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Better management, please

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Illinois

People across the state are waiting on refunds after installing solar panels to their homes and businesses in an effort to lower their electric bills. […]

FOX Illinois contacted [the Illinois Power Agency] and it responded with a statement saying how the organization went through a change in administration, which caused other areas to be impacted: “the need to create a new portal and build a new, larger team, incentive payments have not been processed in as timely or urgent a manner as we’d hoped.”

This lasted from July 1st to September 1st of 2022, and more than 2,000 families are waiting in line plus more who applied during that pause.

The IPA blamed its vendor, Energy Solutions, and claims its backlog is being whittled down.

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, May 22, 23 @ 10:41 am

Comments

Wasn’t the IPA one of Madigan’s proudest accomplishments? It’s been a disaster from the start, maybe it’s time to rethink its existence.

Comment by Excitable Boy Monday, May 22, 23 @ 11:32 am
I would really like the general assembly to force power companies to net meter the power. Our power company Illinois Electric Cooperative basically gives us 69 bucks off our power bill even though we make enough power from our panels to power the house for the day. When we asked the boss at Illinois Electric Cooperative he said h too the state forces us too we will not give you a benefit for the panels. Our neighbor next door is on Ameren and pays at most 15 bucks a month of power.

Comment by Without power Monday, May 22, 23 @ 11:40 am
Excitable boy must work for a power generator, that would explain his comment, as would having no idea what he is talking about

Comment by Funtimes Monday, May 22, 23 @ 11:59 am
- must work for a power generator -

No, but it appears you must work for the IPA and are barely literate, so not sure we’d miss you if you went away.

Comment by Excitable Boy Monday, May 22, 23 @ 12:05 pm
Riddle me this Excitable tool. At what point do anonymous blog comments by corporate puppets get boring? About three years ago I’d say. And, no, I don’t work for IPA. But am someone who believes in it. Instead of your drive by drivel why don’t you explain what would replace it? The IPA buys power on behalf of residential consumers. Should utilities buy that power on residential consumers’ behalf from affiliate generators that they share a stock price with? Why your first comment wasn’t erased for drive by garbage is not clear. “Get rid of it” ok why? Other than wanting to profit more as a generator hard to see a good argument.

Comment by Funtimes Monday, May 22, 23 @ 12:37 pm
I installed 25kw system May 2022 and I am still waiting on my SREC payment to process. I spoke with the IPA and Block program manager and she had my approval by the next day. Still waiting on the check. My bill is $11 down from $700 a month. I would encourage anyone that can afford the up front cost to get on this program while it lasts. Biden gave you 10 year extension for the tax credit also. My $100k system will end up costing me $20k at most and my payment on the system is well below my past power bills.

Comment by Cermak Dr. Monday, May 22, 23 @ 1:30 pm
Well that escalated quickly.

Excitable, settle down. The IPA is necessary but needs improvement.

Funtimes, the IPA has so completely screwed up the payments to vendors that Illinois has become a cautionary tale in the energy industry. Imagine if your employer was 18 months behind on your paycheck. Work you’ve done, under your contract, just not paid. Would that bother you? The IPA’s problems have nothing to do with whatever you’re yelling about on about corporate profits.

Comment by Atlas Monday, May 22, 23 @ 2:49 pm
As someone who works in the solar industry and has from the time the IPA was formed, I can tell you that they have done a great job in terms of taking stakeholder input, evaluating it, and then put some of the comments made, when they have made sense, into play. The payment delays are an unfortunate consequence of having had to switch administrators after five years of the program operating. The portal was shut down for three months during the transition and that created a backlog. They are working diligently to correct this and providing weekly updates to the industry. Would a legislative fix that requires payments be received within a certain amount of time be nice and ensure consumer confidence? Sure it would and the industry would appreciate that, but let’s not blame the IPA for following the law.

Comment by Solar Girl Monday, May 22, 23 @ 5:04 pm