On June 24, 2021, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) entered an order granting a blanket six-month extension to complete projects in the pipeline of New Jersey’s Solar Transition Incentive Program (TI Program), also known as the TREC program. Many TREC projects currently face a deadline of October 30, 2021, which itself represents a six-month extension of the original deadline of April 30, 2021. These projects now have a completion deadline of April 30, 2022. Completion in this context means (i) achieving commercial operation and (ii) submitting to the Office of Clean Energy “as built” drawings and other information.

Deadline to Complete TREC Projects Extended

Subsection (t) registrants (those projects located on a brownfield, an area of historic fill, or a landfill facility) were granted an extension to the later of April 30, 2022, or the date of the BPU order granting the specific project’s conditional certification. The BPU additionally granted all Community Solar Energy Pilot Program applicants a six-month extension for TI Program eligibility.

The order was responsive to numerous petitions filed by TI Program registrants requesting deadline extensions due to unexpected delays, including interruptions due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Timing of Successor Program Unknown

While additional time to meet TI Program deadlines may be welcome news to existing registrants, left unaddressed by the BPU was the timing of the adoption of a successor program. As we have noted before in our previous blog post, “Transitioning from the Transition: Questions Abound Regarding the New Jersey Successor Solar Program,” BPU staff has proposed the BPU issue an order closing the Transition Incentive Program after 30 days’ notice, notwithstanding the significant concerns expressed by solar energy industry leaders about the long-term replacement program recommended by BPU staff in April.