Administrative Code and the certification process of the Commission more generally.

This is acceptable. A Bidder that chooses not to submit a Bid on a Project, for which a Part 1 and Part 2 Proposal was provided, in their Bid Form should leave the cells provided to input the price and quantity corresponding to that Project blank and empty. In this case, when the Procurement Administrator calls the Bidder to provide the assessment of the Bid Form, the Procurement Administrator will ask the Bidder to confirm their intention to leave these cells blank. If the cells were left blank in error, the Bidder may resubmit and any such resubmission will supersede all previously submitted Bid Forms as long as the resubmission is received prior to 1 PM on the Bid Date.

The Procurement Administrator does not provide a specific equation to determine the annual quantity of RECs or price per REC for a Bid for a Project.

The annual quantity of RECs in a Bid for a Project should be the annual quantity of RECs that the Seller is offering to deliver to all Companies under the terms of the applicable supplier contracts. The annual quantity of RECs in a Bid is subject to a maximum, which is calculated based on the output of a facility with a 26.5% capacity factor. There is no requirement for this annual quantity to be calculated in a specific way and there is no preference that will be assigned in the evaluation based on how the annual quantity relates to the capacity of the Project.

The price per REC in a Bid for a Project should be the Bidder’s best offer. The price in the REC Contract will be the Bidder’s bid price for the RECs of the Project and will be fixed throughout the term of the REC Contract.

Information regarding the New Solar RFP is available on a dedicated New Solar tab of the procurement website. From this tab, you can access the Final Materials page to which are posted the RFP Rules and REC Contract. The RFP Rules provide a full set of instructions for the submission of the Proposal under the New Solar RFP.

On Thursday, March 29, 2018, the Procurement Administrator will hold a webcast during which the RFP requirements for participation in the second procurement event will be covered. You can RSVP for this webcast on this same New Solar page of the procurement website.

A “Project” for purposes of the New Solar RFP has or will have a single revenue quality meter that satisfies the requirements of the applicable regional transmission organization, transmission provider, or distribution company, and that measures or will measure its generation output.  The New Solar RFP solicits new utility-scale solar Projects (over 2 MW) as well as brownfield site photovoltaic projects.

Whether or not these facilities are considered separate “Projects” depends on whether the adjacent facilities have their own meter installed and thus whether there are separate accounts registered in PJM EIS GATS or M-RETS for each facility.  If each facility has its own single revenue quality meter and account with PJM EIS GATS or M-RETS, then each facility is a “Project” for which a Proposal and Bid may be submitted.  To the extent that the output from each facility is measured by a single meter and the output is reflected in a single account with PJM EIS GATS or M-RETS, then the facilities together consist of a single Project for which you may submit a single Proposal and Bid.

The New Solar RFP is for the procurement of Renewable Energy Credits (“RECs”) only and there is no compensation for energy under the REC Contract. Energy and capacity from the project may be sold to other parties.

There is no deadline for registering; however, you will not be able to access the online Part 1 Form until you have done so. The first date of the Part 1 Window, when you will submit the Part 1 Form and supporting documents, is Friday, March 30, 2018. The Part 1 Proposal is due by Thursday, April 5, 2018.

On Thursday, March 29, 2018, the Procurement Administrator will hold a webcast to go over the RFP requirements for participation in the second procurement event. You can RSVP for this webcast on this same New Solar page of the procurement website.

Each Bidder in the New Solar RFP will be required to provide bid assurance collateral in the form of cash or a letter of credit separately to each of the three Companies (Ameren Illinois Company (“AIC”), Commonwealth Edison Company (“ComEd”), and MidAmerican Energy Company (“MEC”)) for all the Projects for which the Bidder is presenting a Proposal. The required amounts are as follows:

• $4,000/MW for AIC up to a maximum of $850,000;
• $10,000/MW for ComEd up to a maximum of $2,100,000; and
• $1,000/MW for MEC up to a maximum of $250,000.

For purposes of determining the amount of bid assurance collateral, the size of the Project will be rounded up to the nearest megawatt. In your example, for a Project that is 1 MWac, the required bid assurance collateral will be $4,000 for AIC, $10,000 for ComEd, and $1,000 for MEC.

No. A Bidder that has already paid a Bid Participation Fee pursuant to participation in a prior 2018 procurement event will not be required to pay the Bid Participation Fee in the second procurement event under the New Solar RFP.

No. Bid assurance collateral that is tendered for the first procurement event and that is still required for the second procurement event will roll over to the second procurement event.   In that manner, a Bidder that provides bid assurance collateral in the first procurement event and that participates in the second procurement event with the same Projects will already have the bid assurance collateral in place for the second procurement event.

