Program/s: EmPower+, Residential Energy Assessments, Comfort Home To: Participating Contractors Summary: Monthly Contractor Update Contact with Questions:residential.programs@nyserda.ny.gov
NYSERDA Home Modernization Monthly Contractor Webinar Friday, November 7, 2025 8:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. ET
All attendees must register prior to joining the event. This process will allow you to add the meeting to your calendar and provides each individual with a custom link to join the meeting. Please do not share your link with anyone. To register, please click here.
All webinars are recorded and links to the recordings are available on the Contractor Support site.
Programs: EmPower+ To: Participating Contractors Summary: Participation Agreement Changes Questions: If there are any questions or you would like to change your participation status send an email to empower.residential@nyserda.ny.gov
The following changes have been made to the Residential Contractor Participation Agreement and are applicable to all current participating contractors. These changes are effective January 1, 2025. The Participation Agreement will be updated to reflect these changes and can be found in Section 2 of the Program Manual. For existing contractors, no action is required on your part to continue your participation.
Below is a summary of the PA Updates:
Sections 3.8 and 3.9: Added “The obligations of the Participating Contractor under this Section shall survive any expiration or termination of this Agreement.”
Section 4.4: Removed Post Termination Obligations
Section 7.2: Removed “To the greatest extent practicable, all equipment and products purchased with funds made available for the Program should be American made.”
Added Exhibit A “Standard Terms and Conditions for All NYSERDA Agreements” and Exhibit B “NYSERDA Prompt Payment Policy Statement”
Should you no longer wish to participate in the Program, or if you have any objection to continuing participation in the Program under these terms and conditions, please provide notice to NYSERDA by emailing empower.residential@nyserda.ny.gov no later than January 20, 2025.
Program/s: EmPower+ To: Participating Contractors Summary: Project Photo Requirements Update Questions: Please contact Contractor Support at 1-800-284-9069.
Effective for EmPower+ project enrollments accepted by contractors on or after January 1, 2025, all pre and post installation pictures submitted as part of an EmPower+ project will need to be time-stamped and geo-tagged.
Section 8.2 of the Program Manual will be updated to reflect this change.
NYSERDA is considering investing in an enterprise subscription with CompanyCam which would enable contractors to produce geo-tagged pictures based on provided templates for program submission. It is intended that this service will be provided to you at no cost and if you are using other software options to create geo-tagged photos, you would not be required to switch to CompanyCam.
If there are any questions, please contact Contractor Support at 1-800-284-9069.
Program: EmPower+ To: Participating Contractors Summary: May 15, 2024 -Updated project deadline for geo-eligibility projects to be completed by. Contact with Questions: Please reach out to contractor support at 1-800-284-9069
As a reminder, May 15, 2024, is the new deadline for any EmPower+ project where the household was determined eligible by geo-eligibility to be completed and closed out by. A 30-day extension has been added to the originally announced date of April 15, 2024. Projects that are not completed by May 15, 2024, will need to be closed by CLEAResult. When the customer reapplies, a new enrollment will be created for them. Contractors can enter the information from the previous enrollment into the new enrollment. If there are any questions, please reach out to contractor support at 1-800-284-9069.
Program: EmPower+ To: EmPower+ Contractors Summary: Contractors must provide a copy of the Home Energy Assessment to customers Contact with Questions:If there are any questions on this, please reach out to contractor support at 1-800-284-9069.
The EmPower+ program has been receiving many customer complaints about customers not receiving copies of their home energy assessment. Starting on February 13, 2024, CLEAResult will verify that the home energy assessment report was generated in NYHEP as part of final project review. If the report is not present, the project will be pushed back to the contractor to generate the report and provide it to the customer. After the report has been provided to the customer, the contractor can resubmit the project.
Section 5.17 of the Program Manual specifies “The participating contractor shall provide Program participants with a finalized home energy assessment report within 14 calendar days of site visit. The report shall be generated from Program-approved software and include a detailed workscope proposal that identifies measures and pricing for improving the energy efficiency, comfort and safety of the home. The report shall include all energy efficiency, comfort, health and safety opportunities that exist in the home regardless of type of service(s) the participating contractor offers (i.e., a participating contractor with heating certification needs to identify applicable envelope issues in the report) while adhering to the policies and procedures.”
Moving forward, quality assurance inspections will also include an inquiry with customers to see if home energy assessment reports were provided. Initially, scores will not be diminished if a home energy assessment report was not provided to the customer; however, the contractor will be notified to send a copy of the home energy assessment report to the customer. If it is determined that a contractor is not providing their customers with a home energy assessment on a regular basis, CLEAResult Quality Control will work with the contractor to help them remediate this.
In addition to being a Program requirement, upcoming funding from the Inflation Reduction Act will make home energy assessment reports a requirement, where NYSERDA may need to show proof the home energy assessment report was delivered to the customer.
If there are any questions on this, please reach out to contractor support at 1-800-284-9069.