ABP: Are co located systems allowed to participate and receive the incentive?

Yes. Two systems on the same parcel of land must meet the requirements below to count as separate systems for the ABP. If they do not, they must be combined into one application as an expansion.

Co Located systems

Per the ABP 2024- 2025 Program Guidebook, co location of distributed generation projects occurs when multiple projects developed by one entity or affiliated entities are located on a single parcel.

Additionally, the parcel or parcels may not have been divided into multiple parcels in the two years prior to the project’s application to the Program.

REC Pricing

The REC price for systems determined by the Agency to be co-located will be based on the size category for the total size of the co-located projects by that single entity or its affiliates. If no consideration is made for colocated projects, these projects could be structured to inappropriately maximize income from incentives, such as by dividing up a larger project into multiple, smaller projects that individually qualify for higher REC incentives.

The projects will receive the REC price associated with the total nameplate capacity of both co-located systems. The REC price that the co-located system will receive is the REC price available for the summed system size at the time of the second project’s application. For example, two 2,000 kW AC co-located systems would receive a 4,000 kW AC system price.

If a project that is co-located with another project is submitted more than two years after ICC approval of the original system, then this co-located pricing adjustment will not apply. However, if the second co-located project has already been built and interconnected at the time of project application, and the date of interconnection is more than two years after the ICC approval of the original system, it will not be subject to co-location pricing.

What if two or more DG projects are separately owned but on the same land?

If two or more projects on one parcel are separately owned and serve to offset the load of separate entities, in order to have these arrays considered as separate projects, an Approved Vendor must provide proof that the occupants are not affiliated entities, and that each has a separate utility meter and separate utility billing.

What determines a location?

The location of a project’s modules, and not the location of the utility meters to which a project connects, determines the location of an array for co-location purposes.

2024/2025 REC Delivery Contracts MW Limitations

The size of projects that are considered to be co-located will be the sum of the two projects’ total nameplate capacity. For example, if there are two 10kW AC projects on a single parcel, the total, co-located system size will be 20kW AC. Co-located distributed generation projects participating in the Program cannot have a total nameplate capacity larger than 5 MW AC in size.