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Q&A
The Procurement Administrator will endeavor to answer all submitted questions in a timely and professional manner in accord with the goals of the RFP process. Questions will be answered by the Procurement Administrator in the order they are received, except in those cases where a specific question requires additional consideration, thereby extending the response period.
Submit a Question
Who does the pre-bid letter of credit need to be submitted to?
The original pre-bid letter of credit is sent to Ameren Illinois per the instructions in paragraph 15 of the form of pre-bid letter of credit. A fax or emailed copy should also be sent to the Procurement Administrator.
(Posted 3/20/12)
Can a bidder post cash instead of a letter of credit as Pre-Bid Security?
No, only a letter of credit in the form of Attachment B or C to the respective RFP (with acceptable changes) can be posted as Pre-Bid Security. This requirement is consistent with the Illinois Power Agency's prior procurements of capacity, energy and renewable energy credits for Ameren Illinois. The Procurement Administrator does not consider the letter of credit requirement to be unduly burdensome for bidders. Therefore cash or other collateral cannot be provided as a substitute for the pre-bid letter of credit.
(Posted 3/20/12)
Does the same officer need to sign the Pre-Qualification Application and Bidder Registration Form?
No, as long as the person signing each form is authorized to sign on behalf of the company, different officers can sign each form.
(Posted 3/19/12)
If a bidder is participating in multiple RFPs, is a separate pre-bid letter of credit required for each RFP?
Yes, separate pre-bid letters of credit are required for each RFP a bidder is pre-qualified for. The amount, dates and selected terms differ across the forms of pre-bid letter of credit.
(Posted 3/15/12)
Will the Illinois Power Agency accept payment of the $500 Bid Participation Fee by ACH?
No, the payment options for the Bid Participation Fee are check and e-check, as shown in the Bid Participation Fee Payment Instructions.
(Posted 3/8/12)
If a bidder submitted a Pre-Qualification Application in the winter Rate Stability procurements, is a new Pre-Qualification Application required for the spring Capacity, Energy, and RECs procurements?
Yes, all bidders in the Capacity, Energy, and RECs procurements will need to submit a Pre-Qualification Application specifically for these procurements, information submitted for the Rate Stability procurements cannot be applied.
(Posted 3/8/12)
Please clarify / provide an example of how the capacity supplier fee will be assessed.
The supplier fee will be charged for each PRC or ZRC awarded within each product. For example if Bidder A is awarded 100 PRCs in July 2012, 250 PRCs in August 2012, 140 PRCs in March 2013 and 200 ZRCs in 2013-14, the supplier fee would be calculated as follows:
July 2012: 100 PRCs * $0.50/PRC = $50.00
August 2012: 250 PRCs * $0.50/PRC = $125.00
March 2013: 140 PRCs * $0.50/PRC = $70.00
2013-14: 200 ZRCs * $6.00/ZRC = $1,200.00
Total Supplier Fee: $50.00 + $125.00 + $70.00 + $1,200 = $1,445 payable to IPA within 7 business days of ICC ruling
(Posted 3/29/12)
If implementation of the new MISO capacity market construct is delayed, how will the ZRC Confirmation Agreement be affected?
If Ameren Illinois Company is required to provide PRCs rather than ZRCs for one or both of the years covered under the 2013-15 Confirmation Agreement, the parties will convert the Contract Quantity of ZRCs to an equal amount of monthly PRCs over the entire planning period. For example, if implementation is delayed one year, and PRCs are required for the 2013-14 planning year, the ZRCs contracted for 2013-14 will be converted to monthly PRCs for that period. See page 2 of the Confirmation Agreement for the specific contract language.
(Posted 3/29/12)
Please explain how a Zonal Resource Criteria would contain Minimum Offer Price Rule bid criteria.
MISO's proposed Minimum Offer Price Rule provisions are included in section 65.7 of the July 20, 2011 FERC filing in Docket No. ER11-4081.
(Posted 3/29/12)
Please specify which proposed MISO Local Resource Zone is associated with Ameren Illinois Company's load?
Information from MISO indicates that the Local Resource Zones are still being defined, and a proposed map has not been filed with FERC. Preliminary information available from MISO's Supply Adequacy Working Group indicates that the Ameren Illinois Company load may be associated with Local Resource Zone 4.
(Posted 3/29/12)
Where should the pre-bid letter of credit be sent?
