A subscriber agreement is not proof of ownership of the Project.  A subscriber agreement is merely proof that a low-income residential customer or a community-based organization is a “subscriber” and thus receives a credit for the value of the electricity generated by the Project.  A subscriber agreement would not, in the usual course of events, also include proof that the subscriber has an ownership stake in the Project.  Additional documentation is thus required for the purpose of demonstrating an ownership stake.  The Procurement Administrator expects such additional documentation (i) to show that ownership of a portion of the Project was granted or transferred to the subscriber; (ii) to specify the subscriber’s ownership stake in kWs or as a percentage of the capacity of the Project; and (iii) to describe the benefits of ownership for the subscriber, such as a share of the revenue from the sale of RECs, tax credits, or other rebates and incentives.

For purposes of meeting the standard that the Project is at least 50% owned by subscribers, community-based organizations are limited to a 40% ownership share so that 10% (or more) of the Project must be owned on an individual basis by low-income residential subscribers.  Thus, for the purpose of the subscriber-owned determination it is not acceptable that only the partner community-based organization have ownership of the Project.

Please note the participation in the Low-Income Community Renewable Solar Pilot RFP does not require that the Project be partially or entirely owned by subscribers.  Subscriber ownership is not a qualification requirement for the Project to be qualified to be bid in the procurement event.

The purpose of optionally demonstrating subscriber ownership is that if a Project is at least 50% owned by subscribers, the bid evaluation procedure recognizes that the Project fulfills a priority specified in the Act.  Generally, the bid evaluation selects a cost-effective group or “bundle” of Projects that does not exceed the Budget and that satisfies the priorities of the Act not to distribute funding only to utility projects and to select a Project at least 50% owned by subscribers if one is available.  The evaluation appendix with the details of the bid evaluation procedure will be posted shortly to the procurement website.

If your Project is at least 50% owned by subscribers, to demonstrate that this is the case, you are required to provide:

• The list of subscribers with Project ownership, including the name and address of each subscriber. The address of each subscriber, for this purpose, must be within the community;
• Documents to substantiate ownership of the Project by the subscribers; and
• Income-verification for each residential low-income subscriber.

Upon request, the Procurement Administrator will provide the documents that are acceptable for income-verification purposes.

If the Proposal for the Project specifies that it is at least 50% subscriber owned, then this ownership structured must be maintained during the delivery term under the REC Contract.