The battery incentive your installer may not file for you.

The site inspection turned up something the homeowners did not know: the roof carried two layers of shingles — a newer layer laid over the original — with roughly five to six years of service life remaining.

Five years is long enough to feel fine and short enough to be a trap. Panels installed over that roof would have had to come off and go back on well inside the system's life. We re-issued the quote with a re-roof included and explained why.

The original specification was an Enphase battery. The supplier was running delays at the time. We moved the recommendation to a Tesla Powerwall 3 with an Expansion Pack — comparable pricing, more usable storage at 27 kWh, and an integrated inverter so no second inverter was needed. The configuration gave whole-home backup rather than selected circuits.

We took the application on as priced work rather than a favor, and said two things before the homeowners paid anything toward it: the incentive is not guaranteed, because approval rests with the program; and the program may levy its own fees depending on system size and scope.

The paperwork ran to a stack of documents, several needing original ink signatures rather than electronic ones. Where the homeowners preferred, they reviewed documents and authorized us to sign on their behalf, which removed weeks of postal round-trips.

One question inside the application changed the economics of the whole project: whether the applicant intended to claim the federal residential credit on the battery.

The two did not simply stack. How you answered affected the incentive the program would pay on the storage portion. We walked the homeowners through what each answer meant for their project before they decided, then filed accordingly.

This has since changed. For this application, filed in 2025, the homeowners' intended federal tax-credit treatment affected the SGIP calculation. The Section 25D residential clean energy credit is not available for residential installations completed after 31 December 2025 — the IRS treats the expenditure as made when the original installation is completed, not when it is paid for. Commercial and third-party-owned projects fall under different provisions. Confirm current treatment with a tax professional; we are not one.

They asked about adding a third battery under the incentive. We checked and said plainly: on the program's own calculation two batteries covered their consumption, and a third would not be funded.

Later a manufacturer rebate appeared and we forwarded it. The homeowners spotted before we did that the eligibility dates did not match their purchase and installation. We confirmed and dropped it.

Neither conversation earned us anything. Both are why a customer is still replying eleven months into a project.

The re-roof cleared its final inspection on 2 September 2025, and the incentive application was signed and filed at the end of that month. Close-out then ran in a fixed order, each step gating the next: fire inspection, then city final sign-off, then submission to the utility for permission to operate. All three cleared, and the unconditional waiver on final payment was issued in December 2025.

The incentive then ran on its own clock. The administering utility accepted the incentive claim documentation in June 2026 and scheduled its own site inspection days later — roughly nine months after filing, with extensions granted along the way and every deadline met.

When the final piece of the application came together in June, the homeowners wrote back the same morning to thank the team for carrying them through the process — and thanked us again a fortnight later when the confirmation landed. Their words for the stretch where we kept requesting extensions and chasing paperwork on their behalf were “we appreciate your patience.”

That August they asked us to review production against the original estimate after a summer dip. We walked them through how weather, shading and high temperatures move monthly output, went through the chart with them, and confirmed the system was performing as projected. Eleven months after the first site visit, they were still writing — and still pleased with it.

• Identified a two-layer roof at site inspection and re-quoted with a re-roof before install
• Changed the battery specification when the original supplier ran delays
• Filed the full incentive application, including documents requiring original ink signatures
• Explained how the federal tax credit interacts with the incentive before the decision
• Told the homeowners a third battery would not be funded, and why
• Checked a manufacturer rebate and confirmed they did not qualify
• Sequenced fire inspection, city final and utility submission in the required order
• Supported the program's own site inspection nine months after filing

• This was a 2025 application. Program rules, budget categories and handbook provisions change between program years — treat it as an account of one process, not as instructions.
• Eligibility depends on criteria specific to each household and property. Nothing here establishes that another household would qualify.

Figures on this page come from the primary sources below and, where noted, from Cali Energy calculations using the stated assumptions. Rates, incentives, and program terms change; each was verified September 2, 2026.

1. SGIP Program Handbook (2026)
2. SCE — Self-Generation Incentive Program status
3. IRS — FAQs on sections 25C, 25D and others under Public Law 119-21
4. CPUC — Self-Generation Incentive Program