A Bidder must submit bid assurance collateral for the Project in the form of cash or of a letter of credit to each of the Companies. Whether providing bid assurance collateral in the form 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 each Company. Such instructions are provided by the date of the Part 1 Notification, February 25, 2021, but after submission by the Bidder of a Part 1 Proposal.

A Project that first started operations on or before June 1, 2017 is not eligible to participate in the upcoming Utility-Scale Wind RFP.

Please see the most recent Long-Term Renewable Resources Procurement Plan available on the Illinois Power Agency’s (IPA) website here for the exhaustive overview of programs and competitive procurement events to procure Renewable Energy Credits (“RECs”) on behalf of Ameren Illinois Company, Commonwealth Edison Company and MidAmerican Energy Companies. As noted in Section 5.2 Background on past REC Procurements conducted by the IPA, the IPA held spot procurements for RECs from 2009-2016. No new spot procurements are currently planned.

Yes. Public Act 99-0906, effective June 1, 2017, requires the Illinois Power Agency to develop a Long-Term Renewable Resources Procurement Plan and implement procurement programs and competitive procurement events necessary to meet the goals and targets of the Renewable Portfolio Standard for all retail customer load. The most recent Long-Term Renewable Resources Procurement Plan is available on the IPA’s website here and additional information is provided in section 2.3.1 Load Applicable to RPS Goals.

No, a Bidder that has a Project that qualifies via a successful Part 1 Proposal is not required to submit a Bid for that Project on the Bid Date.

Please see paragraph IV.2.3. of the RFP Rules, which states “ To demonstrate project maturity, the Bidder must provide, if available for the Project, one of the following:

• the Queue/OASIS ID from PJM and a copy of the completed System Impact Study from PJM for the Project; or
• the Project Number from MISO and a copy of the Preliminary System Impact Study under Definitive Planning Phase 1 (“DPP 1”) under the DPP-2020-Cycle 1 or a later study cycle; or
• the Project Number from MISO and a copy of the fully executed interconnection agreement for the Project; or
• a fully executed interconnection agreement with an electric distribution utility for the Project.

If none of these are available for the Project, or if the Bidder cannot provide a document that shows that the Project is further in the interconnection process, then the Bidder must: (i) describe the stage of development of the Project applicable to the point of interconnection and to the size of the Project; and (ii) demonstrate control for a portion of the Project site that covers an area of at least 40 acres times the Project size as described in Paragraph IV.2.4.”

This redline is available at the bottom of the Final Materials page of the procurement website under the header FINAL Winter 2021 Utility-Scale Wind REC Contract. Please note that the base agreement for the redline is a restructured version of the Final Fall 2019 Wind REC Agreement from the Fall 2019 Utility-Scale Wind RFP.

The definition of Force Majeure in the Winter 2021 Utility-Scale Wind Final REC Agreement includes delays associated with processing of permit requests, provided that Seller can demonstrate to Buyer and the IPA that such delay is not primarily attributable to the Seller’s failure to make in a timely manner permitting requests. The denial of a permit request is not included in the definition of Force Majeure.

The Utility-Scale Wind RFP bidder information presentation and audio recording are available on the Final Materials page of the utility-scale wind section of the procurement website, here.

Comments will be posted to the IPA website by Friday, April 10, 2020.

A “Project” has or will have a single 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.

It is unclear whether by “facility” you mean a single Project or whether you mean several Projects that are co-located.  To the extent that the output from the entire 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 facility is a single Project for purposes of presenting a proposal for a procurement event. If, on the other hand, the facility has more than one Project and thus more than one meter installed, each associated with a separate account registered in PJM EIS GATS or M-RETS, then a separate proposal may be presented for each Project.

The requirements of the 2019 Utility-Scale Wind RFP are subject to change.  The requirements for the next procurement will be posted to the procurement website when they become available.  The schedule will be posted to the Calendar page of the procurement website and an announcement will be sent to all registrants at that time. If you are not already registered, please join our mailing list to receive updates and announcements regarding RFPs announced by the Procurement Administrator by completing the Contact Us form here: https://www.ipa-energyrfp.com/contact-us/register/.

