The model
I take no margin on your equipment. My fee is 4%, on commissioning.
This page explains exactly how I charge, what you see, and what you get for it. If you have had solar quotes before, some of this will explain things about them you may have wondered about.
- Margin on equipment
- 0%
- Invoices you see
- 100%
- My fee
- 4%
- Payable
- On commissioning
Why I work this way
The ordinary way to sell solar in Pakistan is to quote one number for a complete system and keep the breakdown to yourself.
That number contains the equipment, the installation, and a margin you never see. Because you can't see it, you can't judge it — and because you can't judge it, the only thing left to compare between two quotes is the total. So the incentive runs the wrong way: the cheaper the components, the wider the margin, and nothing about the quote tells you which is which.
I have seen the results of that on sites I was called to fix. Undersized cable. Inverters chosen because the dealer had stock rather than because they suited the load. Panels from a brand that had already left the market by the time the warranty mattered. In every case the client had paid a fair-looking total and received something worth considerably less.
The problem isn't that people are dishonest. It's that the structure hides the information you would need to tell. So I took the margin out entirely and charge for the only thing I actually provide, which is the engineering judgement.
I've never come across another consultant in Pakistan working this way. That may simply mean I haven't met them.
What you see
Every original supplier invoice, in the supplier's name, dated, itemised.
Not a summary I typed up. The actual invoice from the actual supplier, for the panels, the inverters, the structure, the cable, the protection equipment. You see what I paid because you are the one paying it — I am buying on your behalf, not reselling to you.
You also see the running total, my 4% calculated openly against it, and what has been paid so far. There is no point in the project where you have to take a number on trust.
A delivered project, as the client saw it
This is the specification plate for a 1 MW plant I delivered in Vehari. The same format is used on every project.
Simta Foods · Vehari Industrial
1 MW- PANELS
- 594 × JA 715W N-Type Bifacial
- INVERTERS
- 2 × SOLIS S5-GC125K 125 kW
- COMMISSIONED
- —
- MONTHLY SAVING
- PKR 1,900,000
- PAYBACK
- < 8 months
- MY FEE
- 4%, on commissioning
What the 4% covers
Four percent of total project cost, invoiced when your system is commissioned and generating. Not before.
- 01
Site assessment and load analysis
A site visit, roof or ground measurement, sanctioned load and phase check, and twelve months of your bills read properly rather than averaged.
- 02
System design
Array and inverter sizing against your real daytime consumption, a single-line diagram, and a bill of materials with named brands and model numbers.
- 03
Procurement at wholesale
Buying from suppliers I have worked with for years, at market prices, with every invoice issued in the supplier's name and handed to you.
- 04
Project management
Coordinating installation teams, being on site for the parts that decide whether a system lasts ten years or three, and catching the mistakes before they are buried under a roof.
- 05
Commissioning and testing
Full testing, anti-islanding verification to IEC 62116, and the net metering or net billing application with your distribution company.
- 06
After-sales support
Generation checks, warranty claims handled with the supplier, and the phone call when something looks wrong. Included in the 4%, not billed separately.
If the system never runs, I am never paid. That is the part of this arrangement that costs me something, and it is the part that should matter most to you.
What happens after commissioning
The engineer who designed and commissioned your system is the person who answers the phone afterwards.
In the ordinary arrangement, after-sales is where the relationship quietly ends. The salesman has moved on, the installation crew was subcontracted, and the person who picks up doesn't know your site. You describe your inverter fault to someone reading from a script.
I designed your system, so I know what is on your roof without looking it up. When you call about a fault, a generation drop, or a warranty claim, you are talking to the person who specified the equipment and watched it go in.
Warranty claims are handled with the supplier directly. Because the invoice is in your name and I have the relationship with the supplier, a claim goes through as a claim rather than as an argument about who bought what.
Worth being straight about
I am one person. Support is included and I have never charged for a phone call, but I am not going to publish a response time I can't guarantee to every client at once. If you need a defined service level in writing, tell me and we'll agree one for your project.
Next step
Send me your last three bills
That, your sanctioned load and a rough idea of your roof area is enough for me to tell you whether this is worth doing — and roughly what it would cost — before either of us commits a day to it.