Utility, programme, building department
Your electric distribution company approves the interconnection and handles the metering. SMART payments are then made directly by that utility to the system owner via the same billing structure as net metering, but only following approval of the application by the Solar Program Administrator and the Department of Energy Resources.
So there are two approvals from two bodies before payments begin, and a third process, local permitting and inspection, running alongside. A project can wait at any of the three without anyone contacting you.
Ask your installer which specific step your project is at and on what date it moved there, rather than accepting a general assurance that things are progressing. Ask for the reference numbers for the interconnection application and the SMART application so you can follow up yourself.
Agree in writing who files the permit, who schedules inspections, and who submits the SMART application. On a project with this many moving parts the common failure is each party assuming another handled one of them.
The meter that has to be right
Each month the utility reads the production meter, and the owner receives a payment representing the difference between the SMART rate and the value of the energy already credited through net metering. The incentive is paid on metered production, so the meter is not optional.
Confirm in writing that a production meter is included, who supplies and installs it, and how its readings reach the programme. Then ask how you can verify it is still reporting months later.
Missing incentive payments are much easier to overlook than a missing bill credit, and an unnoticed fault costs part of a ten-year entitlement. For residential systems under 25 kW, SMART payments last a fixed term of 10 years at a rate determined when you enrol.
Set a reminder to check that the first payments have appeared rather than assuming silence means success. Keep the interconnection approval, the SMART approval and the meter details together in one file.
Confirm eligibility before anything else
SMART is provided to customers of Eversource, National Grid and Unitil. Customers of municipal light plants are not eligible, and Massachusetts has approximately 40 municipal light plants.
Because they follow town boundaries, neighbouring communities can be on entirely different programmes. Read the name on your electricity bill before applying any published figure or any number a friend has given you.
If you are on a municipal light plant, ask whether your utility offers its own incentive. Many run local programmes, and that is a question for the utility rather than for a solar salesperson.
Massachusetts net metering applies either way for residential systems, crediting exported solar at or near the retail or basic service rate, so ask your utility how its own arrangement works and what limits apply.
Three state benefits, and the federal one that ended
Under 830 CMR 62.6.1 an owner or tenant of a residential property who occupies it as their principal residence is allowed a solar and wind energy credit against personal income tax equal to fifteen percent of the net expenditure for renewable energy source property, or $1,000, whichever is less, claimed on Schedule EC. It being available to a tenant as well as an owner is unusual and worth knowing.
Massachusetts also provides a property tax exemption of 100 percent for 20 years for solar installations, so the improvement does not raise your property tax bill the way a renovation of similar cost would.
And equipment for a solar system used as a primary or auxiliary energy source in a principal residence is exempt from sales and use tax. Check that your quote reflects that rather than assuming, and ask your municipal assessor what if anything they need for the property tax exemption at your address.
On the federal side, the 30 percent Residential Clean Energy Credit under Section 25D expired for property placed in service after December 31, 2025, so a cash or loan purchase now receives no federal credit. Section 48E survives at 30 percent for third-party owners under leases and power purchase agreements, so ask any such provider what they claim and what of that value reaches you, and confirm with a tax advisor.