A hybrid system in Kiambu stops holding charge eight months after handover. The client says it never worked properly. The installer says it was commissioned correctly and the client added loads. Both are sincere. Only one of them can prove anything, and it is whoever wrote down real numbers on the day.
Commissioning documentation is not paperwork for its own sake. It is the cheapest insurance a solar company in Kenya can buy, and it costs about twenty minutes per site.
What the file should contain
- System identity and design basis. Site, client, array configuration, module and inverter models and ratings, battery chemistry and capacity, and the load assumption the design was built on. Later disputes are usually about the last item.
- Proof of isolation. What was isolated, how it was locked or secured, and the prove-dead sequence including the proving unit used. On a battery system, the array being off is not isolation.
- Measured electrical values. String open-circuit voltage and operating current, insulation resistance, earth continuity and resistance, and AC-side voltages. Record the instrument and range with the value — an unattributed number is only slightly better than none.
- Protection devices. Fuse and breaker ratings, surge protection, RCD type where fitted, and confirmation that ratings match the design rather than what was in the van.
- Functional and changeover tests. Inverter behaviour under load, changeover on grid loss and grid return, and battery response. In Kenya this matters more than most manuals assume, because KPLC switching exercises it constantly.
- Photographic evidence. Array layout, mounting and penetrations, DC and AC combiners, labelling, battery enclosure and ventilation, and the earthing arrangement. Dated, attached to the job.
- Signed handover. What the client was shown, what they were told about limits and load, and their signature. This is the item that ends the "nobody told me" conversation.
Grid-tied work brings a second audience
Grid-connected installations follow KPLC's connection procedure, and licensed scope follows EPRA's class rules. Confirm current requirements with each authority for the specific site — but hold the technical evidence above regardless, because it is what both conversations will need.
If you are still deciding which class of work you can legally take on, read EPRA T1, T2 and T3 explained.
Make capture the default, not an evening job
Records written up on Sunday are records invented on Sunday. The practical fix is to run commissioning as a job checklist on the phone: each step ticked with its measured value, photos attached the moment they are taken, client signature captured on site, everything queued offline and synced when the network returns.
The full structure, and how it maps into job records, is on the commissioning and compliance records page. For routine visits after handover, use the Kenya maintenance checklist.
The commercial argument
Documented handovers get final payments released faster, survive warranty disputes, satisfy financiers and tender committees, and make a maintenance contract an easy sell rather than an awkward one. Companies that cannot produce them compete on install price forever.