On March 25, 2019, the Program Administrator posted to the www.illinoisSFA.com website a draft of the Illinois Solar for All Program REC Contract (the “Draft REC Contract”). The Draft REC Contract is proposed to be the standard contract form for the Illinois Solar for All Program between each Approved Vendor and Ameren Illinois Company (“AIC”), Commonwealth Edison Company (“ComEd”), or MidAmerican Energy Company (“MEC”). Except as otherwise expressly set forth in the Draft REC Contract, the Draft REC Contract is governed by all the terms and conditions of the form of the agreement entitled “Master Renewable Energy Certificate Purchase and Sale Agreement,” which is attached thereto.
As explained further below, an additional version of the Draft REC Contract featuring the State of Illinois as the counterparty (and thus incorporating various forms, disclosures, and standard terms and requirements required under Illinois law) will be released at a later date.
The Program Administrator invites interested parties to submit their comments on the Draft REC Contract. All comments received in accordance with the process outlined below will be reviewed by representatives from the Illinois Power Agency (“IPA”), the Illinois Solar for All Program Administrator (Elevate Energy), AIC, ComEd, MEC, staff of the Illinois Commerce Commission, and the IPA’s Procurement Administrator (NERA Economic Consulting). The timeline and process for interested parties to provide comments is as follows:
· Please submit your comments on the DRAFT REC Contract by email to the Program Administrator at: comments@illinoisSFA.com
· Please provide telephone and e-mail contact information in the event that the Program Administrator seeks clarification regarding your comments.
· Each of your comments must be clearly indicated with tracked changes in Microsoft Word. We strongly encourage you to provide explanatory notes either in a separate document or highlighted in tracked changes.
The deadline to provide comments is 5:00 PM Central Prevailing Time (“CPT”) on Tuesday, April 2, 2019.
Written comments submitted to the Program Administrator according to the process above and submitted prior to the deadline will be posted to the illinoisSFA.com website and made publicly available. To ensure that any competitively sensitive comments, information, or perspectives are not revealed through comments on the draft contract, the Program Administrator will redact the name of the submitter and may, but is under no obligation to, redact additional information that may otherwise identify the submitter. Besides contact information, all submitters are encouraged to refrain from including information that would otherwise identify the submitter such as summary information about their experience.
Please direct all questions to the Program Administrator at: comments@illinoisSFA.com
Explanatory Notes
To facilitate the review of the Draft REC Contract by interested parties, we provide the following notes:
(a) The REC Contract contains ten exhibits as follows:
• Exhibit A – Form of Product Order
• Exhibit B – Bi-Annual System Status Form
• Exhibit C – Community Solar First Year Report
• Exhibit D – REC Annual Report
• Exhibit E – Form of Letters of Credit
• Exhibit F – Delivery Schedule Example
• Exhibit G – Surplus RECs and Drawdown Payments Example
• Exhibit H – Community Solar First Year Payment Adjustment Example
• Exhibit I – Community Renewable Energy Generation Project Subscription Information Access Authorization
• Exhibit J – Master REC Purchase and Sale Agreement (“Master REC Agreement”)
(b) The REC Contract constitutes the “Cover Sheet,” and modifies the terms of the Master REC Agreement (Exhibit J). The exhibits and the guidance notes appended to the end of the Master REC Agreement shall not apply; and the only exhibits that are applicable are those indicated in (a) above.
(c) Capitalized terms used in the REC Contract are provided in pages 17-28 of the Cover Sheet. Capitalized terms used and not otherwise defined in the Cover Sheet or modified by the Cover Sheet shall have the same meaning as in the Master REC Agreement.
(d) The REC Contract may include multiple Transactions. One batch of systems submitted by Seller and approved by the Illinois Commerce Commission corresponds to one Transaction, and the key terms of such Transaction (such as pricing and size of the Designated Systems within the batch) are specified in the Product Order applicable to such Transaction. For avoidance of doubt, each batch will only consist of system(s) within a specific Illinois Solar for All sub-program; a Product Order shall not include systems approved pursuant to different sub-programs. (Additionally, this contract is only for systems participating in the Illinois Solar for All Program. It is separate from any contracts entered into for systems participating in the Adjustable Block Program).
(e) The form of the Product Order is provided in Exhibit A, and each Product Order contains three (3) schedules, Schedule A, Schedule B and Schedule C. Schedule A to a Product Order shall include summary information of each Designated System proposed by Seller under the SFA for which batch has been approved by the Illinois Commerce Commission for inclusion in the REC Contract. Once a Designated System is Energized, the IPA or its designee shall prepare and complete Schedule B to the Product Order for such Designated System, which includes updated summary information related to the Designated System, and which shall be the basis for determining applicable payments under the REC Contract. Schedule C includes a summary of the size information of Designated Systems within the Product Order and is updated when a Designated System(s) within the Product Order is removed from the REC Contract or has a change in size between the initial application (Part I) and energization (Part II).
(f) A redline comparison against the REC Contract used under the Adjustable Block Program is provided for convenience of reviewers.
(g) Under the Illinois Solar for All Program, there shall be two standard forms of REC Contract as follows:
(i) A REC Contract to be used between the Approved Vendor and an electric utility (AIC, ComEd or MEC), which is the Draft REC Contract issued on March 25, 2019.
(ii) A separate REC Contract to be used between the Approved Vendor and the IPA will be issued at a later date and will incorporate several forms, disclosures, and standard terms and conditions required by the State of Illinois. A separate announcement will be posted to the Illinois Solar for All website (illinoisSFA.com) when such draft becomes available.