Solar Renewable Energy Credits

Note: The Illinois Power Agency's proposed 2016 procurement includes one-year SREC procurements of 34,207 SRECs for Ameren, 69,866 SRECs for ComEd, and 13,225 SRECs for MidAmerican. It also includes separate five-year distributed generation (DG) REC procurements of 7,767 DG RECs for Ameren,16,294 DG RECs for ComEd, 2,204 DG RECs for MidAmerican. See the IPA website and Docket 15-0541 for more information on procurement plans.

In August 2007, Illinois enacted legislation (Public Act 095-0481) that created the Illinois Power Agency (IPA). The agency’s purpose is to develop electricity procurement plans for investor-owned electric utilities (EUs) supplying over 100,000 Illinois customers to ensure “adequate, reliable, affordable, efficient, and environmentally sustainable electric service at the lowest total cost.” The only EUs that meet these criteria and are therefore subject to the IPA procurement process are Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) and the Ameren Corporation companies (AmerenCILCO, AmerenIPL, and AmerenCIPCO). (MidAmerican elected to have the IPA procure power and energy for a portion of its Illinois jurisdictional load for the 2016-2017 Planning Year, but it is under no obligation to have power or energy procured by the IPA in future years.)

The IPA plans and administers the competitive procurement processes that result in bilateral agreements between the utilities and wholesale electric suppliers. The procurement plans must include procurement of cost-effective renewable energy resources per the Illinois Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS). The RPS includes a solar requirement to be met with solar renewable energy credits (SRECs) with benchmarks beginning in Energy Year (EY) June 2012-May 2013 ("EY 2013"). Each SREC represents the environmental attributes associated with 1 megawatt-hour of energy produced from solar energy. Selected suppliers are required to use either the PJM-EIS-GATS, M-RETS, or NARR tracking system.

Special Procurement of SRECs

In June 2014, Illinois enacted H.B. 2427, which released $30 million in the Renewable Energy Resources Fund to the Illinois Power Agency for the purchase of photovoltaic (PV) power through a supplemental procurement process. Of the released funds, half are set aside for PV systems less than 25 kilowatts in nameplate capacity, such as residential rooftop systems. The IPA’s initial supplemental procurement of solar PV was held in June 2015 with two additional SPV procurements planned for November 2015 and March 2016.