Monica Carter’s solar panel system was turned off three years ago by CPS Energy. She was stuck with a loan of more than $70k until KENS 5 got involved.
SAN ANTONIO — In February of 2021, Monica Carter believed she was getting a solar panel system that would meet all her home’s needs.
The paralegal signed up with Sunnova in January after a salesman came to her door. She believed her 55-solar-panel system was going to be operational in just 6 months and was being completed to up to city standards. She also reviewed her contract and found the financing and total price to be acceptable.
Nearly five years later, Carter’s solar panel system wasn’t generating any power, the company she had been dealing with was in bankruptcy, and she was still stuck with a loan of more than $70,000.
How did she get here?
Carter signed an agreement with “Sunnova Home Solar Service” in 2021 though the company went by “Sunnova.” The system itself was installed by Infinity Energy Inc. Carter believed the system was fully installed by July of 2021 though she didn’t have a web portal set up to show how much electricity it was generating.
Carter believes the system was on for the next 14 months and it should have been providing electricity.
Then, iut of the blue, a man from CPS Energy showed up at her door and said they had to shut the system down.
“He said, ‘Ma’am we are getting a reading from solar panels on your house and you are not authorized to be on the grid. We have to turn these solar panels off,” Carter said.
CPS Energy then shut her system down, locked it, and pulled out a meter on the side of her house.
Turns out, according to CPS Energy, the contractor that installed the panels never completed the permit and inspection process required by the City of San Antonio. Additionally, CPS Energy is supposed to install a PV Meter once the inspection is done. When CPS Energy came out to the home, and found a PV meter, they actually pulled out the “non-PV CPS Energy meter” which someone had installed.
“I called Sunnova as soon as he left,” Carter said.
Carter said she spent the next three years trying to get Sunnova to come out and fix the problem. She said she tried to explain to Sunnova several times that the permit process for the system needed to be completed but initially they would just send service technicians. She said Sonnova then opened cases for the issue several times but it still wasn’t fixed.
“I went back and forth with Sunnova quite some time to try and get them to understand what I was saying. It wasn’t that I needed a service tech to look at the panels, or anything like that… I needed them to open a case so that they (the panels) could be turned on legally,” Carter said.
Eventually she stopped making loan payments.
Finally, in June of 2025, Sunnova voluntarily filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy and was purchased by another company called SunStrong Management. Carter was hoping SunStrong would fix the issue but a representative from SunStrong Management told Carter “our permitting team had not yet been re-established due to internal restructuring.”
Carter called KENS 5.
“I’m just getting nowhere,” Carter said. “It’s been five years of me just going around in circles.”
KENS 5 spent several days reaching out to Sunnova and SunStrong Management. KENS 5 also contacted an attorney involved in the bankruptcy process when those companies didn’t initially respond.
SunStrong Management Customer Operations VP Chuck Browne then got back to us and said the company was aware of the issue.
“We understand how frustrating this experience has been for Ms. Carter, and we take her concerns seriously. Our first priority is safety and compliance with all utility and permitting requirements. Our team has now received CPS Energy’s approval of an updated plan set, and the project is ready for corrective work in the field. That work includes reinstalling monitoring equipment and adding updated components in line with the current approved plans before the system can be commissioned and interconnected,” Brown said.
At the same time, Carter was still unable to get anything to move forward and wanted to end the contract. KENS 5 then asked SunStrong why they couldn’t cancel the contract if the system wasn’t installed to city standards to begin with.
SunStrong then decided to cancel the contract.
“After reviewing the information available, we have determined that Ms. Carter’s system falls into the category of projects that were never completed prior to the bankruptcy and cannot be brought into service under the original structure. In situations like this, the appropriate step is to terminate the contract,” Browne said.
Carter would be on the hook for the remaining loan amount, which was still more than $70,000.
“It’s a huge relief!” Carter said.
SunStrong sent Carter the required documents for the cancellation shortly after.
The homeowner is thankful SunStrong canceled the contract after all. She’s glad KENS 5 got involved.
“I don’t think that, without KENS 5 getting involved that they would have terminated the contract. I would probably still be waiting for communications from them,” Carter said.
If you have a problem like this, we want to help you fix it! In our series, Call KENS, we do our best to solve problems for our viewers. The number to call is 210-470-KENS, or fill out the form on this page.