Top Tier — Florida Battery Sales Reference

SECO Energy · Central Florida (Sumter, Marion, Lake & Surrounding Counties)

Sales reference for reps working SECO Energy territory. This is the deep reference — how to sell it up top, full utility detail below. SECO is Florida's third-largest electric cooperative — more than 265,000 members across seven central Florida counties (Sumter, Marion, Lake, Citrus, Hernando, Levy, Pasco), including The Villages and the fastest-growing retirement corridor in America. SECO is NOT a net-metering market: exports are credited at SECO's wholesale rate — the Seminole Electric avoided cost, well below the ~10.2-cent retail rate — as standing policy. That makes this a spread-capture market. And SECO has something no other utility in our Florida book has: Smart Connect, a LIVE, enrollable battery VPP that pays $1 per kilowatt per month in standby credits plus 30 cents per kilowatt-hour dispatched — with a hardware catch that matters: Tesla Powerwalls and SolarEdge are on the eligible list; FranklinWH and Enphase are not. Spread plus an enrollable program plus hurricane country: honest arithmetic with a real program behind it — a co-op we respect while we out-math its tariff.

What kind of market this is

SECO is an exposed wholesale-export market with the only live enrollable battery VPP in our Florida book — the battery is a spread-capture machine, a program asset, a hurricane backup, and a takeover. Five defining facts:

1. SECO is not on retail net metering — exports earn the wholesale rate. SECO's own language: exported energy is "credited… at SECO's wholesale rate" — the Seminole Electric avoided cost, well below retail. The current ¢ figure isn't published — confirm it in the tool, never quote from memory. Co-ops set their own rules; the PSC's net-metering rule doesn't bind SECO. And precision on the flag: this is standing policy, not a pending change — there's no deadline to beat and no cliff to cite; the exposure is simply how the tariff works today.
2. The spread is the pitch. Retail runs ~10.22¢ energy (effective 10/1/2025) plus the "Hot Bucks" power-cost adjustment — roughly $137-plus-PCA at 1,000 kWh, with a $34.50 customer charge (raised 9.17% in May 2025, a dated and citable move). Every exported kilowatt-hour earns wholesale instead; a battery that shifts export to self-consumption captures most of the gap.
3. Smart Connect is live, enrollable, and unique in our Florida book. SECO's battery VPP pays $1 per kW per month in standby credits plus $0.30 per kWh actually dispatched. The hardware list matters: Tesla Powerwall +/2/3, SolarEdge, and Emporia are eligible; FranklinWH and Enphase are not on the published list — battery selection at SECO is program-aware, and we never imply eligibility that isn't published. Enrollment terms are confirmed at close.
4. No grandfathered cohort has been found — the wholesale-export structure appears to apply across the board (this is verified from available sources with one caveat noted in our tracking; no cohort story is told either way).
5. SECO is member-owned — respect that in the pitch. More than $80 million in capital credits returned to members, and an AMI bi-directional meter is required for every solar array — an interconnection gate, not a wall. We sell against the tariff's arithmetic, never against the co-op.

Your lead is the spread + the program. The tariff arithmetic makes the case (wholesale out, retail in), and Smart Connect turns the battery from a cure into an asset that earns credits — the only utility in our Florida book where "does the battery pay me?" gets a real yes. Hurricane resilience closes: Irma took down more than half this system.

Default configuration: backup-capable is the strong default — hurricane country — and in this market self-consumption is the economic engine regardless of config.

• Backup-capable: $18,500 cash / $23,942 financed / ~$228/mo
• Self-consumption-only: $17,000 cash / $22,068 financed / ~$210/mo

Confirm pricing, configuration, Smart Connect eligibility for the chosen battery, and the current wholesale rate in the tool before quoting.

PART A — The Pitch (Problem → Solution → Urgency → Close)

The spine is multiple beats per section: customer headline + statement + rep layer (+ objection where noted). Beats marked (BACKUP ONLY) render only for backup config; beats with Self-consumption:/Backup: branches swap the customer line by config. COHORT beats swap by grandfathered vs post-2023 status.

