Once you and your professional licensed AES energy consultant have decided on a project, you can sign your documents. Your Proposal outlines the system specifications, solar energy production, back-up power parameters, price and financing type. Your Home Improvement Agreement (HIC) includes your workmanship warranty and specifics about your payment schedule. Your loan documents will include specifics about any financing programs. For solar projects, the State of California additionally requires a CPUC disclosure form.

Site Survey captures photos of your project location with our drone, pictures of your electrical situation and internet router location, and collects any other information relevant to designing your project. We would like for you to be present for the survey to provide access to the property, however if we have permission to enter the areas needed, this is not mandatory. The surveyor is onsite to gather information. For specific questions or additional project requests, you should contact your energy consultant so these will get included in your design scope.

Our NABCEP certified design team follows industry best-practices and the most recent state and national electrical code requirements so you can be sure your system is high performing, code-compliant and safe for you and your family. They will generate a comprehensive design of your system to ensure it can be installed in the manner and perform as you expect in the location discussed with your consultant. This process will also surface any previously unidentified issues that could require a change to your design or project scope, including unpermitted structures or poor roof conditions. AES will not install on unpermitted structures or on a roof with less than half of its lifespan remaining. Your energy consultant will inform you when your design is complete to make sure it matches your expectations. Once we have your approved design, we will convert it to a completed planset to submit to your jurisdiction for permitting. This process is comprehensive and can take from 4-6 weeks.. During this initial design period we may need to contact you for additional information, but otherwise we will reconnect when we have a completed design ready for your review.

With your approved project design and planset, we will submit your applications for utility interconnection and open a permit with your jurisdiction. We will ask you to e-sign your utility interconnection application after we have an approved design so it is ready to go when we submit for permit. Your approved utility application date secures your place in line with regards to which version of net energy metering you will be entitled to. In rare cases, a grid infrastructure upgrade may be needed to connect your solar project. This application process will inform us of this situation and your options for moving forward. This is also where the jurisdiction will issue their findings on any permitting issues on the property, which is why we try to proactively catch them all in design.

We maintain as much product inventory as possible on-hand. Depending on supply chain dynamics, there are certain high-demand products that are more subject to backorder than others.. Once we have an approved design, we place a purchase order for your product if it is not already in our warehouse.

Once you have an approved design, we will check in with you approximately every two weeks with a status update for scheduling. If your product is on backorder, we stay in regular contact with our vendors and we will inform you whenever there is an update. On the day your installation begins, we ask you to be available to allow us access to the property to get the project started. At that point we will coordinate any required interior access but we are pretty self-sufficient working outside so your constant presence isn't necessarily required. We will keep you updated on a daily basis during the course of the installation. Most installations take from around 7 days, but this can vary depending on product, weather conditions and type of install (ie roof vs ground). The last component of the installation is a final inspection by the local building department, where a final permit will be issued for the project and filed with the local jurisdiction.

Your final permit and your approved interconnection application are submitted together to the utility at which point they have up to 30 business days to issue Permission to Operate (PTO). For most systems PTO usually happens within 10-business days. There is no PTO required for generators, only solar and batteries. PTO is your utility approval to turn on your system. Once issued we will give you instructions on what to do to power up and provide some guidance on getting logged into your monitoring portal

AES is committed to providing the highest quality service during the life of your system. Our dedicated service department is available to help you with any issues that might arise over the life of your system.

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