No. Bid assurance collateral that is tendered for the first procurement event and that is still required for the second procurement event will roll over to the second procurement event.   In that manner, a Bidder that provides bid assurance collateral in the first procurement event and that participates in the second procurement event with the same Projects will already have the bid assurance collateral in place for the second procurement event.

However, if a Bidder elects not to participate in the second procurement event (as evidenced by you not submitting the Part 1 Proposal in the second procurement event for any of your Projects) then: (i) a Bidder that posted cash to a Company can submit a request for the return of cash tendered as bid assurance collateral to that Company to initiate the return the cash on April 5, 2018; and (ii) a Bidder that submitted a Pre-Bid Letter of Credit for a Company may submit an amendment to change the expiration date of the Pre-Bid Letter of Credit for that Company to April 5, 2018 (or later).

Although it is expected that the Bidder or Seller will own the Project presented in the Proposal, it is possible to submit a Part 1 Proposal while still negotiating with another party to acquire the Project.  While possible, the submission of the Part 1 Proposal in such circumstances may pose specific challenges.  Please be prepared to provide documentation to show that, even if negotiations are on-going, you have an agreement with the current owner to acquire the Project.  You will be required to provide documentation to establish site control.  To the extent that the current owner of the Project has agreements with landowners to use a site for purposes of developing the Project, you will be required to show that such agreements have been transferred or will be transferred to you.  Furthermore, the entity that is intended to be the signatory to the REC Contract for the Project must be formed as of the Part 1 Date.

This response highlights some key requirements that may be more challenging in your particular circumstances.  This response is not an exhaustive list of the qualification requirements for the Part 1 Proposal.  Please review Article IV of the RFP Rules as well as the illustrative Part 1 Form for a complete description of the requirements.

No. The identity of the Bidder has to be the same in both the Part 1 and the Part 2 Proposals. The Part 2 Proposal can be seen as building upon and relying on the information provided in the Part 1 Proposal and the Bidder has to be the same entity throughout.

We believe your question is related either to the Adjustable Block Program or the Illinois Solar for All Program. The New Solar RFP is a competitive procurement event and is not related to the open-enrollment programs under the Long-Term Renewable Resource Procurement Plan. Those requirements will continue to be developed and will be available on the IPA website: https://www2.illinois.gov/sites/ipa/Pages/default.aspx.

This provision is set forth in the Illinois Power Agency (“IPA”) Act, Section 1-75(c)(1)(J), with renewable energy credits from generating units “whose costs are being recovered through rates regulated by this State or any other state or states on or after January 1, 2017” being ineligible for Illinois RPS compliance.

Primarily, the IPA believes that this requirement was intended to ensure that RECs from rate-based projects approved by a state’s public utilities commission are not eligible to be used to satisfy the Illinois RPS, and thus is generally not intended to encompass off-take agreements, power purchase agreements, or the wholesale sales of energy, unless those transactions were expressly approved by the state’s public utilities commission or other relevant regulatory authority in a proceeding to set regulated utility rates. However, a final interpretation of this language is not being offered through this RFP process; further detail around the determination of whether a generating unit’s “costs are being recovered through” regulated “rates” will be included in the IPA’s long-term renewable resources plan, and any final determinations about the scope of projects included in that prohibition will be subject to final determination by the Illinois Commerce Commission in its Order regarding the IPA’s proposed plan.

The Bid Participation Fee is $500. The Bid Participation Fee is required only if you have not participated in a procurement event in 2018 and paid the Bid Participation Fee at that time.

Bid assurance collateral is the financial guarantees you will be required to submit with the Part 2 Proposal. The bid assurance collateral is provided to each Company separately as a Pre-Bid Letter of Credit or cash. The amount of bid assurance collateral is determined on the basis of the aggregate size of the Projects that a Bidder is presenting.

The benchmarks are price-based and do not include other qualification requirements that are not disclosed to Bidders. All qualification requirements are provided to Bidders in the RFP Rules.

Yes. The amounts required per MW (AC rating) are the same for both Categories of Projects.

No. Each project, regardless of where it will be located, has to provide bid assurance collateral for each of the three Companies as each Project and Seller selected through the RFP and approved by the Commission will execute a REC Contract with each of these Companies.

The Procurement Administrator fills new requests for login credentials on a rolling basis. If you made a request and did not receive login credentials, a possible cause is that credentials have already been issued to another individual at your company. If that is not the case, or if you are a returning bidder and you cannot find your login credentials, please contact the Procurement Administrator via email so that we can re-issue the credentials.

No. It is a condition of the REC Contract that the Project is or will be registered in PJM EIS GATS or M-RETS and that the Seller will deliver RECs to the Companies’ accounts in PJM EIS GATS or MRETS.

The Part 1 Inserts can be found in the Final Materials Section on the New Solar RFP page on the procurement website. The Inserts are the same as in the first procurement event.

