June 1, 2013 – Yesterday, Ontario Power Authority (OPA) published a letter addressed to all Small FIT applicants, thanking them for their interest in the feed-in tariff (FIT) program, and acknowledging it has received feedback from applicants asking for more information as to why their applications failed, and for the opportunity to correct errors.

“We appreciate these concerns and are taking steps to address them,” says OPA, adding that all unsuccessful applicants will have an opportunity to reapply during the next Small FIT application period to open in Fall 2013. OPA says it will hold Small FIT webinars in June to review program requirements, discuss the most common issues encountered during the application review, and discuss how to work together to improve the process.

OPA then provides a summary of some of the most common issues:

• Missing supporting materials submission.
• Wrong fees and securities provided.
• Wrong or inconsistent legal names.
• Missing originals.
• FIT reference numbers were not included on documents.
• Missing required forms.
• Incomplete forms.
• Inconsistent and inaccurate forms.
• Unacceptable locations.
• Lease, Option and Site Access Rights were not in the name of the applicant.
• Lease, Option and Site Access Rights conditions were in favour of the landlord.

To ensure all applicants received objective and equal treatment, OPA says it hired an independent evaluation monitor, through a competitive tender. The evaluation monitor reviewed a selected sampling of different types of applications to ensure the criteria for review was being applied objectively and consistently to all applicants.