The Problem

You're paid wholesale and charged retail — every single day. SECO credits your exported solar at its wholesale rate — the same avoided cost it pays Seminole for bulk power — while every kilowatt-hour you buy costs retail plus the power-cost adjustment. Every sunny midday your system sells low; every evening you buy high. The gap is your money.

Rep layer: The exposed opener — the spread as arithmetic: retail ~10.22¢ energy (eff. 10/1/2025) + Hot Bucks PCA (~$137+PCA at 1,000 kWh; customer charge $34.50/mo, raised 9.17% May 2025 — dated, citable) vs the wholesale export rate (unpublished ¢ — confirm in the tool, never quote from memory). Quote SECO's own words: exports "credited… at SECO's wholesale rate." Honest flag discipline: this is STANDING policy — no pending change, no deadline, no cliff; never manufacture one. Objection — "My solar still lowers my bill." It does — and it would lower it materially more per surplus kilowatt-hour if that power stayed on your side of the meter — and at SECO, the battery that does it also enrolls in a program that pays.

Your system is orphaned. Whoever installed your solar is likely gone, merged, or unreachable — especially after so many installers folded when the federal tax credit expired at the end of 2025. If something goes wrong, there's no one accountable. You own the system and the risk.

Rep layer: Standard orphaned-system beat. Ask who installed it and whether they'd answer a service call.

Your inverter is on the clock. Your inverter is several years old. When it fails out of warranty, that's about $3,500 to $5,000 out of pocket — and your system produces nothing until it's replaced, typically 4 to 8 weeks.

Rep layer: Standard inverter beat. SolarEdge ~12-yr warranty, real failure 8–15 yrs; Enphase 25-yr, real issues 10–20.

(BACKUP ONLY) When the hurricane comes, your solar shuts off with the grid. Anti-islanding is a safety cutoff: in an outage, your panels produce nothing — even under a clear post-storm sky. Irma knocked out more than 110,000 SECO members — over half the system. Milton took out another 100,000-plus. A battery keeps your critical systems running, and with sun, it recharges through a multi-day restoration.

Rep layer: Renders ONLY for backup config. SECO anchors (all documented): Irma 2017 — >110,000 out (over half the system — the marquee); Milton 2024 — >100,000; Helene 2024 — ~22,000; Idalia 2023 — ~10,400; Ian 2022 — ~11,000. Five named storms with documented counts — central Florida catches the crossing tracks. Rural seven-county territory means long feeder runs and staged restoration.

The Solution

A battery captures the spread — and at SECO, it also earns. Instead of selling your midday surplus at wholesale and buying it back at retail, the battery stores it and serves your own home at night — worth most of the gap on every stored kilowatt-hour. And SECO's Smart Connect program pays battery owners: a dollar per kilowatt per month in standby credits, plus thirty cents per kilowatt-hour when SECO actually dispatches it.

• Self-consumption: "Your surplus stops selling at wholesale and starts replacing retail — and the battery earns standby credits on top."
• Backup: "Captures the spread and earns the credits the same way — and keeps your home running when the grid goes down."

Monthly Cost Chart and Net Bill Breakdown render here.

Rep layer: THE core cure beat — a spread play with a program on top. Spread: ~10.22¢+PCA retail vs wholesale exports (most of the retail rate captured per stored kWh; exact spread pends the wholesale figure — tool placeholder). SMART CONNECT with its real terms: $1/kW/mo standby + $0.30/kWh dispatched — quote the STRUCTURE, never a projected annual income total (dispatch frequency isn't guaranteed); a Powerwall 3's ~11.5 kW implies meaningful standby credits, but the tool computes with confirmed terms at close. HARDWARE DISCIPLINE: eligible list = Tesla Powerwall +/2/3, SolarEdge, Emporia; FranklinWH and Enphase are NOT on the published list — battery selection is program-aware, eligibility never implied where unpublished, and a customer choosing Franklin/Enphase hears the tradeoff plainly.

(BACKUP ONLY) It keeps your home running when the grid goes down. Powers your essentials — refrigerator, A/C circulation, medical devices, connectivity — through an outage, and with Florida sun, recharges to carry you through a multi-day restoration.