The original pre-bid letter of credit should be sent to:
Timothy Moloney
Managing Supervisor, Credit Risk Management
Ameren Services
1901 Chouteau Avenue, MC 960
St. Louis, MO 63103
(Posted 3/29/12)
When will the amount of the Capacity Supplier Fee be announced?
The Capacity Supplier Fee will be announced prior to bidding, an exact date is not available at this time, it may or may not be released prior to the Pre-Qualification Application submission deadline.
(Posted 3/19/12)
Is the $100,000 Pre-Bid Letter of Credit the same Letter of Credit used to secure obligations under the 2012-2013 Capacity Confirmation Agreement, or is another separate Letter of Credit required under the 2012-2013 Capacity Agreement?
Yes, the $100,000 Pre-Bid Letter of Credit is the Letter of Credit used to secure obligations under the 2012-13 Capacity Confirmation Agreement, as referenced in paragraph 13 of the Confirmation Agreement.
(Posted 3/15/12)
As long as an emailed or faxed copy of the pre-bid letter of credit is submitted by 12:00 noon CPT on April 3, 2012, is it acceptable for the original letter of credit to arrive after the deadline?
Yes, only the emailed or faxed copy of the letter of credit is required to meet the registration deadline, the original letter of credit can be received the following day.
(Posted 3/15/12)
What is the delivery point for energy?
As stated in the Confirmation Agreement, the Delivery Point is "MISO CP Node AMIL.BGS6, or any successor thereto."
(Posted 4/23/12)
The bid date is scheduled for a Thursday, with preliminary notifications on Friday, which could increase prices if bidders are not able to access the wholesale market until Monday. Can additional information about the notification schedule be provided?
The timeline for delivering final binding notifications to bidders is set by legislation, as noted in the Energy RFP - up to two business days for the Procurement Administrator and Procurement Monitor to submit reports on the bidding results to the ICC with recommendations for award, and then up to two business days for the ICC to rule on the results and recommendations. As Procurement Administrator for Ameren Illinois, Levitan & Associates, commits to deliver preliminary notifications of our recommendations to the ICC by phone to all bidders by 12:00 noon CPT on Friday, April 27, 2012.
(Posted 3/15/12)
The bid dates for both the Ameren Illinois ComEd Energy procurements are scheduled on the same day, which has not been the case for previous spring procurements. Is it possible for the procurement dates to be shifted so they are not on the same day?
No, the energy bid dates for Ameren Illinois and ComEd were intentionally scheduled for the same day. Holding the energy procurements on the same day, April 26th, offers savings in terms of administrative costs associated with the two solicitations. While the Ameren Illinois and ComEd bidding sessions are to be held on the same day, the actual bidding windows are at different times of the day. ComEd's bidding window is 10:00 am to 12:00 noon CPT and Ameren Illinois' is 12:00 noon to 2:00 pm CPT. Another factor mitigating the bid day scheduling for potential participants is that only a few of the Ameren Illinois and ComEd energy products being solicited overlap.
(Posted 3/15/12)
Do bidders have the opportunity to comment on the form of pre-bid letter of credit?
Yes, per section 4.2 on page 5 of the Energy RFP, modifications to the form of pre-bid letter of credit can be requested in redline. Acceptable modifications will be posted to the website and available for any bidder to use.
(Posted 3/15/12)
Is payment made on the actual RECs delivered or by the delivery schedule? That is, if more RECs are delivered than required will payment reflect the actual delivery?
The payment schedule is stated in Section 11(c) on page 6 of the REC Agreement:
For any Seller with a REC Contract with a total value of not more than $100,000, full payment
will be made for all RECs Delivered during any Delivery Season on the payment date
associated with that Delivery Season.
For any Seller with a REC Contract with total value exceeding $100,000, the maximum cumulative amount eligible for payment for any given Delivery Season shall not exceed a maximum of 25% of the contract value multiplied by the number of completed Delivery Seasons as of the invoice date. Payment will be limited to the actual, cumulative contract value associated with the Delivered RECs. For example, for an invoice rendered on December 10, 2012, Buyer shall make payments for RECs Delivered in an amount that shall not cause the cumulative payments to Seller to exceed 50% of the contract value of this REC Contract. (Posted 5/7/12)
What is the required delivery schedule for RECs?
