Northern Illinois Community Charging Program IFB

The Illinois Finance Authority is soliciting competitive bids for the Northern Illinois Community Charging Program (IFB Bid 26-560IFA-IFA56-B-50776), a comprehensive electric vehicle charging infrastructure project serving Cook, Lake, Will, DuPage, and Kane Counties. The selected vendor will be responsible for the complete procurement, installation, operation, and maintenance of electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) at 35 public sites across 14 site host organizations, including municipalities, park districts, universities, and state agencies. The project deliverables include installation of 69 Level 2 charging stations and 14 DC Fast Charging (DCFC) stations, with all equipment fully operational within 18 months of contract execution. The vendor must conduct comprehensive site assessments, obtain all necessary permits, coordinate with utilities, ensure prevailing wage compliance, and provide five years of operations and maintenance services with a minimum 97% annual uptime requirement per charger port (subject to $100 per day penalties, up to $15,000 annually per charger for non-compliance). Qualified bidders must demonstrate at least three years of experience in Level 2 and DCFC installation and maintenance, document completion of projects totaling at least 3 megawatts of capacity, provide evidence of at least two projects in Cook, Kane, Will, or DuPage Counties, and supply references from governmental clients; all electricians must hold Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Training Program (EVITP) certification or complete registered apprenticeship programs with charger-specific training, plus Illinois Commerce Commission EV Charging Station Installer certification. The solicitation requires submissions through the BidBuy platform with cost breakdowns categorized by Equipment, Architectural and Engineering, and Construction; a pre-bid conference was held February 6, 2026, vendor questions were due by February 13, 2026 with responses posted by February 19, 2026, and final bids are due February 27, 2026, with award anticipated March 9, 2026 and contract execution by March 31, 2026.

The procurement includes a 4% Business Enterprise Program (BEP) goal for participation by minorities, women, persons with disabilities, and service-disabled veterans, with no Veteran Small Business Participation set-aside requirement; bidders claiming BEP goals must submit a completed Utilization Plan demonstrating good faith efforts to meet the participation targets. All work must comply with Build America, Buy America Act requirements, Davis-Bacon prevailing wage standards, the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Program specifications under 23 CFR Part 680, and federal Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Grant Program requirements; the project is funded through approximately $15 million in federal USDOT CFI grant funding with an 80% federal and 20% local cost-share structure, with site hosts required to provide cost-sharing match. No incumbent vendors or existing charging infrastructure requiring integration is identified in the solicitation documents, as this represents a new deployment of charging stations at previously un-equipped public sites. Vendors are prohibited from retaining any revenue generated from customer use of the chargers, with all charging fees accruing to site host organizations; the vendor may only recover credit card processing fees (8% per charge) and documented allowable costs for installation, engineering, operations, and maintenance. The total contract value will be determined by the State following bid evaluation; pricing submission deadlines and cost structures follow the federal grant requirements with monthly reimbursement of 100% of allowable documented costs for installation and operations phases, with the IFA paying 80% of upfront costs and site hosts providing the remaining 20% cost-share upon or after installation completion.