Business
Schools & universities
Districts, community colleges and campuses: prevailing-wage work, board-ready numbers, and a summer schedule that actually holds.
What your buildings need
- Aging switchgear and panels in buildings put up between the 1960s and the 1990s, still carrying loads nobody planned for.
- Gym and parking-lot lighting still on HID, burning metered energy every evening a building is open.
- Bus-fleet charging and staff charging, with the service capacity and the conduit path behind it.
- Backup power for buildings that serve as shelters, and for the server rooms that run the district.
How it gets built
School and college work is public, prevailing-wage work; it runs union with our crews at Boyd Electric, who have built for education clients for 30+ years. LAW Ventures carries the scope, the board presentation and the incentive filing.
Funding for this market
Public-sector tracks in the utility programs, plus state EV grants.
ComEd's Small Businesses & Facilities track explicitly covers small businesses or public facilities with limited resources, and states that the ComEd incentives will reduce your out-of-pocket costs by up to 75% of your entire project. It starts with a free assessment by an authorized Service Provider, you choose the upgrades, and the Service Provider installs. Funds are limited and provided first-come, first-served, so the assessment is worth booking before the budget year closes.
"Up to 80% of the cost of the installation of charging stations may be funded. Additional awards may incentivize charging infrastructure in eligible communities." Round 3 is closed — the Illinois EPA is not accepting more applications, as all available funding has been requested — and no next round has been announced. The grant funds publicly-available Level 2 or Level 3 stations only, so charging behind a fence needs a different funding path. We keep the site design and cost basis filed and ready for the next Notice of Funding Opportunity.
Illinois Shines runs a dedicated Public Schools category that "includes any solar project, whether Small or Large Distributed Generation, or community solar projects that serve a public school in Illinois." Incentives are paid to Approved Vendors for the RECs a system produces, and the savings are passed on to the customer — so what a district actually receives depends on the vendor agreement. We participate through an Approved Vendor rather than as the applicant of record, and we read that pass-through term before anyone signs.
The base amount of the Clean Electricity Investment Credit is 6 percent of the qualified investment, increased up to 30% for facilities meeting prevailing wage and registered apprenticeship requirements — a prevailing-wage school job already carries the wage half; we confirm the apprenticeship hours before the 30% goes in a budget. A district pays no federal income tax, but elective (direct) pay is available to tax-exempt organizations and government entities, which turns the credit into a payment rather than a write-off. Pre-filing registration is required, and it is claimed on Form 3468.
Pre-approval comes before the purchase order. Utility programs do not pay retroactively; we file first, then we build.
Services for this market
Where we start on these buildings.
Lighting & controls
Fluorescent and HID fixtures that cost more to run than to replace.
ComEd lighting and controls incentivesEV charging
A fleet mandate, a tenant ask, or a parking lot that needs Level 2 and DC fast charging.
ComEd $5,000/port — next windowPower & distribution
Service too small for the load you are adding — chargers, kitchens, HVAC, a new wing.
Funded as make-readyBackup power & life safety
Generators, transfer switches, emergency and exit lighting that pass inspection.
Capital budget or utility incentivesProjects in this market