The information released by the Commission regarding the procurement event is the only information that can be made public.  Section 16-111.5(h) of the Public Utilities Act requires that “all participants in the procurement process shall maintain the confidentiality of all other supplier and bidding information” and “participants” include the Procurement Administrator.  As such, we cannot provide additional information.

A request to the Illinois Power Agency to evaluate whether a project located in a state adjacent to Illinois (Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky, Indiana, and Michigan) satisfied the public interest criteria of the Act may be made at any time.  In order to apply to the Agency for consideration for eligibility, please download and complete the eligibility request spreadsheet posted on the IPA’s website under the header “Adjacent State Facility Eligibility” here. The completed spreadsheet should be emailed to IPA.ContactUs@Illinois.gov.

The benchmark is confidential and subject to review and approval by the Commission.

The Collateral Requirement is posted with each of ComEd and AIC only if a Project has a winning Bid that is approved by the Commission. Such Collateral Requirement under each REC Contract, with ComEd and AIC, is equal to $4 times the annual quantity of RECs, and is subject to a minimum of $20,000.

The benchmark is confidential and subject to review and approval by the Commission.

The benchmark is confidential and subject to review and approval by the Commission.

At the time of Commission approval of a procurement event, the names of successful bidders and the average of the winning Bid prices are made public.  The quantity of RECs procured may also be disclosed if there are at least three successful bidders. The Act states that participants in the procurement process will maintain the confidentiality of all other supplier and bidding information.

Yes, if a Bidder posts bid assurance collateral and the Project(s) is not selected, the full amount of the bid assurance collateral will be returned within the timeframes provided in the Utility-Scale Wind RFP.

There is no minimum number of RECs that must be included in a Bid for a Project.

The Utility-Scale Wind REC Contract states the following: “RECs shall not be eligible for payment by Buyer if Delivered by Seller prior to the Commission Bid Approval Date or if such REC(s) are related to generation of electricity that occurred more than two (2) months prior to the first day of the Delivery Term (such RECs, “Ineligible RECs”). Seller shall have no obligation to Buyer with respect to any Ineligible RECs.” The Commission Bid Approval Date is October 30, 2019.

Also, please note that the Delivery Term starts on “the later of the Commission Bid Approval Date or the date that the first REC is issued by PJM EIS GATS or M-RETS for the Project regardless of when the initial date of REC Deliveries by Seller to Buyer occurs”.

The amount of bid assurance collateral required for a Project is determined separately for each Company as detailed below.  For purposes of determining the amount of bid assurance collateral, where applicable, the aggregate size of the Projects presented by a Bidder will be rounded to the nearest megawatt.

• The amount of bid assurance collateral required for AIC is $1,600/MW.  The amount of bid assurance collateral tendered to AIC across all Projects presented by a Bidder need not exceed $1,200,000.
• The amount of bid assurance collateral required for ComEd is $4,000/MW.  The amount of bid assurance collateral tendered to ComEd across all Projects presented by a Bidder need not exceed $2,800,000.

For example, if the bidder presents Projects with an aggregate size of 150 MW, the bidder would submit 150 x $1,600 = $240,000 to AIC and 150 x 4,000 = $600,000 to ComEd.

A “Bid” includes a price per REC for a given Project as well as an annual quantity of RECs that the Seller is offering to deliver under the terms of the applicable supplier contract between the Company and the Seller. A Bidder cannot submit more than one Bid for a given Project.

The contract and RFP documents for the Fall 2019 Utility-Scale Wind RFP are not yet available and the requirements for participation have not been finalized.  The Preliminary Proposal documents are expected to be posted on Wednesday, September 4, 2019.

