Connecticut’s Non-Residential Renewable Energy Solutions Year 5 August request for proposals is open, and the bid clock is short. Eversource’s NRES page is the primary schedule. Bids for the August window opened at 1 p.m. Eastern on August 3. The two-week window for Small Zero Emission pricing closed at 1 p.m. on August 17. Every remaining category, including leftover Small Zero if capacity is still open, has bid forms due at 1 p.m. on September 14, 2026. At that minute the pricing becomes firm, irrevocable, and binding.
The year 5 rules come from PURA Docket 25-08-03. If you are still treating NRES as a February-only hunt, you are a year late. Year 5 put the annual budget and megawatt allocation into the February solicitation. Whatever capacity and budget survived February is what August is selling. School Solar is the exception: that queue stayed open from February through the August close, or until the megawatts are gone.
The dates that actually move a job
First-round selection is on or about November 2. Partially executed tariff agreements come back on the companies’ clock, roughly ten business days after notice. A second round can follow if awarded projects drop. Tariff agreements have to be filed with PURA by December 31, 2026. Commencement of service follows the tariff, not the bid email.
PURA’s NRES program page is the regulator source. Year 5 raised price caps to reflect federal tax-credit changes, added an annual budgetary cap pegged to 2024 program costs, and updated the nonrefundable bid fee. Those are program terms. They are not an interconnection approval.
NRES is not the interconnection application
Eversource says it on the same page in one sentence: the NRES program bid and the interconnection application are separate requirements. United Illuminating says the same in the program manual. You can win a tariff and still sit in a study. You can have an executed Interconnection Agreement and still lose the bid.
School Solar is stricter. The project’s Interconnection Agreement must be fully executed before you submit the NRES bid. There is a pre-application checklist. If you are chasing school megawatts in the last two weeks of the August window without an IA, you are not late. You are ineligible.
For everyone else, size the interconnection application to the same AC nameplate you put on the bid. Small Zero is 200 kW AC and under. Medium is over 200 kW and under 1,000 kW. Large is 1,000 kW through 5,000 kW. Buy-All versus Netting changes metering. A Connecticut PE certification is still on the form list for certain load-sized projects. Do not swap a Netting one-line onto a Buy-All bid the night before September 14.
What PMs should freeze before September 14
- Customer of record and site parcel. SAM beneficial accounts, if any, go on the allocation form at bid, not after award.
- Buy-All or Netting. Run the bid calculator. Do not guess.
- Interconnection process track at Eversource or UI, and the portal case number if you already applied.
- PE certification, usage history, and disclosure forms from the Year 5 forms list.
- Equipment SKUs that match the permit set. A last-minute inverter swap is a new bid problem and a new drawing problem.
RRES is the residential tariff. Do not drop an NRES bid packet on a house. If the customer is a school on a contiguous parcel, read the School Solar rules twice. The tariff customer has to be the school, the board, or the municipality.
Permit design, PE stamp, and PTO
Hartford and New Haven still want a building permit. PURA does not issue those. See the Connecticut RRES installer guide for residential context and Eversource vs UI interconnection for the utility split. City drawing notes: Hartford and New Haven.
A Year 5 bid that needs a PE certification is asking for a Connecticut professional engineer, not a NABCEP card. NABCEP is an installer credential. It does not sign the electrical set. Use PE stamping when the form or the AHJ calls for it. Use permit design for the town set and interconnection for the EDC packet.
Permission to operate is still the utility’s written authorization after inspection and metering. PTO, PPO, and permit to operate are the same closeout. Winning NRES in November does not energize a roof in November. If the array changed in the field, file as-builts before you ask about the meter.
What Athol is doing on CT commercial jobs this month
We are matching bid nameplate to the interconnection application and the permit one-line. If a job cannot make September 14 with a complete form set, we would rather miss this window than submit a bid the portal will bounce. February 2027 will exist. A deficient bid on September 14 will not.
Statewide design: Connecticut solar design services. More on the blog.
Sources: Eversource Connecticut NRES, PURA NRES program page.