Below is an overview of the Illinois SREC and a description on how to model it in Aurora. For more questions, please reference the Illinois official website here:
https://www2.illinois.gov/sites/ipa/pages/renewable_resources.aspx
Overview:
The Illinois Power Agency implemented a long-term renewable resources plan, part of which provides SRECs for customers who generate solar energy.
The document titled “2022 Long-Term Renewable Resources Procurement Plan” below provides information pertaining to the Renewable Energy Credit (REC) program.
2022 Long-Term Renewable Resources Procurement Plan
Notably, for systems of 10 kW AC or less, the RECs are paid up front, with the value determined based on the size of the system. There is a specific formula for the number of RECs expected to be generated by a PV system, where
#RECs = # kW * 0.1642 / 1000 kW/MW * 8760 hours/year* 15 years
The kW size of the system is determined by the nameplate size of the inverters. The 16.42% value is a capacity factor for fixed-mount systems. A system with an inverter capacity of 5 kW would be expected to produce about 108 RECs over the system lifetime.
The value of a REC is fixed for the 2022-2023 period. The values are listed on p.189, with a value of $78.51/REC for Group A and $82.28/REC in Group B for systems less than 10 kW AC.
Modeling in Aurora:
If we plug the $/REC value into the #REC/#W value, we find that the upfront RECs can be modeled as a System Size (AC W) grant with a value of:
- $1.6939/W AC for Group A, 2022-2023
- $1.7753/W AC for Group B, 2022-2023
Aurora users will find the Illinois SRECs already modeled in the Incentives database, and New Aurora users will find that these incentives are applied to their Illinois projects automatically.