An annual maintenance contract a customer will actually buy

The standard industry practice is to include two years of free maintenance in the price, define it nowhere, and quietly hope the phone does not ring.

It rings. And because the service was free, it arrives as an obligation with no revenue attached, usually on the day your crews are busiest.

A priced, scoped AMC fixes the revenue problem. It also fixes three others worth more than the revenue.

Why it is worth building, beyond the money

It protects the generation estimate. Your proposal assumed a cleaning regime. If nobody cleans, the system underperforms and the conversation that follows is about your quality, not their maintenance. The arithmetic is in dust costs more than most EPCs think.

It finds faults while they are small. A string that has been down since March is found in September by a customer reading a bill, or in April by a technician reading an inverter.

It puts you on the roof twice a year. That is when you hear about the neighbour who is asking, the new shed going up, and the factory extension. Service visits generate more qualified leads per rupee than any advertising an EPC buys.

What goes in the scope

Write it as a list of actions with frequencies, not as adjectives. "Comprehensive maintenance" means nothing; "four cleanings a year, two inspections, one written report" can be priced, delivered and audited.

A workable annual scope for a residential or small commercial system:

• Module cleaning, at a stated frequency. Fortnightly, monthly or quarterly, matched to the site and to what your estimate assumed.
• Visual inspection of modules, mounting structure, fasteners, cable routing and conduit.
• Electrical checks: terminal torque, connector condition, DC and AC isolator function, and a look inside the combiner box.
• Earth resistance measurement, recorded with the date. The practice is in one ohm, and the fire that starts in a connector.
• Surge device status check, because a device that has already absorbed a surge may be doing nothing.
• String level measurement, so a failing string is found by measurement rather than by a bill.
• Inverter check: error logs, ventilation, filters where fitted, firmware where the manufacturer supports it.
• A written annual report carrying generation against expectation and the performance ratio, not just a total. Why that ratio matters is in why the system generates less than you promised.
• A stated response time for faults, which is the clause customers actually compare.

What to exclude, explicitly

An AMC that implicitly promises everything becomes a warranty you did not price.

Exclude, in writing: module and inverter replacement under manufacturer warranty, which you facilitate rather than fund; damage from lightning, storm, fire or theft, which is an insurance matter; civil work; damage caused by others working on the roof; grid side faults and DISCOM meter issues; and system expansion.

Say what you do rather than what you refuse where you can. "We file and pursue your manufacturer warranty claim on your behalf" reads much better than "module replacement excluded", and describes the same arrangement.

Pricing it

Two conventions, both defensible: a percentage of system cost per year, or a rate per kW per year. Per kW is easier to explain and scales sensibly across job sizes.

Whatever you choose, build the price from the actual cost: number of visits, travel time, water and consumables, a technician's day, the report, and your margin. Distance matters more than anything else, which is why clustering service routes decides whether this is a profitable line or a slow bleed.

Then show it against the loss it prevents. On a 100 kW commercial system, the generation recovered by regular cleaning alone can exceed the entire contract value. That comparison sells the AMC; a list of tasks does not.

When to sell it

At handover, priced as a line in the original proposal, with the first year sometimes included.

That is the moment the customer is most satisfied and most aware that the asset needs looking after. Selling it eighteen months later, after a generation complaint, is selling a fix for a problem they now blame you for.

Then set a reminder for month ten of each contract year. Renewals are lost by silence far more often than by price.

The business this becomes

An EPC with two hundred systems under contract has a revenue line that does not depend on winning new work this month, a reason to be in every customer's neighbourhood regularly, and a fleet whose performance it can actually see.

That last part is the one that compounds. Knowing which of your installed systems is underperforming this week is the difference between an installer and a service business, and it is also what a performance linked subsidy regime would require, as discussed in PM Surya Ghar 2.0 may pay for generation.

The short version

• Free undefined maintenance is an obligation with no revenue. A scoped, priced AMC is a product.
• Scope it as actions with frequencies: cleaning, inspection, electrical checks, earth measurement, surge status, string measurement, inverter check, a written report, a response time.
• Exclude warranty replacement, storm and fire damage, civil work and grid faults, in writing.
• Price per kW per year, built from visit cost, and sell it against the generation it protects.
• Two tiers, not five. Sell at handover, priced in the original proposal, and chase renewal at month ten.
• The fleet visibility it creates is the part that compounds.