Projects located in Illinois will be eligible as will Projects located in a state that is adjacent to Illinois as long as the facility meets the public interest criteria specified in Section 1-75(c)(1)(I) of the IPA Act. Adjacent states include Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky, Indiana, and Michigan. In its Long-Term Renewable Resources Procurement Plan the IPA proposed a methodology and point system for determining whether a project satisfies those public interest criteria and the proposal was approved by the Commission on April 3, 2018.   A Project located in an adjacent state must receive a score of at least 60 points. In order to apply to the Agency for consideration for eligibility, please download and complete the eligibility request spreadsheet posted on the IPA’s website under the header “Adjacent State Facility Eligibility” here. The completed spreadsheet should be emailed to IPA.ContactUs@Illinois.gov. Please allow the Illinois Power Agency five business days to review adjacent state project eligibility spreadsheets submittals.

If the Project is located in a state adjacent to Illinois, the Bidder will be required to provide evidence that the IPA has determined that the Project meets the public interest criteria in the Act and has been pre-approved by the IPA to be eligible for Illinois RPS compliance. This is expected to be a requirement of the Part 1 Proposal of the Utility-Scale Wind RFP due on October 2, 2019.

The Utility-Scale Wind RFP will be held in 2019.  Information pertaining to this procurement will be posted to the dedicated Utility-Scale Wind Procurement page of the procurement website as soon as it becomes available.  The schedule will be posted to the Calendar page of the procurement website and an announcement will be sent to all registrants at that time.

As approved by the ICC, the Long-Term Plan provides for a procurement of a minimum of 1 million RECs delivered annually from new utility-scale wind projects (projects over 2 MW) under fifteen-year contracts. Please refer to Section 5.8.2 of the Long Term Plan for additional information.

If the Commission accepts the results of the procurement event, the Bidder receives a communication from the Procurement Administrator noting that it has received a partial award. The Bidder may at that time state whether it intends to accept or reject the award.

The Performance Assurance is provided to the Companies. A representative from each Company will contact you with further instructions on October 10, 2018, the date that the ICC renders its decision on results of procurement event.

The Supplier Fees are paid to the Illinois Power Agency (“IPA”). The Procurement Administrator will provide instructions regarding the Supplier Fees on October 10, 2018.

The lists of optional changes to the (AIC) Form of Guaranty and the (MEC) Form of Guaranty are available under the FINAL Fall 2018 Wind REC Contract header on the Final Materials page of the procurement website. These do not appear in the Contract Insert because the Guarantor prepares the guaranty for AIC and MEC (while ComEd prepares the guaranty for the ComEd REC Contract).

Yes, cash is an acceptable form of Performance Assurance under the REC Contract.

The Supplier Fee is $0.18 times the Annual Quantity of RECs bid for a Project (which is equivalent to about $0.012 per REC assessed on the anticipated quantity of RECs over the entire 15-year delivery term).

The RECs from a Project selected through the Utility-Scale Wind RFP and 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.

This information is posted on the Announcements page of the procurement website.

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 can lead to forfeiture of the entirety of the bid assurance collateral required with the Part 2 Proposal.  There could be other consequences to the Seller such as loss of eligibility to participate in other Programs or RFPs implemented by or on behalf of the IPA.

No.  All modifications that were included in the preliminary list of acceptable modifications are included (unchanged) in the final list of acceptable modifications for the Pre-Bid Letter of Credit for each Company.

Under the REC Contract, Performance Assurance is due within 5 business days of notice from Buyer whenever the Collateral Threshold is less than the Collateral Requirement.  Buyer is expected to provide such notice on the day of approval of the results of the procurement event by the Illinois Commerce Commission so that Performance Assurance is due with 5 business days of ICC approval of the results of the procurement.

It is the responsibility of the Seller to evaluate such risks.

All bid assurance collateral remains in place at least until the Commission has rendered a decision on the results of the procurement event.

