New legislation was passed that impacts Ameren's community solar program. What does that mean for your bills and Sunscription?

New legislation was passed that impacts Ameren's community solar program. What does that mean for your bills and Sunscription?

This article is for Ameren electric customers and was updated on August 17, 2022

Due to a variety of factors, your recent Ameren electric bills and US Solar Sunscription bills may look a bit different than what you're used to. We want to outline the changes for you so you can understand what you're seeing and know what to expect going forward.

Utilities are adapting to legislation changes in Illinois

In 2021, statewide legislation was passed requiring electric utilities in Illinois to implement changes to how they apply community solar bill credits. These changes were to be implemented by all electric utilities on June 1, 2022. However, Ameren has notified solar partners and its customers that they have encountered several obstacles when trying to update their billing system. Ever since then, Ameren has withheld community solar energy production data from US Solar and withheld electric bills from customers like you.

The timing of your bills has been impacted

As of the second week of August, Ameren released energy production and community solar bill credit information to US Solar for the withheld months; so you have received the corresponding Sunscription statements. 

Ameren also began to release customer bills at this time. Your community solar credits will be applied to your Ameren bill like normal. 

If you have questions regarding what you're seeing on your Ameren bills, please contact their team at 1-800-232-2477. If you have questions about your Sunscription statements or credits, please contact our team at 612-439-2400.

So what does the new legislation say?

There have been some significant changes in community solar legislation in Illinois. As your utility works to implement these changes, you can dig into the changes below so you know what to expect. We will continue to provide updates as we receive more information from Ameren and the Illinois Power Agency.

The Future Energy Jobs Act became Illinois state law on June 1, 2017. Ever since then, this piece of legislation has been the governing law over community solar. In relation to community solar bill credits, the language states:

"Notwithstanding anything to the contrary, an electricity provider shall provide credits for the electricity produced by the projects described in paragraph (1) of this subsection (l). The electricity provider shall provide credits at the subscriber's energy supply rate on the subscriber's monthly bill equal to the subscriber's share of the production of electricity from the project, as determined by paragraph (3) of this subsection (l)"

Then, in September of 2021, the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act was passed. This law updated the language regarding community solar bill credit application to read:

"Notwithstanding anything to the contrary and regardless of whether a subscriber to an eligible community renewable generation project receives power and energy service from the electric utility or an alternative retail electric supplier, for projects eligible under paragraph (C) of subparagraph (1) of this subsection (l), electric utilities serving more than 200,000 customers as of January 1, 2021 shall provide the monetary credits to a subscriber's subsequent bill for the electricity produced by community renewable generation projects. The electric utility shall provide monetary credits to a subscriber's subsequent bill at the utility's total price to compare equal to the subscriber's share of the production of electricity from the project, as determined by paragraph (5) of this subsection (l). For the purposes of this subsection, "total price to compare" means the rate or rates published by the Illinois Commerce Commission for energy supply for eligible customers receiving supply service from the electric utility, and shall include energy, capacity, transmission, and the purchased energy adjustment. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary, customers on payment plans or participating in budget billing programs shall have credits applied on a monthly basis."

What does this mean for me?

In the past, we have advised our members to come off of their Alternative Retail Electric Supplier (ARES) because these entities were not required by law to deliver bill credits to residential customers. However, the law now in effect ensures that all customers, regardless of their electricity supplier, will receive the solar bill credits due to them.

Additionally, the value of the community solar credit is now based on the "total price to compare" rate. This is a rate published by the Illinois Commerce Commission and considers the rates for energy supply, capacity, transmission, and the purchased energy adjustment. This is a positive change for residential customers because, different from bill credits up until this point (as explained here), customers' bill credit now takes into account ALL components of the Supply section of their bill, including transmission.