Rep layer: The resilience cure beat. Size expectations honestly (essentials; set A/C expectations honestly in Florida heat).

We take it over. Top Tier becomes the single point of contact for your entire system — a new 10-year workmanship warranty, the 5-year Align Solar Protection contract ($0 deductible, non-transferable), and manufacturer warranty coordination.

Rep layer: Answers the orphaned-system problem. Transfers: workmanship with written consent; Align non-transferable; manufacturer per OEM terms.

Thousands you don't pay. The $11K+ Hidden Costs Avoided bundle — built into the takeover, not sold as extras.

Rep layer: Reframes total cost. "Your payment buys the battery plus warranty plus service plus inverter-replacement coverage — over $11K of value."

And whatever the tariff does next, your stored power is yours. SECO sets its own solar rules — wholesale exports are its standing policy, and co-op boards revisit policies. Power you store and use yourself doesn't depend on any export credit — this one, or whatever comes next.

Rate Justification + Own vs Rent render here.

Rep layer: The independence beat. Self-consumption is the tariff-proof value; Smart Connect is upside on top of it, never the foundation. 25-yr scenarios: conservative 4%, moderate 6%, aggressive 8% — anchor near-term to the May 2025 customer-charge increase (9.17%, documented).

Urgency

The clocks here are real and tariff-dated — press them precisely.

The spread clock. You're on the exposed tariff today — every sunny day without a battery sells the midday surplus at wholesale and buys it back at retail plus the adjustment. There's no future deadline to wait for, and I won't invent one; the cost of waiting is running right now, daily.

Rep layer: The honest SECO urgency — the tariff is the deadline, daily. NO manufactured clocks: no pending change exists, no rebate window exists. The dated supporting fact: the customer charge rose 9.17% in May 2025 — the co-op's costs are climbing and members carry them.

The program clock — honest version. Smart Connect is open today. Programs like this evolve — terms, hardware lists, and enrollment windows are the co-op's to change. A battery enrolled under today's terms is earning today; nobody can promise tomorrow's terms will match.

Rep layer: Honest program urgency — factual (co-op programs do change; SECO already runs waitlists on other offerings) without invention: never claim Smart Connect is closing, capping, or "filling up" absent SECO's own word. Confirm enrollment terms at close.

The hurricane clock. Season runs June through November, every year. A battery installed before the next storm is protection; one ordered after landfall is a backorder.

Rep layer: Standard FL storm urgency — factual, preparedness-framed.

The Close

1. Verify credit + confirm configuration. Run the credit check and confirm the backup/self-consumption configuration — and if Smart Connect matters to the customer, the battery choice is program-aware from the start.
2. Confirm Smart Connect eligibility and terms. The chosen battery must be on the eligible list (Tesla PW/SolarEdge yes; Franklin/Enphase not published); enrollment terms confirmed with SECO at close. Also confirm the AMI bi-directional meter step — it's required for every array.
3. Customer reads and signs the service agreement. Walk through the disclosures honestly — the wholesale-export tariff as it actually works, Smart Connect's real terms and hardware list, and that there's no federal credit or SECO rebate.
4. Complete the Welcome Call. Finalizes the sale and sets expectations for installation.

Standing Rules (Do NOT Violate)

• ❌ NEVER coach reps to disqualify based on home tenure. Resale story is real — not "walk away."
• ❌ NEVER claim "all warranties transfer." Workmanship: with written consent. Align: non-transferable. Manufacturer: per OEM terms.
• ❌ NEVER fabricate inspection findings.
• ❌ NEVER quote a bill-reduction factor as a guarantee.
• ❌ NEVER quote a REP buyback rate as fixed/guaranteed — plan-dependent, confirm the customer's actual plan.
• ❌ 85+ confirmation call required. Customer confirms own finances, no POA, sound mind.
• ❌ Financing ends before age 91. 75 → 15-year max. 80 → 10-year max.
• ❌ Honest cancellation window. Overselling = free customer exit + $1K–$1.5K clawback.
• ❌ Certified before selling.

Go get the sale. A battery is a strong product — clean energy, independence, backup, long-term savings, and in Texas real VPP income. A customer who wants one for any honest reason is a good sale. We never walk away over price or low savings — that's the customer's call. Do right by the customer, protect the company, be honest.

