Quick answer
After commissioning, the clearest recurring revenue is a paid monitoring and maintenance service. Define exactly what you will check, how often you will report, which faults you handle, response times, site visits and what costs extra. Keep future upgrades or extra project work outside that service unless you have priced them in.
After commissioning, recurring revenue usually comes from a paid monitoring and maintenance contract. Spell out the checks, reports, callouts and response times the client is paying for. The client should be able to see exactly what you check, how often you report, what happens when there is a fault and what costs extra.
Build a paid post-commissioning package
Offer the client a monthly or annual contract covering the parts of the installation you can inspect, check remotely and maintain.
This may include:
- Battery, inverter and controller connection checks
- Review of alarm and fault logs
- Meter and CT reading checks
- Annual electrical and visual inspections
- Manufacturer firmware update checks and warranty-claim support
- First-line remote fault checks
- Planned site visits
- Monthly or quarterly reports showing alarms, faults, downtime, battery availability and whether the battery followed the agreed charge/discharge schedule
- Checks against the agreed battery schedule and original savings estimate, with tariff, site-use or solar-output changes noted
Make sure you can access the meter readings, controller data and inverter data needed to do these checks. Agree remote access before handover and record who owns each login, SIM and communications account.
Set clear boundaries as well. The contract should state:
- Which equipment you maintain
- Which faults go to the battery or inverter supplier
- Which controller or software faults go to the control provider
- How quickly you will respond
- How many site visits the fee includes
- Which parts, travel and callouts cost extra
- Who manages warranty claims
- What happens when equipment supplied by another company fails
Do not guarantee a fixed saving unless the contract explains which meter data, tariff, site-load data and solar generation data you will use to measure it. Tariff changes, production hours, site demand and solar output can change the result even when the battery follows the agreed schedule.
Keep future project work separate from the service contract
A battery project may lead to more work later. The client may ask for solar, EV charging, more battery capacity, extra metering, new controls or additional site checks once the system is operating.
Treat that work as a separate project unless it is clearly named in the monitoring and maintenance contract. This keeps the recurring service tied to work you have actually priced and avoids promising support that has not been priced.
For the recurring contract, charge for named checks, reports, site visits and first-line fault checks. If the client wants extra work later, quote it separately before you start.
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