A Company may draw upon the letter of credit or a cash deposit if: (i) the Bidder or a Seller has disclosed information relating to the Proposal for a Project publicly or to any other party before the Illinois Commerce Commission has rendered its decision on the results of the procurement event; or (ii) the Bidder or a Seller has made a material omission or misrepresentation in the Part 1 Proposal or the Part 2 Proposal for a Project submitted in connection with the procurement event; or (iii) a Seller has failed to execute the applicable supplier contract for a Project within three (3) business days of being notified that the Illinois Commerce Commission has approved the Bid on that Project or has failed to meet the creditworthiness requirements of the applicable supplier contract within five (5) business days of such Illinois Commerce Commission decision; or (iv) the Bidder or a Seller has failed to pay to the Illinois Power Agency the Supplier Fee for a Project within seven (7) business days of being notified that the Illinois Commerce Commission has approved the Bid on that Project.

Otherwise, if these circumstances do not apply, bid assurance collateral in the form of cash is returned.  If no Bid is submitted for the Project or if the Project is not selected through the RFP and approved by the Commission, as soon as practicable after the Commission decision, each Company will initiate the return of cash upon receipt of an acceptable fully executed request for the return of cash on the appropriate entity’s letterhead.  While there is no deadline for submission of the fully executed request for the return of cash, any delay in providing this request to a Company will result in delay for the return of the bid assurance collateral.  If the Project is selected through the RFP and approved by the Commission, as soon as practicable after full execution of the REC Contract and receipt by the IPA of the payment of the Supplier Fees, each Company will initiate the return of cash upon receipt of an acceptable fully executed request for the return of cash on the appropriate entity’s letterhead.  While there is no deadline for submission of the fully executed request for the return of cash, any delay in providing this request to a Company will result in delay for the return of the bid assurance collateral.  A request for the return of cash in the form of the draft request approved at the time of the Part 2 Proposal.

If these circumstances do not apply and bid assurance collateral was posted as a letter of credit, then the letter of credit is allowed to expire on the date stated as part of its terms, seventeen (17) days after the Bid Date.  The letter of credit is not returned to the Bidder unless the Bidder provides special instructions to that effect in the Part 2 Proposal.

The circumstance of a Bidder not submitting a Bid is not a reason for drawing on bid assurance collateral or for bid assurance collateral posted as cash not to be returned.  There is no penalty for not submitting a bid.

All bid assurance collateral remains in place at least until the Commission has rendered a decision on the results of the procurement event.  There is no option to “withdraw” from the procurement event although you may elect not to cure deficiencies associated with your Proposal or not to submit a Bid.

If bid assurance collateral in the form of cash is submitted, the following applies.  If no Bid is submitted for the Project, as soon as practicable after the Commission decision, each Company will initiate the return of cash upon receipt of an acceptable fully executed request for the return of cash on the appropriate entity’s letterhead.  While there is no deadline for submission of the fully executed request for the return of cash, any delay in providing this request to a Company will result in delay for the return of the bid assurance collateral.  A request for the return of cash in the form of the draft request approved at the time of the Part 2 Proposal.

If bid assurance collateral was posted as a letter of credit, then the letter of credit is allowed to expire on the date stated as part of its terms, seventeen (17) days after the Bid Date.  The letter of credit is not returned to the Bidder unless the Bidder provides special instructions to that effect in the Part 2 Proposal.

A Project selected through the Utility-Scale Wind RFP and approved by the Illinois Commerce Commission (“ICC”) will be assessed a Supplier Fee per REC that will be due within seven (7) business days after ICC approval of the Bids.  The Supplier Fee will be stated as $x.xx per REC and will be assessed on the Annual Quantity of RECs associated with a Bidder’s winning Bid.  (The “Annual Quantity of RECs” means that annual quantity that is identified by the Procurement Administrator as the Bidder’s winning Bids and that becomes the quantity under contract if the Commission approves the results of the procurement event.  In the case of a partial award, the quantity under contract may be smaller than the quantity that a Bidder submitted in its Bid.)

This calculation is a change from what was used in the procurement event under the Wind and Solar RFP held in Fall 2017 and the procurement events under the New Solar RFP.  In those procurement events, the assessment was based on the anticipated quantity of RECs procured over the entire 15 years of the REC Contract.

