Rebates on a Level 2 installation: the paperwork decides, not the promise

Rebate and incentive programs for charging equipment come from utilities, states, municipalities and occasionally employers, and they change often enough that any list published here would be out of date before it was useful. What does not change is the shape of the requirement, and that is worth understanding before the work starts rather than after.

Programs pay against evidence

Nearly every program that pays for installed equipment asks for some combination of the same four items:

• an itemised invoice that separates the equipment from the labour;
• proof that the work was permitted;
• proof that it passed inspection;
• the make and model of the installed unit, sometimes from an approved list.

Three of those four cannot be produced retroactively. A permit is pulled before the work, not after it, and an inspection signs off on work that was permitted. This is the practical reason an unpermitted installation is rarely cheaper: it disqualifies itself from the program that would have paid part of it, on top of everything else the permit question covers.

Approved equipment lists exist and they are specific

Some programs pay only for units that are networked, or that support load management, or that appear on a published list. If a rebate is part of the plan, the equipment decision has to be made against that list rather than on price, and it has to be made before the unit is bought.

Utility programs often care about when you charge

A distinct category of program is not about the hardware at all. It pays, or discounts the rate, in exchange for charging outside peak hours or for allowing the utility to manage the load. These are worth more over years than a one-time equipment rebate, and they depend on the installation being capable of what they require, which is a decision made at commissioning.

What we do about it

We pull the permit, we book the inspection along the sequence set out on permits and planning, and the invoice separates equipment from labour because that is what the forms ask for: the same records that should exist at the end of a complete Level 2 installation. Which specific programs apply to a given address depends on the utility and the jurisdiction, and that is a question we answer for the actual address rather than in general.

Varies locally, and must be checked for your address

Program names, amounts, deadlines and eligibility are set by bodies we do not control and are revised regularly. Nothing on this page should be read as a promise that a particular program exists or will pay. What we can state is what makes an installation eligible in principle: it is permitted, it is inspected, and it is documented, which is what a full installation service handles as a matter of course.