🇬🇧 EPVS Guidance for OpenSolar Proposals

Summary

This guide is designed for UK-based OpenSolar users, particularly solar installers who are accredited members of the Energy Performance Validation Scheme (EPVS).

The EPVS is an independent certification standard that evaluates and verifies the processes used by installers to calculate energy savings, generation, and storage estimates. Its primary objective is to protect consumers from inaccurate or misleading performance projections and to ensure that all quoted financial savings, running costs, and payback periods are based on robust, approved industry methodologies. By holding installers to rigorous transparency standards, EPVS helps maintain consumer confidence and prevents the mis-selling of renewable energy products.

To ensure your proposals are efficiently validated by EPVS and comply with their certification standards, it is highly recommended that you incorporate specific system data into your OpenSolar proposal templates. Specifically, installers are advised to ensure the following information is clearly presented to the consumer:

• The Battery Control Scheme in use

• End of Life Battery Settings

• Current & Proposed Utility Tariffs

This article provides step-by-step instructions on how to accurately configure these settings within your projects and surface them clearly on your proposal templates.

Table of Contents

• Battery Control Schemes

• End of Life Settings

• Current & Proposed Tariffs

Battery Control Schemes

For an in-depth guide on setting up your configurations, please read our dedicated help centre article: How to set up Battery Control Schemes.

Adding a Battery Control Scheme to your Proposal Template

1. Navigate to Control > Purchase Experience > Proposal Template.

2. Create a new template or edit an existing one.

3. Expand the Proposal Content accordion and scroll down to the text editor for System Hardware Components.

4. Click the Placeholders icon and search for ‘battery control scheme’.
   

5. Select the System Battery Control Scheme placeholder. This will seamlessly add the placeholder to your template.
   
    

In your Project Proposals, this placeholder will dynamically populate according to the specific Battery Control Scheme selected in your system design.

Selecting a Battery Control Scheme in your Project

1. Within your project, navigate to the Design studio.

2. Add a battery component to your design.

3. Specify your desired scheme using the Battery Control Scheme drop-down input field.
   

Viewing the Battery Control Scheme in the Proposal

Once the preceding steps are complete, the applied battery control scheme will be visibly displayed in the online proposal, aligning with your template's configuration.

End of Life Settings

How to Configure End of Life Settings

1. Navigate to Control > Design & Hardware > Design & Setbacks Settings.

2. Create a new settings template or edit an existing one, then open the Simulation Settings section.

3. Scroll down to Hardware End of Life Modelling and locate the Battery subsection.

4. Apply the appropriate end-of-life modelling settings for your battery components.

Adding End of Life Settings to your Proposal Template

1. Navigate to Control > Purchase Experience > Proposal Template.

2. Create a new template or edit an existing one.

3. Expand the Proposal Content accordion and scroll down to the text editor for System Hardware Components.

4. Click the Placeholders icon and search for ‘battery end of life settings’.
   

5. Select the System Battery End of Life Settings placeholder to add it to your template.
   

In your Project Proposals, this placeholder will dynamically populate according to the End of Life Settings selected during the design phase.

Selecting End of Life Settings in your Project

1. Within your project, navigate to the Design studio.

2. Add a battery component to the design.

3. Specify the End of life option using the relevant drop-down input field.
   

Viewing the End of Life option in the Proposal

Once configured, the applied End of Life option will be displayed in the online proposal for your customer to review.

Current & Proposed Tariffs

For further context on configuring accurate utility rates, please review our dedicated help centre article: How to select the correct electricity utility/tariff.

Adding Tariff Data to your Proposal Template

1. Navigate to Control > Purchase Experience > Proposal Template.

2. Create a new template or edit an existing one.

3. Expand the Proposal Content accordion and scroll down to the text editor for Bill Savings.

4. Click the Placeholders icon and search for ‘tariff summary table’.
   

5. Select the Current & Proposed placeholders to add them to your template.
   

In your Project Proposals, these placeholders will populate with the exact tariff data configured in the Energy section of your project.
 

Selecting Tariffs in your Project

1. Within your project, navigate to the Energy tab.

2. Scroll down to Electricity Rate and select the appropriate current and proposed tariffs from the available options.

Viewing the Tariff in the Proposal

Once the above steps are completed, the applied tariffs will be transparently displayed in the online proposal, satisfying EPVS requirements for clear financial estimates.