Under the Utility-Scale Wind RFP, the Supplier Fee is $0.18 per REC.  Suppose that the annual quantity identified by the Procurement Administrator as the Bidder’s winning Bids for the Project is 100,000 RECs.  Then the Supplier Fees due would be $18,000, which is calculated as follows:

First posted 9/21/2018; revised 10/2/2018.

It is acceptable for an entity other than the Bidder or a Seller to post bid assurance collateral on behalf of the Bidder.

If cash is posted by the “Entity” (an entity other than the Bidder or a Seller) as bid assurance collateral, we would appreciate a note with the wire transfer to identify the Bidder on behalf of which the bid assurance collateral is posted. The Bidder must provide a draft request for the return of cash, on the Entity’s letterhead.  The request is a “draft” in that it may leave all amounts blank and may be unsigned.  The Procurement Administrator may require that a representative from the Entity also sign the Cash Inserts if the Entity is not an affiliate of the Bidder or Sellers.

If a Pre-Bid Letter of Credit is posted by the Entity, the “Entity” is the Applicant.  The Bidder and Seller are identified in Paragraph 12 of the Pre-Bid Letter of Credit.

The provisions that control the assignment of the REC Contract are provided in Section 9.2.  We note that the requirement that the acquirer’s creditworthiness is equal to or greater than the original Seller is sufficient for an assignment to be granted only when the Seller and the acquirer are affiliated entities.  The fact that the acquirer’s creditworthiness is equal to or greater than the Seller is not sufficient for an assignment to be granted when the Seller and acquirer are unrelated entities.  Please review the applicable provision under the REC Contract to see whether this provision can be used to transfer ownership after a Bid is submitted by you for the Project, the Bid is selected and approved by the Commission, you sign the REC Contract and submit to the creditworthiness requirements.

A change of ownership during the short timeframes of the procurement event is not contemplated by the RFP Rules and can only be accommodated in very limited circumstances.  The Procurement Administrator will assess any specific circumstances on a case-by-case basis and any Seller in this situation should provide all relevant information to the Procurement Administrator at the earliest opportunity.  The qualifications of the Project must be maintained after the change of ownership for continued compliance with the RFP Rules, which implies at least the following: (i) site control must be transferred to the acquirer and documentation to that effect must be provided; and (ii) the same representatives of the same Seller must make all certifications required by the RFP Rules (in the Part 1 and the Part 2 Proposals), submit the Bid with respect to the Project, and sign the REC Contracts (assuming a successful Bid).  A change of ownership would be expected to result in a change in the identity of the Officer of the Seller.  Such a change cannot be made after the Part 2 Date as there is no further opportunity during the procurement event to submit the certifications required by the Proposal.

The Procurement Administrator allocates Bids selected by the evaluation procedure to each Company in proportion to the Company’s budget. The Procurement Administrator may take other factors into account in determining the allocation across the Companies. The Procurement Administrator will announce the allocation as early as practicable and no later than two (2) business days prior to the Bid Date.

The Pre-Bid Letter of Credit under the Utility-Scale Wind RFP expires on October 29, 2018, seventeen business days after the Bid Date.

A Bidder may provide comments on or propose modifications to the Post-Bid Letter of Credit as appended to the REC Contract or to each Pre-Bid Letter of Credit. These comments or proposed modifications are submitted with the Part 1 Proposal.

The final version of the Standard Pre-Bid Letter of Credit for each Company was posted on August 28, 2018 and the final versions of the Post-Bid Letters of Credit were posted on August 22, 2018. These letters of credit will not change based on comments or proposed modifications submitted during the Part 1 Window. Instead, any comments or proposed modifications may result in an addition to the list of modifications to the Pre-Bid Letter of Credit or list of modifications to the Post-Bid Letter of Credit approved by the Company for use by all Bidders on an optional basis.

A “Bid” includes a price per REC for a given Project as well as an annual quantity of RECs to be delivered from that Project under the REC Contract. If a Project is selected through the RFP and is approved by the Commission, the Seller under the REC Contract is paid the price submitted as part of the Bid for that Project.

