The Illinois Power Agency (IPA) recently issued the Fall 2017 Procurement Wind and Solar Requests for Proposals (RFPs) on behalf of the state’s three major energy utilities to provide for the delivery of 1 million Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) per year from new utility-scale wind projects and 1 million RECs per year from new utility-scale solar projects and brownfield photovoltaic projects over a 15-year contract period. The deadline for RFP submissions for Part 1 is Aug. 7.

While IPA intends to use the Fall 2017 Procurement Event to achieve procurement of all required wind RECs, it will hold multiple procurement events for the solar RECs, with a 200,000 REC target for the current Fall 2017 Procurement.

These procurement events mark the beginning steps in IPA’s implementation of the Future Energy Jobs Act (FEJA), which is designed to develop an estimated 3,000 megawatts (MW) of new solar power and 1,300 MW of new wind power in Illinois by 2030.

The RFPs require bidders to submit two parts: Part 1 requiring detailed information regarding project, certain project representations, detailed financial information, and bid participation fee. Part 2 requires bid assurance collateral, certain certifications, information to prepare the REC contracts, and the bid, which consists of the annual quantity and price per REC.

Specifically, the RFPs provide the following schedule for submissions:

Revisions to Bid Assurance Collateral

Notably, the July 19, 2017, Wind and Solar RFP Process and Rules (RFP rules) revised the financial guarantee requirements from the June 14, 2017, draft proposal requirements. The RFP rules allow bidders to submit financial guarantees in the form of letters of credit or cash as bid assurance collateral.