The REC delivery schedule is shown in Exhibit D to the REC Agreement, with definitions provided on page 5 of the contract:
10% of total quantity by last Business Day in August 2012
30% of total quantity by last Business Day in November 2012 60% of total quantity by last Business day in February 2013 100% of total quantity by July 15, 2013 (Posted 5/3/12)
How are Illinois small under 20KW PV solar generators able to sell their SRECs?
The current RFP is designed to purchase RECs is MWh increments. The Illinois Power Agency is currently engaged in a workshop process to determine guidelines for inclusion of distributed generation and REC aggregation in the 2013 Procurement Plan. Information on this process can be found here.
(Posted 5/2/12)
What are the damages if the seller fails to deliver the RECs?
Failure to supply contracted RECs would constitute an Event of Default under the REC Agreement, and would be subject to the terms of Article 5 of the Master Renewable Energy Certificate Purchase and Sale Agreement (Exhibit E to the REC Agreement), as modified by section 11(d) of the REC Agreement.
(Posted 5/2/12)
Please confirm that if the total value of RECs awarded to a winning bidder is less than $500,000, no performance assurance will need to be posted.
Assuming that no late deliveries have occurred, the amount of Performance Assurance to be posted will be calculated as 10% of the Remaining Contract Value (the value of undelivered RECs), rounded up to the nearest $10,000. If this calculation results in a value less equal to or less than $50,000, the amount of Performance Assurance to be posted will be $0. Therefore, if the value of awarded RECs is less than $500,000, 10% of the Remaining Contract Value would be less than or equal to $50,000, and no Performance Assurance would be required.
(Posted 4/30/12)
Do the Ameren Illinois Utilities hold accounts with the REC tracking systems (M-RETS, PJM Gats, etc.)? Will winning bidders transfer generated to RECs to the Utilities or retire them in the Utilities' name?
The Ameren Illinois Utilities do not hold accounts with the REC tracking systems. Suppliers will retire RECs on behalf of the Utilities. Suppliers will bear any costs associated with retiring the RECs.
(Posted 4/19/12)
What procedure will be used to retire RECs accepted in the AIU procurement?
In GATS, RECs are to be transferred to a RECs Reserve Sub-Account, and note a Reservation Reason of "For transfer to AMEREN", and use "EXPT" for the Reason Code. In MRETS, RECs are to be moved to a REC Retirement Sub-Account and not a Retirement Reason of "For transfer to AMEREN", and use "OTH" for the Retirement Type.
(Posted 4/19/12)
Is the Renewable Resource Budget of $12,978,111 specifically allocated to this procurement?
Yes, the budget has already been adjusted to account for prior long-term purchases, and the endire amount is available to spent for the procurement of residual REC requirements for the 2012-13 planning year.
(Posted 4/16/12)
Is pricing information for the Illinois REC market available?
The results of the most recent REC procurements for the Illinois Power Agency, from the February 2012 Rate Stability procurements, are posted to the ICC website.
(Posted 4/16/12)
Is there a specific photovoltaic target for the REC RFP?
The target photovoltaic quantity for the 2012-13 planning year is 0.5% of the total 1,123,376 annual REC quantity. 600,000 total RECs were purchased through the long-term renewable resources RFP in December 2010; certain information from the 2010 procurement is confidential, and releasing the quantities procured by technology could compromise the confidential information, therefore the specific wind and photovoltaic targets for the current REC procurement will not be announced.
(Posted 4/16/12)
Is the supplier fee estimate similar to NERA / ComEd's ($0.15/REC)?
The same supplier fee will be applied to both the Ameren and ComEd REC RFPs.
(Posted 4/16/12)
Would solar thermal resources qualify in the non-solar non-wind categories? If so, what conversion rate is used to convert solar therman BTUs to RECs?
Solar thermal resources are included in the definition of renewable energy resources stated in the IPA Act. The standard conversion rate for solar thermal BTUs to RECs is 3,412,000 BTU = 1 REC.
(Posted 3/26/12)
The REC RFP states that equal preference is given to resources within Illinois and Adjacent States, and if neither is available and/or cost-effective, resources from other regions can be considered eligible. Will solar-powered resources from other regions will be considered in this RFP?
Renewable resources from Other States are eligible to participate in the REC RFP. Whether bids from Other States will be selected will not be known until bids are received and evaluated. Results of past RFPs can be viewed on the ICC website.
(Posted 3/26/12)
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