At the time of ICC approval of a procurement event, the names of winning Sellers and the average of the winning bid prices are made public. The quantity of RECs procured may also be disclosed in specific circumstances.

Please consult Section 4.2 of the IPA’s Long-Term Renewable Resources Plan for an interpretation of this section of the Act and for the manner in which the IPA intends to establish whether a facility’s cost is or is not recovered through rates regulated by a state.

Primarily, the IPA understands that this provision was generally intended to ensure that facilities owned by a vertically integrated utility, for which REC revenues may be incidental to building and financing the facility, would not be eligible. The rate recovery status of a facility in an adjacent state will ordinarily be reviewed by the IPA when the facility applies for eligibility for the utility Renewable Portfolio Standard and the IPA expects to ask for additional documentation at that time. The IPA is not aware of any renewable facilities in Illinois that have their costs recovered through regulated rates.

The answer depends on if the Bidder has changed. Should you present one or more projects under the Utility-Scale Wind RFP and the Bidder is unchanged, you are not required to pay the Bid Participation Fee in this RFP. If the Bidder changed since the prior 2018 procurement event, however, you will be required to pay the Bid Participation Fee again in this RFP.

Files that are uploaded to the online Part 1 Form, including zip files, are limited to a size of 30Mb. In addition to the three upload links provided under the Fourth Item in Section 2, there are four upload links in Section 6 “Justification of Omissions” that you may use to provide the documentation. Alternatively, you may submit the files to us by email at Illinois-RFP@nera.com. Please note that you may need to send multiple emails.

The Seller named in the Part 1 Proposal must be the counterparty to all three (3) Companies for delivery of RECs from the Project.

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 August 22).

Section 5(e) of the Coversheet of the REC Contract requires that “at least 50% of the Project is located within the physical location identified.” This means that at least 50% of the Project, or “subset” from your question, 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.
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 of the REC Contract, 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.

No. the REC Contract does not require the Seller to commit to a specific date for the start of commercial operations as long as the Date of First Operation (as recorded by PJM EIS GATS or M-RETS) did not occur on or before June 1, 2017 and as long as the Date of First Operation occurs on or before October 10, 2021. The REC Contract defines Force Majeure events that can excuse delay.

No, under the REC Contract there is no penalty for a Date of First Operation being before October 10, 2021 (provided that this date is not on or before June 1, 2017).

A Bidder is asked for the actual or expected Date of First Operation as a requirement of the Part 1 Proposal. There is no opportunity to change that date at a later time. However, the REC Contract does not require the Seller to commit to a specific date for the start of commercial operations as long as the Date of First Operation (as recorded by PJM EIS GATS or M-RETS) did not occur on or before June 1, 2017 and as long as the Date of First Operation occurs on or before October 10, 2021. The REC Contract defines Force Majeure events that can excuse delay.

If a Seller has a Project with approved Bids, by 12 PM CPT (noon) on the first business day after the ICC decision (October 10, 2018), each 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 next business day, 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.

Under the REC Contract, the Performance Assurance is due within five (5) business days of a request from the Company.  Such a request can be issued at the start of the formalities for the execution of the REC Contract.  If Seller fails to provide Performance Assurance within 5 business days of this request, an event of default shall be deemed to have occurred.

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 Illinois Power Agency 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, the exact legal name of the Seller does not need to be displayed on the evidence uploaded to the online Part 1 Form to show that the Bid Participation Fee has been paid.  However, to complete the requirements of the Part 1 Proposal, the Procurement Administrator must be able to get confirmation from the Illinois Power Agency (“IPA”) that the IPA has received payment of the Bid Participation Fee.

