PV Tech and Enact Systems are co-hosting a webinar exploring how the company’s platform enables greater solar and storage sales through leveraging software advantages. To register for the webinar, which takes place at 2:00 PM (BST) on 26 October, please click here.
Product Outline:
Enact’s Software platform is transforming how solar and energy storage projects are designed, deployed and managed, with thousands of users in 20+ countries. Enact’s platform enables sales teams for installers and developers to design, price and sell systems remotely, prepare proposals, finalise contracts and also track project execution. Consumers (end-customers) can also leverage Enact’s platform to manage their solar and energy storage transition, starting with evaluating offers and bids, to tracking outcomes – i.e. financial savings. They can also track their energy consumption, make decisions on energy use, receive alerts on failures instantly and manage their performance and warranty of systems.
Unlock unlimited access for 12 whole months of distinctive global analysis
Photovoltaics International is now included.
- Regular insight and analysis of the industry’s biggest developments
- In-depth interviews with the industry’s leading figures
- Unlimited digital access to the PV Tech Power journal catalogue
- Unlimited digital access to the Photovoltaics International journal catalogue
- Access to more than 1,000 technical papers
- Discounts on Solar Media’s portfolio of events, in-person and virtual
Or continue reading this article for free
Problem:
Onsite solar and energy storage is already a US$10 billion annual industry in the US market, and more than US$100 billion globally. While such projects generate huge savings and sustainable electricity, it’s a complex and expensive transition for customers. The majority of solar sales and installation providers are largely small to medium-sized today with a challenging business environment. Every solar and/or energy storage project requires a complex sales and design process, sourcing from multiple vendors, requiring local approval (city, utility), difficult construction cycle and finally years of maintenance to recover the savings to pay off the initial investment. Needless to say, solar sales and installation companies struggle to scale without end-to-end software powering their business.
Also end-customers purchasing solar and storage systems have a difficult customer journey largely unable to understand their true cost/benefit, and no tools to measure their ROI in financial terms. With thousands of small developers leading the growth of this sector and hundreds of manufacturer options, customers pick from multiple bids without full deal transparency and no assurance of outcome. Once purchased, their ownership experience is also cumbersome – they lack visibility of true ROI, ongoing support (e.g. filing their incentive / tax benefits) as well as basic asset maintenance (e.g. when to schedule a preventive maintenance for warranty upkeep).
Solution:
The ENACT Installer App automates the complete journey of the customer, right from first contact to complete installation. Based on an address of the property, Enact uses satellite imaging-based visualisation and data-processing for remote design, enabling design-layouts of the solar array for any brand of solar panel on the roof or ground location. Modeling in both 2D and 3D allows shade analysis and accurate generation estimates. Systems can be designed for both solar and energy storage solutions, as well as additional devices on site.
The Enact Installer App ingests energy consumption data for modeling purposes and leverages utility rate/solar generation data combined with pricing, bill-of-materials and financing analysis, leading to high-accuracy sales proposals and contracts. Users can develop detailed project cost models, as well as incentive profiles local to every region. The financing of projects can be analysed for any type of model: PPA, lease, loan or hybrids and in some countries, Enact integrates live with third-party financiers to speed up the approval/credit process.
Powerful workflow automation and decision-based analytics is integrated as well for tracking resources, timelines and predictive analytics for reporting. Owners of companies can track all activity of sales and operations users, also assign tasks to folks based on a process for each type of project. Enact allows integration of the platform to third party CRM, project management and accounting software platforms as well.
The ENACT Consumer App product focuses on managing existing assets by integrating through Cloud APIs to physical hardware – solar as well as energy storage – to visualise overall asset performance and financial return on investment, as well as verification on projections. The end-customer journey starts with their first proposal and tracks the entire buying journey, leading up to a purchase.
Post-installation, the Enact Consumer App visualises live power flows, and asset operations, alerting customers on performance issues, predicting future savings and enabling live customer support, with a IOS/Android App.
Large OEMs for energy storage (e.g. Jinko Solar and Duracell) have white labeled the entire consumer platform, making their device plug-and-play in the ecosystem of inverter providers and looking ahead on the basics of consumer engagement, as more solar installers now install their projects.
Application:
The Enact platform covers the following types of use cases
- Residential and Commercial Solar
- Rooftop and ground/mounted projects
- Solar alone or combined with Energy Storage
- On-grid as well as Off-grid operation
- Cash-purchase, Lease or third-party financed projects
- Net-metered or gross-metered projects
- Single-meter or multiple meters per project location
- Fleet-view for all assets deployed, irrespective of inverter type
- And a whole lot more!
Availability:
Enact’s Installer App platform is available for use in 20+ countries including USA, Germany, South Africa, UAE, Saudi Arabia, India, Singapore and now in Australia. Enact’s Consumer App platform, initially launched in the US is now under pilot use for South Africa and UAE, soon to expand to other markets.