Illinois Solar for All (ILSFA), funded through the Illinois Power Agency (IPA), administered Renewable Energy Resources Fund (RERF) and funds from the renewable energy resources budgets of the utilities. Public Act 102-0662 (commonly known as the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act) increased the ILSFA funding available through utility collections from “5% of the funds available under the plan for the applicable delivery year, or $10,000,000 per delivery year, whichever is greater” (approximately $11,000,000 in the 2021-2022 program year) to “up to $50,000,000 per delivery year.”
To ensure that these newly-authorized funds used to support the current ILSFA program year (2021-2022), on January 10, 2022, the IPA petitioned the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) to reopen Docket No. 19-0995, the proceeding that approved the currently approved Long-Term Renewable Resources Procurement Plan, and approves an update to the ILSFA program budget for the 2021-2022 program year that reflects the newly-authorized funding level beyond the previously approved program year allocations. On March 3, 2022, the ICC issued an order approving the allocation of the additional funds for this program year, meaning that $50,000,000 is available from utility funds for projects across all three ILSFA sub-programs.
The Low-Income Community Solar and the Non-Profit/Public Facility Sub-programs went through project selection earlier in the program year and have projects on their respective waitlists.
Non-Profit/Public Facility Sub-Program
All Non-Profit/Public Facility Waitlist projects will be funded at their full incentive values with the additional funding now available. Vendor Managers will reach out to Approved Vendors with the next steps for all projects.
Once all waitlisted projects receive funding, $5,120,644 in Utility funding and $12,525 in RERF funding will remain in the Non-Profit/Public Facility sub-program budget. These amounts may change based on waitlisted projects accepting available funding, as the viability of waitlisted projects may have changed in the months since project selection.
The Program Administrator will open a rolling submission window for new Non-Profit/Public Facility projects on March 21, 2022. After review, eligible projects will receive funding and are funded on a first-come, first-serve basis until funds are exhausted or at the end of the program year on May 31, 2022, whichever comes first.
Low-Income Community Solar Sub-Program
Funding is available for all projects on the Low-Income Community Solar waitlist. However, resizing is necessary for two projects (one funded from the RERF and one funded with utility funds). [1] Vendor Managers will reach out to Approved Vendors with the next steps for all projects.
Low-Income Distributed Generation Sub-Program
The Low-Income Distributed Generation Sub-program has funding available for the 2021-2022 Program Year, and several projects are under review. The rolling submission window for the Low-Income Distributed Generation Sub-Program will remain open until funds are exhausted or May 31, 2022, whichever comes first. Fifty-two 1-4 unit projects with $850,000 in incentives and two 5+ unit projects worth $530,000 in incentives received approval by the ICC to date. With the additional funding now available, the remaining program year budget for this sub-program is $35.293 million. [2]
The full 2021-2022 program year budget is in the table below.
[1] Available funding listed is inclusive of funds that will be reallocated from previously selected projects that are not proceeding.
[2] Section 8.4.2 of the Revised Long-Term Renewable Resources Procurement Plan states that “As this allocation of utility funding to the sub-programs is not required by law, the Agency may adjust utility funding between those subprograms on an as-needed basis during the program year if there are available funds in one subprogram and higher demand in another sub-program, with the exception that funds for the Distributed Generation sub-program will not be reallocated.”