PART B — The Deep Reference

1. Orientation

• Utility: SECO Energy — Florida's third-largest electric cooperative (Seminole Electric wholesale member). Co-ops set their own solar rules; the Florida PSC's net-metering rule does not bind SECO.
• Territory: Seven central Florida counties — Sumter, Marion, Lake, Citrus, Hernando, Levy, Pasco — more than 265,000 members, including The Villages corridor. Territory interleaves with Duke and WREC — verify by the bill header, never by county.
• Market type: EXPOSED wholesale-export market (standing policy — exports at the Seminole avoided cost; ¢ unpublished) + the only LIVE enrollable battery VPP in our Florida book (Smart Connect: $1/kW/mo + $0.30/kWh dispatched; hardware-gated). Spread-capture economics with a program asset.
• Default config: backup-capable ($18,500 / $23,942 / ~$228); self-consumption ($17,000 / $22,068 / ~$210).

2. How the SECO Bill Works

1. Energy: ~10.22¢/kWh (effective 10/1/2025) plus the "Hot Bucks" power-cost adjustment — roughly $137 plus PCA at 1,000 kWh. Customer charge $34.50/mo (raised 9.17% in May 2025).
2. Solar exports: credited at SECO's wholesale rate — the Seminole Electric avoided cost (verbatim: "credited… at SECO's wholesale rate"). The current ¢ figure is not published — the tool carries it as a confirm-current-figure value.
3. The meter gate: an AMI bi-directional meter is required for every solar array — an interconnection step, not a wall; ≤15 kW arrays fast-track.
4. Member economics: SECO is member-owned and has returned more than $80 million in capital credits — real money back, and a reason to keep the pitch about the tariff's math, not the co-op's character.

Why this matters for the pitch: the retail-to-wholesale gap IS the battery's paycheck — most of the retail rate per stored kWh (exact spread pends the wholesale figure). And Smart Connect turns the same battery into an earning asset — the one Florida market where the program question gets a real yes.

3. Solar Exports at SECO — Wholesale Net Billing (and the program that pays batteries)

SECO credits exports at its wholesale rate — standing policy, verbatim from its own materials. No cliff, no deadline — and no cohort story. What SECO does have is Smart Connect.

• The policy (verbatim): exported energy is "credited… at SECO's wholesale rate" — the Seminole avoided cost, well below the ~10.22¢ retail rate. The ¢ figure is unpublished — confirm in the tool.
• No grandfathered cohort found: the wholesale structure appears to apply across the board. One sourcing caveat is logged in our tracking (the no-cohort finding rests partly on third-party sources) — until anything changes, no cohort story is told either way.
• Flag discipline: this is EXPOSED, not a threat — standing policy, nothing pending. There is no deadline to beat; never manufacture one.
• SMART CONNECT (the program): live, enrollable battery VPP — $1/kW/month standby + $0.30/kWh dispatched. Eligible hardware (published list): Tesla Powerwall +/2/3, SolarEdge, Emporia. FranklinWH and Enphase are not on the list — battery selection is program-aware, and eligibility is never implied where unpublished. Enrollment terms confirmed with SECO at close; structure quoted, income totals never projected without confirmed dispatch terms.
• The rep move: "SECO pays wholesale for what you export and retail is what you pay to buy it back — a battery keeps your surplus on your side of the meter at full value. And SECO's own Smart Connect program pays battery owners standby credits on top — a dollar per kilowatt per month, plus thirty cents a kilowatt-hour when they dispatch it."
• See the "Net Metering & Grandfathering Status" section for the cited detail; the flag for SECO is EXPOSED (wholesale net billing, standing policy).

4. Rate Reality + The Spread

What drives the SECO pitch (named, honest):

1. The spread. ~10.22¢+PCA retail vs wholesale exports — most of the retail rate per stored kWh.
2. Smart Connect. The battery earns standby credits and dispatch payments — the only real program yes in our Florida book.
3. The climb. The customer charge rose 9.17% in May 2025 — documented, dated, and every member carries it.

