The Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (Public Act 102-0662) enacted on September 15, 2021, contained a new provision, Section 1-75(c)(1)(R) of the Illinois Power Agency Act, to "establish a self-direct renewable portfolio standard compliance program for eligible self-direct customers that purchase renewable energy credits from utility-scale wind and solar projects through long-term agreements." Participating entities will be eligible to receive an adjustment to their renewable energy charges from the applicable utility. On an annual basis the Illinois Power Agency ("Agency") is required to establish the size of the program, determine the bill credit rate, and accept applications for participation. For more details on the program, please see the Agency's Self-direct Program web page and Chapter 6 of the Agency's 2026 Long-Term Plan.

Program Application Form Released

The Agency has released the Application Form for the 2025-2026 Program Year.

The Agency began accepting applications on March 5 with an application deadline of April 3, at 5 p.m. CPT. The Agency will review applications received, request additional information if needed, and will notify eligible participants by no later than April 30, 2026. If eligible applications exceed the program year size, the Agency will select approved applications based on the protocol outlined in Section 6.6.3 of the 2026 Long-Term Renewable Resources Procurement Plan (the "Long-Term Plan").

Applicants with questions about the Application Form or the application process should contact the IPA at [email protected].

Program Size

The Agency has established the Self-direct Program Size for the 2026-2027 program year at 5,500,000 Renewable Energy Credits ("RECs")

To establish the program size for the 2026-27 Delivery Year, the Agency built upon the analysis used to develop the 2025-26 program size which included accessing available public information of prospective customer renewable project development in Illinois and analysis of new and evolving customer segments likely to spur further renewable energy project development in Illinois. The 2026-27 program size determination included additional research into data center growth in Illinois and new or expanded commercial and industrial customer renewable project development, through both power purchase agreements and specific project development initiatives. The Agency also undertook analysis to extrapolate potential compound annual growth rates ("CAGR") of solar and wind project development based upon historical data from 2020-2025 to estimate potential future development.

On August 15, 2025, the Agency published the draft 2026 Long-Term Plan, including a summary of analyses conducted and a proposal to set the 2026-2027 Self-direct Program size at 5,500,000 annual RECs. With the publishing of the draft Plan, the Agency sought feedback from stakeholders on the proposed program size, with comments due by September 29, 2025.

The Agency did not receive any comments from stakeholders related to the proposed program size for the 2026-2027 Self-direct Program. As a result, the Agency filed the 2026 Long-Term Renewable Resources Procurement Plan with the Illinois Commerce Commission on October 20, 2025, finalizing the program size at 5.5 million RECs for the 2026-2027 Program Year. If an entity is not selected to participate in the upcoming program year because of any program size limitations, the Agency will be accepting applications on an annual basis and will take into consideration applications not selected for establishing the program size for subsequent program years. Given the long development timelines for large renewable energy projects, this will accommodate a realistic growth trajectory for the Self-direct Program.

Bill Credit Rates

In support of the establishment of the Self-direct Program bill credit rates for the 2026-2027 program year, the Agency issued the proposed bill credit rates for stakeholder feedback on March 5, 2026. Following careful review of submitted stakeholder feedback on the proposed rate, the Agency will update the bill credit rates as necessary and complete its compliance filing with the Illinois Commerce Commission on March 16. Materials will be posted on the IPA's website.