NOTE: The third enrollment period of the program started from October 1, 2016 and ended on January 31, 2017. However the Authority is still accepting applications from eligible projects until February 1, 2019. All the applications that were not accepted into this period’s enrollment will be placed on a waiting list. 

PSEG Long Island’s Commercial Solar Feed-in Tariff (FIT) program supports the development of solar energy for commercial sector in Long Island. The program is designed as part of Long Island Power Authority’s (LIPA) goal to add 400 MW of new renewable energy generation by 2018. The commercial solar FIT program has a goal to install 20 MW of solar energy in its third round of solicitation. 

Eligibility

All new non-residential solar PV projects that have a minimum output of 200kW (AC) and maximum output less than 1,000kW (AC) are eligible to participate in the program. The solar PV project must be placed on non-residential customer’s rooftop or carport that is used to shelter motor vehicles, and be interconnected to the LIPA’s distribution system. The applicant does not have to be a PSEG LIPA’s electric customer to participate in the program, however, the system must be installed within LIPA’s service territory. 

Net metered systems, systems that are already interconnected, or projects that have received other incentives from LIPA are not eligible for the program. 

Program description

The program is designed as a “buy-all, sell-all” where all the output from the solar PV system is exported to the grid. In exchange, the program provides fixed price ($/kWh) for all the output generated by the system for the period of 20 years under a power purchase agreement (PPA). The fixed purchase price will be determined through a Clearing Price Auction. 

Market Auction

Interested applicants must submit an application for the Clearing Price Auction including a bid price that is less than the bid cap price of $0.1688/kWh. Applications with a bid price greater than the cap price will be discarded. The bids will be ranked generally based on- i) lowest evaluation bid price, ii) smallest proposed project size, and iii) earliest submittal time stamp until the projects add up to 20 MW. The price ($/kWh) at which the capacity reaches 20 MW will be set as the market clearing price. Each successful applicant will receive a fixed price contract at which the auction cleared.