Documented vs. speculation (say this right):

• ✅ "Exports are credited at SECO's wholesale rate — their words — while you buy at retail plus the adjustment" (verbatim)
• ✅ "Smart Connect pays a dollar per kilowatt per month standby, plus thirty cents per dispatched kilowatt-hour — and your battery has to be on their list" (program terms + hardware discipline)
• ✅ "The customer charge went up 9.17% in May — that's the co-op's own action" (documented)
• ❌ Quoting a wholesale ¢ figure from memory (unpublished — confirm current)
• ❌ Projecting a Smart Connect annual income total (dispatch isn't guaranteed — quote the structure)
• ❌ Implying Franklin or Enphase are Smart Connect-eligible (not on the published list)
• ❌ Any deadline or cliff (standing policy — nothing is pending; manufacturing a clock here is the PA mistake)

5. Incentives & Programs

• SECO battery rebate: none. No upfront rebate exists.
• Smart Connect battery VPP — LIVE and enrollable: $1/kW/month standby credits + $0.30/kWh dispatched. Eligible hardware per SECO's published list: Tesla Powerwall +/2/3, SolarEdge, Emporia — FranklinWH and Enphase are not listed. Battery selection is program-aware; enrollment terms confirmed at close; structure quoted, never projected income totals. This is the only enrollable battery program at any co-op or muni we serve in Florida.
• Federal ITC: expired 12/31/2025. Never quote 30%.
• Florida tax treatment: solar property-tax exclusion and sales-tax exemption are state law; battery-specific treatment — confirm at close, don't promise.
• The value here is the spread + the rebate + resilience + takeover.

6. System Rescue Value — The System Takeover

This applies to any customer with existing solar — and it's identical across every Top Tier market. These are takeover facts, not TX-specific.

The Orphaned Solar Customer Problem. Many Texas solar customers installed during the 2019–2024 growth years and now face:

• An original installer that's gone out of business, been acquired, or stopped servicing residential (especially common after the federal tax credit expired Dec 2025)
• A 10-year workmanship warranty that's unenforceable (installer is gone)
• An inverter approaching or past typical failure windows
• No service relationship, and most companies refuse to service systems they didn't install

The Inverter Failure Reality. Inverters are the weakest link. Panels last 25–30 years; the inverter fails much sooner.

• SolarEdge string inverters: 8–15 years (12-yr standard warranty)
• Enphase microinverters: 10–20 years (25-yr warranty)
• Industry-wide: 70–90% of systems experience inverter failure within the panel lifespan
• When it fails on an orphaned system: production stops, bills jump to full retail, most providers won't quote it, out-of-pocket replacement is $3,500–5,000, and the customer is down 4–8 weeks.

What Top Tier's takeover provides (formalized through a Service Warranty Agreement with a brand-new 10-year Limited Workmanship and Roof Penetration Warranty):

• A new 10-year Top Tier workmanship warranty (regardless of system age)
• Manufacturer warranty claim handling (Top Tier chases the claim + labor, not the customer)
• Inverter replacement coverage when it fails within manufacturer warranty (customer pays nothing for the work)
• Single point of contact; monitoring setup help; performance verification at inspection

The $11K System Takeover Bundle (the exact 5-tile bundle on the proposal):

How to use it: "On top of the bill math, you're picking up over $11K of bundled services that aren't sold separately. If your inverter fails in year 12, the warranty handling alone is worth a few hundred; the replacement coordination saves $3–5K; the Align contract is $1,500 you'd otherwise pay. It adds up."

Align Solar Protection — the terms (get these right):

• 5-year term, $0 deductible, insurance-backed by American Bankers Insurance Company of Florida, non-transferable to subsequent owners.
• Covers: mechanical breakdown of existing PV (panels, inverters/optimizers, racking) — parts, labor, service calls.
• Does NOT cover: the new battery (own warranty), wear-and-tear, weather/hail, pre-existing conditions, roof issues.
• Age limits: panels/microinverters under 15 years; string/central inverters under 7 years. Not every system fully qualifies — disclose at inspection.
• It's ONE of three layers: (1) equipment manufacturer warranties, (2) Top Tier's 10-yr workmanship, (3) the 5-yr Align contract. Never call it "full coverage."
• NEVER say: "Everything's covered" / "never worry again" / "Align is your full coverage" / "you can extend beyond 5 years" / "Align transfers when you sell."

