TL;DR: Since November 1, 2025, six California investor-owned utilities require the updated CSLB Solar Energy System Disclosure Document for a residential interconnection application. The document must be typewritten and must show a 12-month bill savings estimate based on the customer’s hourly usage data, with zero rate escalation.
Since November 1, 2025, Bear Valley Electric Service, Liberty Utilities, PacifiCorp, Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison, and San Diego Gas & Electric will not treat a residential solar interconnection application as complete without the updated disclosure documents. They will only accept typewritten versions.
That is not a paperwork preference. It is part of the interconnection process under CPUC Resolution E-5364, adopted March 13, 2025 and issued March 18, 2025.
The interconnection packet now requires two CSLB documents
The CPUC’s CSLB Disclosure Documents page identifies two documents:
- The Cover Page, Solar Energy System Disclosure Document
- The Solar Energy System Supporting Information
The supporting information document has been in effect since November 1, 2025. Energy Division issued version 2 on July 28, 2025.
The CPUC states: “Both above documents, or their respective accepted versions, must be submitted to a utility for a solar interconnection application to be considered complete.”
Ordering Paragraph 3 of Resolution E-5364 names the six utilities required to collect it. Ordering Paragraph 4 says those utilities “will only accept typewritten” CSLB disclosure documents. The resolution discussion also says the utilities will not accept handwritten or non-machine-readable documents. They verify that point during semiannual audits.
A complete application under the CPUC’s net billing tariff decision, D.22-12-056, also includes the signed contract, single-line diagram, complete CSLB disclosure document, signed California Solar Consumer Protection Guide, and an oversizing attestation when applicable.
The customer must receive the Consumer Protection Guide to read, sign, and initial before signing the solar contract. The CSLB cover page has been enforced since January 1, 2019. The current documents include the system’s total cost, a one-year bill savings estimate, and the three-day right to cancel. That period is five days if the customer is over 65. See the home improvement contract cancellation rules before your contract process treats cancellation as an afterthought.
One monthly bill cannot support the new savings estimate
On a solar inquiry call, the caller usually gives you one number. It is the amount of one monthly electric bill. That number may land in the problem line of your call log, but it cannot serve as the usage input for this disclosure.
The estimate needs 12 months of one-hour interval consumption data from the customer’s account. That is 8,760 hourly readings in a 365-day year. Green Button data is one example.
The caller’s move-in date now matters to the paperwork. Someone who moved into the home a few months ago may not have 12 months of interval data. If the customer does not have the required data, you may use estimated hourly consumption, but the document must explain in writing how the estimate was derived and why 12 months of data was unavailable.
The customer’s signature on the California Solar Consumer Protection Guide satisfies the attestation that you made a reasonable effort to obtain the data.
This is why intake questions belong before the site visit. Wirewoman answers the shop’s line 24/7, and within 30 seconds of hang-up texts the electrician the caller’s name, address, problem in the caller’s words, urgency, and booked time. Every call is also logged to a dashboard.
Each Wirewoman setup’s intake questions are tuned by hand with the electrician whose line she answers. You can set up a solar shop’s intake to ask whether the caller has been at that address on their own utility account for the past 12 months, and whether the request is for solar only or solar plus a battery. Those answers can arrive in the SMS summary before the estimator drives out.
That tells you whether the usage line will come from Green Button data or require the written explanation. The solar and battery call questions should now capture those answers directly.
The form changed from a 20-year pitch to a 12-month estimate
Resolution E-5364 replaced the 20-year bill savings calculation from CPUC Decision D.20-08-001. The disclosure estimate covers the 12 months after installation.
No rate escalation is assumed during those 12 months. Use the current rates at the time of the estimate, and state on the document that no escalation was assumed.
If you show the customer another, longer savings calculation, its escalation rate cannot exceed the CPUC’s posted five-year historical average. Resolution E-5364 placed that average at roughly 10 percent at the time.
The “before” calculation uses the customer’s current rate schedule. The “after” calculation uses the rate eligible for the net billing tariff. The CPUC’s new Base Services Charge should be included as appropriate. The CPUC approved that flat monthly charge at $24.15 in its May 2024 decision. The Base Services Charge and electrification quoting affects the after-solar number you put in front of the customer.
Battery jobs require a named calculator and a savings-first scenario
For solar-only work, use NREL’s PVWatts tool for one-hour interval generation.
For solar plus storage, you may use a calculator of your choosing. You must list the calculator’s name on the disclosure document.
The battery customer must receive a calculation for batteries programmed to maximize bill savings. That means serving onsite load and/or exporting based on price signals. You may add two optional scenarios:
- Self-consumption
- Home backup, with the battery kept at 100 percent for outages
All scenarios should use the same minimum state of charge. The resolution gives 20 percent as an example.
The battery question belongs in intake because it changes the paperwork before the estimator begins. The net billing and battery incentive discussion covers why that distinction matters for the job conversation.
Handwritten forms can put the provider on the CPUC watch list
The CPUC’s CSLB Disclosure Documents page states: “If your form is handwritten, you may be subject to penalties and placed on the CPUC’s Public Watch List of Non-Compliant Solar Providers.”
CSLB repeated the point in its summer 2026 licensee newsletter. The newsletter reminded solar contractors that the utilities named in Resolution E-5364 are collecting these documents as part of the interconnection application.
Do not treat a handwritten field as a minor correction. The utility can reject it as part of the application process, and the CPUC identifies penalties and watch list placement as possible consequences.
Change the intake and packet before the next solar sale
Use typed forms only. Do not leave a handwritten field in the packet.
At intake, ask whether the customer has 12 months at the address on their own utility account. Pull Green Button data when it exists. If it does not, write on the form how the hourly estimate was derived and why the full data set was unavailable.
Put the 12-month savings estimate on the disclosure document with no rate escalation. For battery jobs, name the calculator and run the maximize-savings scenario. Include the Base Services Charge in the after-solar number. Keep every figure identical across the contract, disclosure documents, Consumer Protection Guide, and other interconnection forms.
The general electrical call intake checklist can support the broader call script, but the solar questions must be specific: 12 months of utility history, solar only or solar plus battery, and the data needed before the site visit.