Suppose a 200 MW wind Project is selected by the evaluation for an annual quantity of 550,000 RECs and approved by the Commission.  The annual quantity will then be allocated by the Procurement Administrator to each of the three (3) Companies.  Suppose that the quantities to each Company were 300,000 for ComEd, 200,000 to AIC, and 50,000 to MEC.  Then the collateral requirement for each of the three Companies would be $1.2M, $800,000, and $200,000 respectively.  Thus, the collateral requirement across the contracts for all three Companies together would be $2.2M ($1.2M + $800,000 + $200,000 = $4 x 550,000 RECs).

The Bid Participation Fee of $500 is submitted with the Part 1 Proposal and is due by the Part 1 Date, September 5, 2018.

The Procurement Administrator will inform Bidders of the amount of the Supplier Fee per REC no later than 6 PM two (2) business days before the Bid Date. Payment of the Supplier Fees to the IPA will be due within seven (7) business days after the date at which the Illinois Commerce Commission (“ICC”) approves the Bids. The ICC decision on the results of the procurement event will take place on Wednesday, October 10, 2018.

Posted 7/27/2018; amended 8/29/2018

We are unsure as to the meaning of your question.  Assuming that the Project is established after the ICC approval of the bid results, then the Delivery Term starts on the date of first REC issuance as recorded by the tracking system (GATS or M-RETS).  In this case, there would be no RECs issued prior to the Delivery Term. If the Project is currently operating and is producing RECs, then the Delivery Term starts on the Commission Bid Approval Date and any RECs based on generation that occurred 2 months prior to the Delivery Term start date would be eligible for transfer to the Buyers.

The bid assurance collateral is due by the Part 2 Date. The bid assurance collateral is not on a per REC basis, but on a per MW basis calculated based on the aggregate size of all of your Projects combined. Once the aggregate size of all of your Projects is determined, then the bid assurance collateral amount is $1600/MW for AIC, $4000/MW for ComEd, and $400/MW for MEC. The bid assurance collateral in the form of cash or a Pre-Bid Letter of Credit must be sent separately to each of the Companies; namely, AIC, ComEd and MEC.

No. The amount will remain constant throughout the term of the contract.

No, the Collateral Requirement under each REC Contract is separate from the bid assurance collateral. The Collateral Requirement due under a REC Contract is calculated as $4 x Annual Quantity of such REC contract (rounded up to the nearest $10,000). This is subject to a minimum of $25,000 for the first 10 Delivery Years. After the first 10 Delivery Years during the Delivery Term, if the Collateral Requirement is equal to or less than $25,000, then the Collateral Requirement shall be deemed to be zero.

Under the REC Contract, the Performance Assurance in the form of a letter of credit or cash is due shortly after the execution of the REC Contract. In the event Seller fails to provide Performance Assurance within 5 business days, an event of default is deemed to have occurred.

The Draft Wind REC Contract is posted to the Draft Documents subpage to the dedicated Utility-Scale Wind section of the procurement website:

https://www.ipa-energyrfp.com/utility-scale-wind/draft-documents/

The bid assurance collateral amounts have been set. Each Bidder in the Utility-Scale Wind 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:

• $1,600/MW for AIC up to a ceiling of $2,150,000
• $4,000/MW for ComEd up to a ceiling of $5,500,000
• $400/MW for MEC up to a ceiling of $350,000.

Additional information on bid assurance collateral requirements will be provided with the final RFP Documents, which will be issued on Thursday, August 23, 2018.

If you have not done so already, please join our mailing list to receive updates and information by completing the automated form on the Register page. An announcement will be sent to the mailing list when the RFP Documents have been issued.

Yes. Each participant is required to pay a non-refundable Bid Participation Fee of $500 as a condition of completing the Part 1 Proposal to the extent that such participant has not already paid a Bid Participation Fee pursuant to its participation in a 2018 procurement event.  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 2018 procurement events.

The Supplier Fees, which are levied only on those that have bids approved by the 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 which will be applied to the annual quantity of RECs for a winning Project, will be provided during the webcast planned for August 24, 2018.

Additionally, there is a Collateral Requirement under the REC Contract. The Collateral Requirement is posted only if a Project has a winning Bid that is approved by the Commission. The Collateral Requirement is posted upon contract execution.