Quantifying the rescue value:

This is independent of bill savings — the rescue alone can be worth $4,000–7,500.

7. Outage Reality — Hurricane Resilience in SECO Territory

Why outages happen here. Central Florida catches the crossing storms, and SECO's record is documented five times over:

• Irma (September 2017): more than 110,000 SECO members out — over half the system. The marquee anchor.
• Milton (October 2024): more than 100,000 out.
• Helene (2024): ~22,000. Idalia (2023): ~10,400. Ian (2022): ~11,000.
• Five named storms with documented counts — and a rural seven-county territory means long feeder runs and staged restoration; someone's feeder is always last.

What a battery does — and the honest mechanism. Grid-tied solar shuts off automatically in an outage (anti-islanding). A battery with backup keeps essential loads running — refrigerator, well pump, medical devices, connectivity — and recharges from solar through restoration.

How to pitch it honestly: "Irma took down more than half this system. A battery covers the days between landfall and your feeder's turn — and every ordinary day in between, it's capturing the spread and earning its standby credit."

8. Hidden Costs Avoided / What You Own vs What You Rent

• What you rent: retail-plus-PCA power while your own surplus sells at wholesale — the spread, donated daily — plus a $34.50 customer charge that just rose 9.17%, and nothing when the grid fails.
• What you own (with the battery): your surplus, kept at retail value on your side of the meter, a standby credit every month from Smart Connect — plus backup for the storm.
• Hidden costs avoided: the $11K takeover bundle + the donated spread + every restoration's costs — offset by the credits Smart Connect pays along the way.

9. Battery Products

• Backup config (default — hurricane country): Tesla Powerwall 3 (13.5 kWh; Redline: $20,500), FranklinWH aPower 2 (15 kWh; Redline: $20,500). Not compatible with HDM.

• Self-consumption config: Enphase IQ 5P (10 kWh; Redline: $15,500 SC / $17,600 BU), SolarEdge Home Battery (9.7 kWh usable; Redline: $14,500 SC / $16,000 BU), SolarEdge Nexis (self-consumption only pending crew backup training; Redline: $15,500 SC).

• SECO takeaway: self-consumption is the engine; Smart Connect is the bonus — and it's hardware-gated: Tesla PW3 and SolarEdge units are program-eligible; FranklinWH aPower 2 and Enphase IQ 5P are not on SECO's published list. A customer who wants the program picks from the eligible column; a customer who prefers Franklin/Enphase hears the tradeoff plainly. Confirm config and eligibility in the tool.

• Financing terms vary by lender — price deals through the proposal tool.

10. Objection Handling

Universal objections (swap in SECO figures) + SECO-specific objections.

"Why is my export credit so low? The co-op sells my own power back to me at full price!" (SECO-specific — channeling the frustration honestly)

"You've read the tariff right — exports earn SECO's wholesale rate, the same avoided cost they pay for bulk power, while purchases cost retail plus the adjustment. I'm not going to defend it or predict it changes — and to be fair to your co-op, it's member-owned and it's returned over eighty million dollars in capital credits. The tariff is just arithmetic, and a battery beats the arithmetic: it keeps your surplus on your side of the meter at full retail value. The tariff only touches power that leaves your house — so we stop it leaving."

"Does the battery actually earn me money here?" (SECO-specific — the real yes, with terms)

"Yes — and SECO is the only utility we serve in Florida where that's a straight yes. Smart Connect pays a dollar per kilowatt per month just for being enrolled — on a Powerwall 3 that's meaningful standby money — plus thirty cents per kilowatt-hour whenever SECO actually dispatches your battery. Two honest terms: dispatch frequency is SECO's call, so I'll quote you the structure and not a made-up annual total, and the battery has to be on their eligible list — Tesla and SolarEdge are; a couple of brands aren't. We confirm your enrollment terms with SECO before you sign anything."

