The Program Administrator appreciates continued feedback on Program requirements and issues the following clarifications.

Further Guidance on Qualifying Business Arrangements Under Local Procurement Preferences and the Twenty-Percent Developer Bidding Cap

Each bidder must disclose to the Program Administrator any plans to sell or transfer any ownership stake in a proposed project and provide documentation of any agreement in place to do so. When any ownership stake in a project is sold or transferred, the parties involved must provide documentation of the transaction to the Program Administrator. The Program Administrator will review transactions and monitor bid commitments closely throughout each project’s life.

To provide additional clarity, proposed projects with an ownership arrangement in which the local business has no substantive economic investment in the project or has a pre-arranged sale or transfer of the project to an entity that is not a local business will be considered, for purposes of the developer cap, to be owned by the entity that is not a local business and may not qualify for bonus points under the local procurement preferences.

Any attempts to use temporary ownership to create the impression of local ownership or to disguise bids to obtain additional capacity beyond the developer cap could be considered gaming and may be subject to disciplinary action. For example, a bid involving a local business that will bear no costs of the construction of a project and will transfer its ownership share to a non-local business according to an agreement in place at the time of the bid will not qualify for any local procurement preference. Moreover, the bid will be considered in the calculation of the non-local business’s total bidding for the purpose of the 20% developer cap.

Additional Bid Clarifications:

  • The site map should show property boundaries (if ground-mount), any structures on the property or rooftop, and the location of the solar array(s).
  • Site control documentation submitted for a project bid must be unredacted and binding; The Program Administrator will not accept an MOU.
  • The interconnection point should reflect what has been provided in the utility pre-application report.
  • The Program Administrator has added a text box to the bid, which asks the bidder to identify which, if any, components of the bid the bidder would like to be considered for confidential treatment.
  • The Program Administrator has released a Consumer Protection Best Practices document. Before submitting a bid, all bidders must acknowledge that they have read and understand these recommendations.
  • Bidders can obtain the full six points for contracting with local businesses/racial minorities/women/veterans/Native Americans only by committing to contract for at least one of materials, supplies, or services exclusively with businesses that meet the stated criteria. The Program Administrator reserves the right to collect additional information at any point to confirm that any such commitment is kept.
  • The workforce training and educational opportunities category leaves open some subjectivity with consideration for the “commitment demonstrated toward the category goals” and will be scored against the universe of bids submitted.

Bid Payment Reminder:

Payment of the $1,000 project bid fee is made directly to the State of New Mexico only via ACH and only through the program portal. Upon submitting a bid, bidders can access the eCheck payment button from their bid dashboard. Bidders enter their account number, routing number, and account type to pay the application fee. Bidders must submit payment via the Program portal by January 31, 2023, at 4 pm Mountain for a bid to be considered.

Instructions on requesting a W-9 from the state are available on the Program website. It may take the state a minimum of five business days to turn around a request for a W-9.

Timeline Reminder:

The New Mexico Community Solar program project bid window closes on January 31, 2023 at 4 pm Mountain. The Program Administrator must approve Subscriber Organization and any needed Affiliate registrations before bids can be submitted under those registrations. Registrations submitted after January 25, 2023, may not be reviewed in time to submit a bid before the closing of the bid window. 

Questions:

If you have questions regarding this announcement or the Program, please contact the Program Administrator at [email protected] or at (877) 794-0109.