Bid Assurance Collateral is submitted with the Part 2 Proposal, which is due on the Part 2 Date. The Part 2 Date for the upcoming Utility-Scale Wind RFP is September 26, 2018.

Projects located in Illinois will be eligible as will Projects located in a state that is adjacent to Illinois as long as the facility meets the public interest criteria specified in Section 1-75(c)(1)(I) of the IPA Act. Adjacent states include Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky, Indiana, and Michigan. In its Long-Term Renewable Resources Procurement Plan the IPA proposed a methodology and point system for determining whether a project satisfies those public interest criteria and the proposal was approved by the Commission on April 3, 2018.   A Project located in an adjacent state must receive a score of at least 60 points. In order to apply to the Agency for consideration for eligibility, please download and complete the eligibility request spreadsheet posted on the IPA’s website.

There is no requirement to interconnect with one of the Companies (ComEd, AIC or MEC) and there is no requirement to interconnect with a specific RTO. It is expected that in its Proposal, a Bidder will be required to describe the stage of development of the Project including naming the utility or Regional Transmission Organization (e.g., PJM or MISO) to which the Seller has applied or will apply for interconnection. The Procurement Administrator posted preliminary proposal requirements and the draft REC Contract to the dedicated Utility-Scale Wind Procurement page. The final RFP Documents will be posted on August 23, 2018, and will outline the final proposal requirements.

If you have not done so already, please join our mailing list to receive updates and information by completing the automated form on the Register page. An announcement will be sent to the mailing list when the RFP Documents have been issued.

It is expected that a Project that is energized in June 2018 would be eligible to participate in the Utility-Scale Wind RFP.

The final RFP Documents, including the RFP Rules, will be issued on Thursday, August 23, 2018.

Feedback regarding credit and collateral provisions, including the level of pre-bid collateral, is requested under Topic 2 in the IPA’s Request for Comments.

We are unable to tell exactly to which slide your question refers but we assume that you are referring to the structure of the proposal submission process (slide 20).  This submission process is generally the same across all procurement events held by the IPA.  There has been no change to this structure since the Initial Forward Procurements.

Proposal requirements, however, may change.  In particular, the IPA is seeking input on the level of pre-bid collateral and on an appropriate milestone to use to assess project maturity.  Feedback regarding the level of pre-bid collateral is requested under Topic 2 in the IPA’s Request for Comments and feedback regarding an appropriate assessment of project maturity is requested under Topic 4.

Under Public Act 099-0906 (“Act”), a utility-scale solar project meets the definition of “new photovoltaic projects” if it is energized after June 1, 2017.  This definition does not specify a “no later than” date. The Act defines “new wind projects” as wind renewable energy facilities that are energized after June 1, 2017 for the delivery year commencing June 1, 2017 or within 3 years after the date the Commission approves contracts for subsequent delivery years. The IPA provides its interpretation of these definitions in Section 2.4.2. of its draft Long-Term Renewable Resources Procurement Plan available here.

The Procurement Administrator will issue an invitation to submit comments on the draft REC Contract, expected on July 13, 2018.  The draft REC Contract will specify the delivery obligations and stakeholders may comment on any of these specific provisions.  If necessary, there will be an additional invitation to comment on the draft REC Contract as it applies to utility-scale solar project and brownfield site photovoltaic projects later in the fall.

For a utility-scale wind project to be considered “new”, as specified in the Act, it must be energized no later than three years after the Commission decision on the results of the procurement event for which the project is approved.  Thus this is not a fixed date but a date that will vary depending on the date of a specific procurement event.

Separately from this requirement, the IPA is currently seeking stakeholder input on the deadline for first REC delivery. The IPA’s Long-Term Renewable Resources Procurement Plan targets the 2020-2021 Delivery Year for first REC deliveries under the Forward Procurements, but does not indicate a specific date.  Feedback regarding the deadline for first REC delivery is requested under Topic 1 in the IPA’s Request for Comments.