"Should I wait and see if SECO improves the export rate?" (SECO-specific — the direction-of-travel answer)

"There's nothing pending in either direction — wholesale exports are standing policy, and I won't invent a deadline or a rescue. What's documented is that your customer charge went up nine percent in May. Waiting means donating the spread every sunny day while paying the higher fixed charge. And if the export rate ever improves, your battery loses nothing — stored power at retail value beats any export credit they could plausibly set, and the Smart Connect credits keep coming either way."

"Why is the loan more than the system price?"

"The cash price is $17,000–18,500 depending on config. Service Finance adds dealer fees bringing the financed amount to about $22,068–23,942. Cash or a HELOC is cheaper if that's an option. There's no SECO rebate and the federal credit expired — the value is the spread, the Smart Connect credits, the backup, and the takeover."

11. DO SAY / NEVER SAY

12. Required Disclosures

1. ☐ Savings are estimates; SECO's rates and wholesale export credit are set by the cooperative and change — verify current figures in the tool.
2. ☐ SECO Energy is a member-owned cooperative not bound by the Florida PSC's net-metering rule; solar exports are credited at SECO's wholesale (avoided-cost) rate, not retail, as standing policy.
3. ☐ Smart Connect enrollment is subject to SECO's eligibility requirements, hardware list (FranklinWH and Enphase are not on SECO's published list), and program terms; standby and dispatch credits are quoted as program structure and are not guaranteed income; terms are confirmed with SECO before commitment.
4. ☐ An AMI bi-directional meter is required for interconnection; interconnection follows SECO's current requirements and is not guaranteed until approved.
5. ☐ SECO offers no battery or solar rebate; no federal ITC after 12/31/2025; no other program income is quoted.
6. ☐ Align Solar Protection is non-transferable; workmanship warranty transfer requires written consent; manufacturer warranties transfer per OEM terms. Align coverage is contingent on inspection + age limits (panels <15 yr, inverters <7 yr).
7. ☐ Backup duration depends on system sizing and load; whole-home air conditioning through a multi-day outage is not implied.
8. ☐ Pricing confirmed in the tool before commitment.

13. Quick-Reference Numbers (dated — confirm before quoting)

• Exports: SECO wholesale rate (Seminole avoided cost) — ¢ UNPUBLISHED, confirm in tool | Retail: ~10.22¢ + Hot Bucks PCA (~$137+PCA @1,000 kWh)
• Customer charge: $34.50/mo (+9.17% May 2025 — dated, citable)
• Smart Connect: LIVE — $1/kW/mo standby + $0.30/kWh dispatched; Tesla PW +/2/3, SolarEdge, Emporia eligible; FRANKLIN/ENPHASE NOT LISTED — structure only, confirm terms at close
• Grandfathering: none found (standing policy; sourcing caveat logged) — no cohort claims, no deadlines
• Interconnection: AMI bi-directional meter required; ≤15 kW fast-track | Capital credits: >$80M returned
• Programs otherwise: no rebate | Federal ITC: expired 12/31/2025
• Inverter replacement out-of-pocket: $3,500–5,000 | Takeover bundle: ~$11,800
• Default config: backup $18,500 / self-consumption $17,000
• Storm anchors: Irma 2017 — 110K+ (over half the system); Milton 2024 — 100K+; Helene ~22K; Idalia ~10.4K; Ian ~11K

14. Sell Hard, Sell Honest — the standing rules

• The spread is arithmetic — sell it as arithmetic. Wholesale out, retail-plus-PCA in, gap captured by storage. SECO's own words carry it.
• Smart Connect is structure, not a promised income — $1/kW/mo + $0.30/kWh dispatched, hardware-gated; confirm terms at close; never project annual totals.
• The hardware list is a hard line — Tesla/SolarEdge/Emporia yes; Franklin/Enphase not published. Eligibility is never implied.
• No deadlines exist here — don't invent one. Standing policy, nothing pending; the honest clocks are the daily spread and the May 2025 charge increase.
• Respect the co-op — member-owned, $80M+ returned; the pitch is against the tariff's arithmetic, never against SECO.
• The wholesale rate is a placeholder until confirmed — never quote it from memory.
• Never quote the federal ITC (expired).