Participants in the Illinois Solar for all: Community Solar sub-program who live in the ComEd utility territory will see an update on their July electric bills due to a ComEd Community Solar Billing update.
As many Illinois Solar for All participants are aware, ComEd has been experiencing significant delays in applying community solar bill credits to customers’ accounts. Last week, ComEd announced that all outstanding community solar bill credits will be included on customers’ bills for July.
Many customers will see large amounts of credits added to their accounts at once; in many cases, the credits may be much more than the customer can use immediately. ComEd will allow customers to request “refund checks” for outstanding community solar credits. This will enable the customer to receive the value of the credits right away rather than using up the credits over subsequent months. Community Solar providers may want to ensure that their customers, especially those who reach out with questions or concerns, are aware of this option. The customer must affirmatively reach out to ComEd to request the refund check.
Please also note that the Consumer Protection Handbook (Section VI.B.2) has specific requirements that apply when a community solar provider bills a customer for multiple billing cycles at once. These include offering customers a no-penalty payment plan if the customer is billed for two or more billing cycles at once (or three or more billing cycles for Illinois Shines customers). Community solar providers should review these provisions and ensure they are complying with all applicable requirements.