CVE and PowerMarket: A Model Partnership for Community Solar Optimization

CVE North America (“CVE”), a leading international multi-energy power producer, is driven by a mission to make reliable, clean energy accessible for all. With global operations focused on decarbonization and sustainability, CVE has prioritized community solar in the U.S.—a complex market where success hinges not just on project development, but on managing subscriber allocations, creative approaches to host bank credits, and maintaining regulatory compliance. CVE turned to PowerMarket to optimize its community solar portfolio.

In early 2025, CVE recognized it had a problem: The community solar subscriber manager it initially retained to manage its subscribers and portfolio was struggling to meet its core responsibilities.

The Challenges
CVE’s community solar projects in New York were facing serious challenges:

• Undersubscribed Projects: Many projects weren’t fully allocated, leading to credit banking and potential lost revenue.
• Banked Credit Buildup: Misaligned subscriber allocations from using incorrect customer allocation inputs caused both Host (project) and satellite (subscriber) accounts to accumulate large pools of unused credits, without a clear path to monetization.
• Revenue Forecasting Disruptions: Banked credits distorted income projections and asset performance.
• Reputational Risk: Project underperformance threatened to erode stakeholder trust with partners, such as from financing parties.

With over 8 million kWh of clean energy generated annually, CVE needed to take decisive action and transition its projects to a new partner in order to restore the health of its portfolio.

The Transition: Partnering with PowerMarket
CVE was first introduced to PowerMarket in 2018. At the time, PowerMarket showed promise, but as an early-stage company, PowerMarket didn’t have the scale or reputation to secure CVE’s business.

Fast forward to 2025, and that picture has completely changed. PowerMarket has evolved into a trusted, industry-leading community solar partner with:

• Over 800 MW of community solar assets under management in New York alone.
• Comprehensive regulatory expertise and policy fluency across multiple markets.
• A dedicated, full-service client success model tailored for large-scale developers and asset owners.

This transformation led CVE to revisit the partnership. After in-depth strategy discussions on acquisition, banked credit recovery and optimization, and upcoming procedural rule changes, CVE leadership recognized that PowerMarket was now a proven, sophisticated partner capable of driving portfolio turnaround at scale, with both speed and efficiency.

The Solution: Project Optimization
From day one, PowerMarket approached the transition of these projects with a deep knowledge of New York’s market intricacies and with a structured, hands-on strategy led by dedicated Account Manager Sam Place. Sam and the team established four clear phases critical for success:

Step 1. Seamless Migration

• Ensure zero service or billing disruptions throughout a seamless project handoff.
• Maintain regular, hands-on communication with CVE team and subscribers.

Step 2. Revenue Recovery

• Distribute all project output by ensuring 100% of generation is always allocated to active subscribers.
• Deploy a Host Bank transfer strategy to unlock value from accrued, unused credits, accelerating their path to monetization.

Step 3. Allocation Model Overhaul

• Transition to a monetary-based allocation model, aligning bill credits with actual customer bill spend—maximizing the financial benefit to subscribers and optimizing credit monetization.

Step 4. Performance Optimization

• Continuously monitor and adjust subscriber sizing to match real-time production.
• Reduce future credit buildup through smarter, data-driven strategies and regular monitoring.

“We’ve invested a great deal of time and effort guiding policy on banked credit management in New York State over the past eight years, so that put us in a position to deliver for CVE. In less than 4 months, our team fully subscribed these projects and reduced host and subscriber banked credits, outperforming 2024-25 benchmarks from prior to our takeover. We’re grateful that the CVE team put their trust in us to manage their portfolio and look forward to continuing this success over the operational lifetime of these projects.”
—Sam Place, Director of Operations, PowerMarket

The Results: A Portfolio Turnaround in Just One Month
PowerMarket’s impact was both immediate and measurable. Within the first month of taking over CVE’s community solar portfolio, projects that had previously struggled to reach full subscription rapidly closed the gap, with over 8 million kWh of clean energy subscribed over this quick period of time.

Legacy banked credits, once sitting idle and distorting forecast, were successfully monetized, restoring that cash flow to CVE’s assets. Just as importantly, the newly implemented allocation model ensured that credits were flowing efficiently to active subscribers, providing each one with as much savings from the project as possible while minimizing the buildup of future banked credits.

This operational turnaround translates into lasting community impact. With PowerMarket’s support, CVE provides more than $700,000 in annual savings for over 9,000 residential and small business subscribers statewide. The improvements not only stabilized revenue and performance but also reinforced CVE’s mission to support clean energy adoption and deliver meaningful economic benefits to the communities they serve.

Why PowerMarket was Able to Save the Day
PowerMarket’s success with CVE wasn’t luck. It’s the result of our team’s expertise, diligence, and solutions-oriented approach combined with an account management model, which breaks down communication silos that often impede portfolio success. PowerMarket gives each client a single account manager with robust expertise in community solar operations, who is set up to address the entire lifecycle of community solar management for that client.

This sets us apart in a few ways:

• Direct subscriber oversight to manage initial enrollment strategy, sizing, retention, and customer satisfaction.
• Technical and financial fluency to turn any project data, such as underperformance due to banked credits or incorrect allocations, into immediate, actionable improvements.
• Policy expertise to ensure compliance with complex regulatory frameworks and program nuances, like in New York.

This single-point-of-contact approach avoids the confusion and inefficiencies of siloed service teams—and it’s why clients like CVE trust PowerMarket to manage high-stakes portfolios, helping set the stage for their continued growth in the U.S. market.

“Making the decision to transition an operating community solar portfolio is never easy. It takes time, effort, and a willingness to disrupt the status quo. But from the moment PowerMarket took over, it was clear that this was the right move. Their team brought a level of expertise, structure, and attention to detail that immediately put us at ease. For the first time, we truly felt that our assets were in the hands of a partner who deeply understands the operational, financial, and regulatory realities of community solar in New York. The migration was handled thoughtfully and professionally, and the resulting clarity, performance, and peace of mind made the effort well worth it. PowerMarket has become a trusted extension of our team.”
—Thibaut Delespaul, General Manager, CVE North America

Conclusion: A Model for Community Solar Success
CVE’s story is a powerful reminder that successful community solar is more than clean energy generation: it’s about intelligent, adaptable project management.

With PowerMarket’s support, CVE transitioned mismanaged assets into optimized, high-impact projects, strengthening its role as a community-focused energy leader in the U.S.

“Our partnership with CVE is representative of PowerMarket growth as a leader in the community solar industry. We never stopped investing in our people, our systems, and our understanding of what it truly takes to operate community solar at scale. Today, our hard-earned expertise has positioned us for moments exactly like this. We’re proud of how our team executed during this transition and grateful to CVE for believing in us when it mattered most. This partnership reflects our commitment to excellence and our responsibility to deliver results that asset owners can rely on.”
—Jason Kaplan, President, PowerMarket

Interested in Working Together?
To date, PowerMarket has successfully migrated 500 MW of projects from community solar subscription managers—each with seamless transitions and improved performance.

If you’re managing a community solar portfolio and want confidence in your subscriber performance, banked credit optimization, and regulatory compliance—reach out to us. Our team is ready to partner with you.