What are the system requirements to participate in the ABP Program?

System eligibility under the ABP is a fuction of: 

• System Location
• Interconnection Date
• New Equipment

System Location

All systems must be entirely physically located in Illinois and interconnected to the distribution level electrical grid of an Illinois investor-owned electric utility, rural electric cooperative, or municipal electric system. Systems located in adjacent states are not permitted in the Program.

Off-grid systems are not eligible for the Program.

All Distributed Generation systems must be located on the customer side of the electric meter and used primarily to offset that customer's electricity load. Systems must be built at the location specified in the Part I application. Systems must remain at the approved location for the duration of the 15-year or 20-year contract, as applicable, and may not be relocated. Generally, projects should have a single point of interconnection.

Interconnection Date

All systems must have a final interconnection approval (or equivalent from rural electric cooperative or municipal electric utility) dated on or after June 1, 2017.

An interconnection agreement is defined as an agreement with the utility to interconnect the photovoltaic community solar or distributed generation system to the utility’s distribution system. Interconnection agreements must be executed by both the interconnection applicant/requester as well as the interconnecting utility and be valid, meaning not expired.

All Distributed Generation systems over 25 kW AC in size must submit an executed interconnection agreement in the Part I application. Community solar systems are not required to submit an interconnection agreement in the Part I application, but are required to provide a Certificate of Completion in the Part II application.

New Equipment

All systems must use equipment that meets either of the following criteria: • The equipment is new, that is, none of the equipment has been used prior to the installation of the solar electric generating facility; or • The age and warranty of the equipment is disclosed to a customer or host whose solar system will use equipment that was previously used in a solar facility.

Read more about System Eligibility in the 2024-2025 ABP Program Guidebook (p. 49)