Illinois seeks to boost solar by buying RECs

OREANDA-NEWS. The Illinois Power Agency (IPA) plans to procure \\$30mn in solar renewable energy certificates (SRECs) in a bid to boost solar power use, which is lagging behind state mandates.

IPA will use a competitive bidding process to procure SRECs under five-year contracts from new small solar systems operational from 21 January onward. The systems must have a nameplate capacity of 2MW or less, be located near the end user of the power and linked to an electric utility, municipal utility, alternate retail electric supplier or rural electric cooperative.

The agency has three categories for the process, based on size of the system, and bid sizes will be set according to these categories. The IPA aims to buy half of the SRECs from the smallest systems, which are less than 25kW.

IPA plans three bidding events this year and a fourth could be held in early 2017 if all available funds have not been used.

The state legislature in 2014 passed a bill that allowed IPA to procure supplemental SRECs from distributed generation solar power systems in the state, using up to \\$30mn from a renewable energy resource fund. The Illinois Commerce Commission issued a final order last week approving the SREC procurement.

IPA also plans separate SREC procurements on behalf of the state's primary utilities, ComEd and Ameren.

The agency in April plans to buy about \\$13mn in SRECs for 2016 in the first round. The second, \\$15mn procurement will be for RECs from distributed generation resources of less than 2MW. In September, IPA will buy half of the RECs from solar facilities smaller than 25kW using five-year contracts.

Illinois' renewable portfolio standard requires 25pc of retail electricity sales to come from renewables by 2025. The standard includes carve-outs for wind and a small amount of solar.

The 2014 goal was 8pc of retail sales, with 0.12pc from solar and 6pc from wind. In the first 11 months of the year, less than 6pc came from renewable energy, with only 0.04pc solar and 5pc wind, according US Energy Information Administration data.

With the state program's strong emphasis on wind generation, utilities and alternative suppliers have not had to focus on solar. Only 6pc of the standard for 2016, or 0.6pc of retail sales, must come from solar, of which 1pc must be from distributed generation.

The Illinois Power Agency limited the upcoming requests to focus on SRECs to make up for the potential undersupply.