If the information submitted during the first procurement event for a Project remains valid and up-to-date, you do not need to re-upload any of the supporting documents. However, if information provided in the Part 1 Proposal in the first procurement event has changed, you must revise the information or inform the Procurement Administrator of that fact.

That is correct. If the information in the Part 1 Proposal submitted in the first procurement event under the New Solar RFP remains valid and up-to-date, please submit the online Part 1 Form without making updates or changes.  You will be prompted to acknowledge that all information in the Part 1 Proposal from the first procurement event remains valid.

The IPA has not yet issued a schedule for additional forward procurements.  Please monitor the IPA’s website for an announcement (https://www2.illinois.gov/sites/ipa/Pages/News.aspx).

No. Each Bidder in the New Solar RFP will be required to provide bid assurance collateral in the form of cash or a letter of credit separately to each of the three Companies (Ameren Illinois Company (“AIC”), Commonwealth Edison Company (“ComEd”), and MidAmerican Energy Company (“MEC”)) for all the Projects for which the Bidder is presenting a Part 2 Proposal. The required amounts are as follows:

• $4,000/MW for AIC up to a maximum of $850,000;
• $10,000/MW for ComEd up to a maximum of $2,100,000; and
• $1,000/MW for MEC up to a maximum of $250,000.

For purposes of determining the amount of bid assurance collateral, the size of the Project will be rounded up to the nearest megawatt. If the Bidder fails to provide bid assurance collateral to one or more of the Companies, the Part 2 Proposal for one, several, or all Projects will automatically be deficient and will be rejected.

If you are unable to meet the bid assurance collateral requirement for the aggregate size of the Projects presented in the Part 1 Proposal, you may opt to decrease the number of Projects for which you present a Part 2 Proposal so as to lower the aggregate size of the Projects and thus the amount of bid assurance collateral required.

The delivery term under the REC Contract is for 15 years.   The delivery term is specified in Public Act 99-0906 (the “Future Energy Jobs Act”) that took effect on June 1, 2017.

The duration of the REC Contract, and all of its terms, are non-negotiable.   In your Part 1 Proposal, you have certified that you have reviewed the REC Contract, understood its terms, and that you accept the terms without modifications.  We remind you that your Pre-Bid Letter of Credit, or cash provided as bid assurance collateral, may be drawn if you are found to have made a material misrepresentation in your Part 1 or Part 2 Proposal.

No.  At this time, all participants in the New Solar RFP must abide by the requirements of the RFP Rules, including showing site control for an area equal to 4 times the size of the Project (AC rating).

You are asking a question about a situation in which the Bidder presented Proposals for multiple Projects in the first procurement event, completed the Part 2 Proposal including bid assurance collateral and supporting documents for these Projects, is participating in the second procurement but with a different set of Projects, some of which are the same as in the first procurement event, and some of which are different. We confirm that, if the names of the Sellers and/or the names of the Projects that the Bidder is presenting have changed from the first procurement event to the second procurement event, then the Bidder faces additional requirements in the terms of bid assurance collateral and the documents related to bid assurance collateral.

Specifically, if the Bidder submitted a Pre-Bid Letter of Credit for a Company as bid assurance collateral, then the Bidder must submit an amendment to the Pre-Bid Letter of Credit so that Paragraph 12 names all Sellers in the second procurement event as those names were provided in the Part 1 Proposals. In Paragraph 12, the definition of “Seller” should list all Sellers as follows:   “Seller” shall mean [insert name of first Seller as provided in the Part 1 Proposal] or [insert name of second Seller as provided in the Part 1 Proposal] or … or [insert name of last Seller as provided in the Part 1 Proposal].

If the Bidder submitted cash for a Company as bid assurance collateral, then the Bidder must submit with its Part 2 Proposal a new Cash Insert for that Company as well as a new request for the return of cash. The Cash Insert names all Sellers and thus, as in the case of a Pre-Bid Letter of Credit, this item must be updated to reflect the names of the Sellers in the second procurement event. The name of each Seller must be as it is provided in the Part 1 Proposal. The requests for return of cash name all Projects and thus this item must be updated to reflect the names of the Projects in the second procurement event. The names of the Projects should appear as provided in the Part 1 Proposal.

Finally, we note that to the extent that the aggregate size of the Projects have changed from the first procurement event to the second procurement event, then the amount of bid assurance collateral required will have changed as well. Instructions in this regard were provided to each Bidder with its Part 1 Notification.

Your Pre-Bid Letters of Credit for AIC, ComEd, and MEC will expire on May 22, 2018, the date stated as part of its terms. If you would prefer for the Pre-Bid Letters of Credit to expire on an earlier date, you may submit an amendment to each of the Companies to change the expiration date.