Uncovering the Oversight: Utility Payment Errors in Solar Investments

While utility companies clearly strive to maintain accurate billing and payment systems, due to the complexity and scale of their operations, mistakes are regularly made.

In a survey of more than 1,000 solar asset owners made by the Solar Energy Industries Association SEIA, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in the USA, a surprising 10% of companies said they had experienced mistakes with their utility payments.

The study found that the most common mistakes were as follows:

• 38% of the errors were due to underestimation of the amount of solar energy produced by asset owners.

• 28% were due to not crediting asset owners for all the energy they produced.

• 17% of errors were down to delayed payments.

• 15% were due to asset owners being charged for grid services that they had not used.

Of course, those figures refer only to the errors that the surveyed asset owners noted - how many more mistakes passed by unnoticed is another question.

Navigating Solar Investment: How Errors Impact Asset Owners' Bottom Line

What makes it so hard for solar asset owners to check that payments from utility companies are correct, is the way that the system works. Utility companies often use estimates of how much electricity they are being provided by asset owners rather than using precise readings from real-time meters.

Furthermore, some asset owners do not have adequate meters of their own to check if there is a variance between the estimate of the utility company and the amount of electricity they are actually providing. With no way to control or check estimated electricity production against actual production, they are forced to rely on the utility company’s figures. Of course, they are likewise unable to track specific dates or to note any missing invoices.

Even when utility companies use real-time metering, there is often a variance between their data and the precise amount of electricity provided by the asset owner. The managerial problem is obviously compounded for distributed solar assets - where multiple systems in various locations are sold to more than one utility.

Maximizing Solar Returns: Strategies for Mitigating Payment Mistakes

Only if the asset owner has sufficient real-time meters of their own can they truly compare their figures with the utility companies. And even then - it is not only about the metering - what is needed is a robust system capable of managing the overall portfolio. This is exactly where enSights comes in.

enSights advanced platform is a unique solution to this problem.

enSights is the only renewable energy management platform that contains a financial module specifically designed to eradicate the issue of incorrect billing and missing payments to solar asset owners from utility companies. Let’s look at how it works.

enSights sits between solar asset owners and the utility companies. This allows managers to see exactly how each of their assets is performing at all times. The key thing is that with enSights managers can check their real production against expected production for any period and compare what was really produced to how much they have been paid.

enSights provides asset managers with complete visibility and a concise summary of all the key variables. Removing the unknowns removes the space for mistakes and unnecessary losses. In this way, using enSights pays for itself.

Read more about the  latest developments and challenges in Renewable Energy management & generation:

• The growing issue of grid congestion is serious enough to stall growth in RE

• Renewable energy producers feel the pinch as margins come under increasing pressure

• How to radically upgrade Your RE production & management in a way that rapidly pays for itself

  
  

How common are utility payment errors in solar energy investments?

According to a SEIA and NREL survey of more than 1,000 solar asset owners in the U.S., about 10% reported mistakes with their utility payments. The most frequent issues included underestimated solar production (38%), missing credits for energy produced (28%), delayed payments (17%), and charges for unused grid services (15%).

Why are these payment errors so hard for asset owners to detect?

Many utilities rely on estimated production figures instead of precise real-time readings, making it difficult for renewable energy asset owners to verify payments. Without adequate metering of their own, owners must depend on utility data, often without visibility into exact dates, missing invoices, or discrepancies across multiple distributed assets.

What impact do utility payment errors have on solar asset owners?

Even small billing mistakes can significantly affect profitability over time. Errors like underestimated production or delayed payments directly reduce cash flow, while lack of transparency adds management complexity—especially for owners operating multiple clean energy assets across different utilities.

How can solar energy asset owners protect themselves against billing mistakes, and how does enSights help?

While installing real-time meters is a start, true protection requires a system that centralizes production data, compares expected vs. actual output, and tracks utility payments. enSights was built for exactly this purpose. Its dedicated financial module sits between asset owners and utilities, giving managers complete visibility into both performance and billing. By spotting discrepancies early and preventing missed revenue, enSights helps eliminate errors and ensure solar assets deliver their full value.