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Progress billing sample for Procurement

okay we will go ahead and begin the presentation now welcome all to the progress payment pathway webinar thank you all for joining us today my name is bonnie i'm an inspector with the soma program administrator and i'll be your moderator for today's webinar i would like to introduce you to today's speakers and panelists margie mcdonald jay berg and allie patty today's webinar will cover the following topics background information on the progress payment pathway the benefits and eligibility for this pathway application steps and required application documents and the services and resources that are available by the soma pa to wrap up we will have time for a question and answer session at the end i will now pass it to margie to go over the soma program great thanks bonnie before we jump into the progress payment pathway i want to provide a quick refresher on the soma program and goals the goals of the soma program are to provide clean power and energy cost savings to california multi-family affordable housing residents promote economic development and disadvantaged communities provide maximum direct benefits to tenants and to develop a larger pool of contractors in a competitive bidding process the progress payment pathway is an alternative to payment option in addition to the standard one payment option offered by the program too a progress payment can be requested once the major pv system components have been installed but prior to the system receiving a permission to operate from the utility and will be 60 of the total approved incentive amount the remaining incentive will be paid at the end of the soma application once a system has received pto from the utility and the soma pa has performed the final onsite inspection and approved the incentive claim milestone let's go over a bit of background on the progress payment pathway and how this all originated in the spring of 2020 solar contractors expressed that the kobit 19 pandemic has significantly impacted their business models and and access to financing creating further barriers to finance projects further the shelter in place restrictions resulting from the covid19 pandemic also caused ahj permitting delays which further impacted project timelines and exacerbated financing issues by delaying completion of milestones required for incentive payment in response the soma pa started to explore different progress payment models to help alleviate the cash flow issue the projects were experiencing but also protect program incentive funds through the exploration phase the soma pa spoke with program participants stakeholders financing entities participating utilities and the california public utilities commission to gather feedback in the end the solar pa landed on a two-pack two payment pathway that was approved by energy division in on december 21st of 2020. the progress payment pathway was designed to help overcome financial barriers being faced by program participants and to help expand access and enable future solar projects and program participation from new property owners contractors and developers here we'll highlight some of the benefits of the progress payment pathway which are especially important and impactful during the current challenges brought on by cobia which has heightened capital barriers for many the progress payment pathway essentially allows a project to expedite a portion of the soma incentive payment which can help to address capital barriers such as carrying the cost of a project until completion or securing a bridge loan similarly a progress payment may enable the term of a bridge loan to be reduced in any case a progress payment accelerates the timeline to recoup project costs and may likely improve the project economics in more ways than one additionally if applicable progress payments can help minimize the impacts of any delays associated with the local ahj's permitting or utility interconnection process after the major system components have already been installed now we'll delve further into specifics of eligibility for the progress payment pathway to be eligible for a progress payment a project installation must be mechanically complete mechanical completion for the purposes of the progress payment is defined as the point at which all solar pv equipment has been installed including the net generation output meter socket and the system wiring has been completed to be able to opt-in to the progress payment pathway in powerclerk the application must have received the proof of project milestone approval and be more than four months away from the incentive claim milestone due date when the progress payment request is submitted additionally a virtual walkthrough will be required for every application requesting a progress payment to ensure the system installation is mechanically complete this will be coordinated by the soma pa and on-site host once the progress payment request has been received and we'll go into more details of the virtual walkthrough a little bit later on in the presentation please note that the progress payment pathway does not impact any other program requirements or milestones the virtual walkthrough will not replace the final on-site inspection and the incentive claim milestone due date or overall reservation period for project completion remains in place we'll now dive into the application steps and review the required information and documentation that must be submitted the optional pathway will be available in powerclerk after the proof of project milestone is completed as a reminder it will be available as long as the incentive play milestone due date is not less than four months away the applicant will log into the application and power clerk and simply select to opt-in to the ppp and begin that portion of the application which is shown on this slide here upon starting the progress payment request process in powerclerk the applicant must complete a series of questions and verify that the historical application information remains current these questions will cover participant contact information pv system design specifications the designated payee and method of payment the designated on-site host for the virtual walkthrough which we'll go into a little bit further on information about tenant education and information regarding job training job training requirements are not required to be fulfilled until the incentive claim milestone but we will ask for some preliminary information at the progress payment request stage following the questions in power clerk the applicant will complete and upload the following documents the progress payment request form the affidavit ensuring tenant education optional supporting documentation to help guide the virtual walkthrough and some examples of supporting documentation may include a site map as built plans or single line diagrams showcasing array details and location or a single line diagram lastly is the electronic payment setup form if the payee is seeking to receive their incentive payment via direct deposit versus a mail check once these steps have been completed the applicant will submit the request the selma pa will review the request package and coordinate and conduct the virtual walkthrough before approving and paying the progress payment let's now go into more detail on each of these required application documents here's an example of what the progress payment request form looks like this is a document that's generated through powerclerk and must be signed by all necessary parties the live virtual walkthrough is required for every application requesting a progress payment and will allow the soma pa to ensure that the system has been installed and meets the eligibility requirements for receiving a progress payment this virtual walkthrough will not replace the final on-site inspection at the end of the soma application process and that will be more so focused on the installation design parameters whereas this virtual walkthrough is meant to verify that the major system components are installed such as the make model and quantity as we covered earlier in the presentation the applicant will enter the designated virtual walkthrough on-site host this is the person that the soma pa will contact to coordinate and conduct the live virtual walk-through with and should be knowledgeable about the system and have access to the site as indicated by the name the live virtual walkthrough will be a video call between the on-site host and a member of the soma pa team during this video call the on-site hosts should be prepared to showcase the system installation which may entail walking the site and showing different perspectives pointing to distant arrays and referencing any supporting documentation such as a site map or photos which can help guide the walkthrough the net generation output meter socket is also a specific component that will need to be verified at this point all live virtual walkthrough video calls will be recorded and uploaded into power clerk or saved securely with other soma application documents for reference upon completion of the virtual walkthrough the soma pa will then complete a virtual walkthrough report indicating if mechanical completion was able to be verified if not the progress payment will not be approved until mechanical completion can be verified with another virtual walkthrough or supporting documentation another note about the virtual walkthrough is that these are brand new to the soma program the soma pa will continue to assess our process and improve it when possible if you do have applications applying for a progress payment we look forward to working with you through this virtual walkthrough process to make it as efficient and painless as possible ali is there anything that you would like to add about the virtual walkthrough thank you margie that was a great overview um i will say that when the member of the summit pa does contact that on-site host we will provide a clear list of the metrics that we're hoping to look at during the virtual walkthrough and get everybody prepared in that sense and we can also you know do some tech checks in advance so if anybody is concerned about the video component while we're on the call with you to schedule the virtual walkthrough we can work through any technical questions as well thanks margie great thanks sally so moving on from the virtual walkthrough we'd now like to highlight some free resources and services that are provided by the soma pa and that can assist in in this process the soma pa is available to help program participants determine eligibility for the progress payment pathway and is always available to help applicants with existing applications if you do need any assistance please don't hesitate to reach out to us at the contact information that's listed on this slide we're definitely happy to help in any way we can on our website which is linked on this slide we have we now have a dedicated web page with further information on the pathway additionally we do have an interactive application timeline which contains the application documents that are required for the progress payment pathway and are available for download there um as long as the doc as well as the documents for every other application milestone thank you so much for attending our progress payment pathway webinar and have a great rest of the day