PM Surya Ghar subsidy: how an EPC company tracks every file

Every PM Surya Ghar subsidy file passes between your customer, your office and the DISCOM. Each hand-off is a place for it to sit. A file stops moving when the next action belongs to someone who does not know it is waiting. The cure is to know, for every live file, who holds the next step and by what date.

How a PM Surya Ghar subsidy file moves on the national portal

The portal's consumer application journey lists these ten stages, in this order:

1. Consumer Registration
2. Application Submission
3. Feasibility Approval
4. Vendor Selection
5. Work Start
6. Solar Installation Details
7. Project Inspection
8. Project Commissioning
9. Subsidy Request
10. Subsidy Disbursal

For tracking, fold them into six working stages: application, DISCOM feasibility, vendor and installation, inspection, commissioning and claim.

Either the customer or you can fill in the application. If you file it, the customer first shortlists you on the portal. The customer must also agree to you filing on their behalf (portal FAQ, read on 5 November 2026).

Two stages vary by state and DISCOM, so ask before you promise anything. The first is feasibility. The CFA guidelines attached to the portal's notice of 31 August 2026 say applications up to 10 kW are deemed accepted without technical feasibility approval. They cite the Electricity (Rights of Consumers) Rules, 2020 for this. A state regulator or DISCOM has to put it into effect first. Until then, the customer uploads feasibility documents where state regulations ask for them.

The second is the meter. The journey has no separate net-meter stage. The same guidelines have the DISCOM install the meter after the plant is built. The DISCOM and the customer sign a metering agreement under state rules. Ask your DISCOM whether inspection or the meter comes first.

Where a PM Surya Ghar subsidy file waits on your customer

Three of these waits sit in the customer's own portal login. You cannot clear them from yours.

1. Agreement confirmation. After you upload the vendor-consumer agreement, the status reads "Agreement sent to Consumer for Confirmation". The customer gets an SMS, an email and a portal alert. Upload Installation stays locked until the customer approves. The total cost you enter must match the feasibility-stage quotation where one applies. Loan applications and capacities above 10 kW are examples. If you edit the agreement after approval, the approval lapses and the customer checks it again (portal notice, 23 September 2026).
2. Installation data. You fill in the installation data and press Send to Consumer. The customer reads it, then submits it to the DISCOM for inspection or returns it to you with remarks. Geo-tagged photos and the DCR undertaking certificate are mandatory attachments. Until the customer submits, the file does not reach the DISCOM.
3. Subsidy request. After the DISCOM approves the inspection, the customer redeems the subsidy from their own login. The guidelines call this redeeming the e-token. It needs the customer's bank details. The portal FAQ says the name on the bank account must match the name on the DISCOM bill. If the names differ, the customer corrects one with the bank or the DISCOM. Check the match when you file the application, before a claim depends on it.

Where a file waits on the DISCOM

Once the customer submits the installation data, the PM Surya Ghar subsidy file moves to the DISCOM. The guidelines say the DISCOM inspects the system in person and runs the portal's checklist. It then approves the application for release of the subsidy, sends it back for corrections or rejects it with a reason. A send-back returns the file to your desk. Log the reason and set a correction date the same day.

The guidelines also say the portal will raise multi-level triggers for delays in DISCOM inspection and net meter installation. Do not wait for one. Set your own chase date for each DISCOM, based on how long its last files took. Write down the date you submitted and the date you last called, and read both out when you escalate.

Give each stage an owner, a date and a next step

Picture an installer with 40 live PM Surya Ghar subsidy files (a made-up number, for illustration). On Monday the owner asks which files wait on the office, which on the customer and which on the DISCOM. If answering takes a call to every coordinator, the stages have no owners.

Give each live file four fields:

• The stage, in the portal's name for it.
• One named owner at your company.
• Who the file waits on (the customer, the DISCOM or you), with the date that wait began.
• The next step, with a date.

A file with no next-step date has no owner. Every Monday, sort by the oldest waiting-since date and clear that list first.

Record module and inverter serial numbers once, from the installed units. A portal notice of 11 May 2026 ended a provision. It had let applications with repeated serial numbers go through on a vendor undertaking.

Your own backlog of PM Surya Ghar subsidy files has a cost as well. In a notice dated 24 August 2026, the portal said it had deactivated 66 vendors for a month. The notice says their "Agreement Uploaded" applications exceeded their demonstrated installation capacity over the last quarter. A deactivated vendor takes no new applications and disappears from the vendor-selection page. The login still works for existing installations. The notice advises vendors not to hold a consumer application for more than 60 days without a valid reason.

A third-party inspection can also raise defects on a file. The vendor login then gives 15 days to upload geo-tagged rectification proofs (portal notice, 5 October 2026). The portal home page shows the scheme closing on 31 March 2027. Confirm that date before you promise a customer anything beyond it.

A spreadsheet with these columns works for a small number of PM Surya Ghar subsidy files. If you use SolarERP, the Solar EPC module covers most of it. Each project has one page for its stages, subsidies, documents and tasks. A stage checklist item can become a task for one person by a date, and the assignee is notified once it is overdue. A subsidy case records the central (PM Surya Ghar) and state amounts as expected, approved, received and pending. Net-metering applications move through DISCOM stages that each carry SLA days, and a dashboard shows what is overdue. SolarERP does not connect to the national portal, so your staff still do the portal steps there.

What to tell the customer at each stage

For a PM Surya Ghar subsidy file, say what has happened, what the customer has to do and who holds the next step. Leave out any date you do not control.

• Application: the bank account name must match the name on the electricity bill. We check it now, so it cannot block the subsidy later.
• DISCOM feasibility: whether this step applies depends on your state and system size. We tell you what the DISCOM asked for and the date we sent it.
• Vendor and installation: you will get an SMS, an email and a portal alert to approve our agreement. Approve it the same day, because we cannot upload the installation until you do. When we send the installation data, read it in your login. Submit it to the DISCOM, or send it back to us with remarks.
• Inspection: the DISCOM visits to inspect the plant and can send the file back for corrections. We tell you the reason and the date we will fix it.
• Commissioning: once the DISCOM has approved the installation, we tell you the same day so you can redeem the subsidy.
• Claim: redeem the subsidy from your login. If the file stalls, raise a grievance in the grievance section of the portal, or call the toll-free number 15555 shown there.

As of November 2026, the guidelines say the subsidy is processed within 15 days of the DISCOM's approval. They set 30 days for resolving a grievance. Check the portal before you quote either figure. Do not promise a credit date for a PM Surya Ghar subsidy, because the payout is outside your control.