In this article
EUPD Research brought its Top Brand PV Installer seal to Australia for the first time in 2023, and PSW Energy was one of five Western Australian recipients. The full national list is below, competitors included, because an award you can only read about your own company winning is not evidence of anything.
In short
- First Australian run of the EUPD Top Brand PV Installer seal, awarded November 2023 at the Pearl Waterfront in Perth, alongside All-Energy.
- Five Western Australian companies were recognised. The full list, all states, is on this page.
- EUPD weighs customer satisfaction across multiple review platforms, plus trading history, install volume and submitted revenue. The exact weighting is proprietary and therefore unverifiable.
- PSW Energy has since won the 2024 EUPD Installer Award, which is the more current record.
EUPD’s assessment criteria
Four things, none of them a fee. Customer satisfaction data pulled across several review platforms rather than one, which is the part that matters most: it is straightforward to accumulate good reviews on a single platform and much harder to look consistent across Google, Trustpilot, SolarQuotes and the rest at once. Trading history, because a company that has been going a while has had time to disappoint someone. Install volume, submitted as segmented capacity. And prior-year revenue, which reads as a financial-stability check.
The honest caveat is that the weighting between those four is EUPD’s own and is not published. So the seal tells you a company cleared a bar on a mix of satisfaction, size and longevity. It does not tell you which of those did the work.
Reviews across platforms
Fake and managed reviews are the ordinary condition of this industry. A company with four hundred five-star Google reviews and a mediocre showing on a platform it does not control is telling you something, and the gap between the two is more informative than either number.
What EUPD does is read across platforms rather than down one. A company with a real record looks broadly consistent, negative reviews included — a business with none at all after ten years is not a business without unhappy customers, it is a business that has done something about the record.
Award recipients, 2023
The full list as published. We would rather show it than describe our own place in it.
| State/ Territory | EUPD Research Top Brand PV Installer |
|---|---|
|
Western Australia |
• PSW Energy, Perth Solar Warehouse • Positive Energy Solutions • KVA Power • Regen Power • Solargain PV |
|
South Australia |
• DQ Electrical • Goliath Solar and Electrical • Matrix Solar Solutions • Off-grid Energy Australia • Venergy Solar Australia |
|
Northern Territory |
• Solar City NT |
|
Queensland |
• Adapt Energy • Arkana Energy Group • DS ENERGY • GEM Energy • GI Energy Australia • Green Energy Technologies • MC Electrical • Omnisolar • PowerSmart Solutions • Scott Burke Electrical • Springers Solar |
|
New South Wales |
• Penrith Solar Centre • 1KOMMA5° • Elite Power Group • Hardy Electrical & Solar • Inspire Energy • Pyramid Power • Rescom Solar • Smart Energy Answers • SolarBright Australia • Wauchope Solar |
|
Victoria |
• Lightning Solar • Limitless Energy Solutions • Marshall Energy Solutions • Solar Integrity • Velocity Solar |
|
Tasmania |
• I Want Energy |
The distribution follows population, as you would expect. Queensland and New South Wales carry the most recipients; Tasmania and the Northern Territory one each. For a Western Australian reader the useful line is the WA one — five companies, of which we are one, and the other four are real operations worth getting a quote from.
Derek’s response
To be recognised favourably among respectable competition from all around Australia is a welcome surprise. We’re always listening to customers and consistently improving.
Which is roughly the right weight to put on it. An award is a lagging indicator of a lot of ordinary jobs done properly, and it stops being useful the moment it becomes the reason to pick someone.
Using the seal in a shortlist
As a filter, not a decision. Use it to build a shortlist of three, then judge on the thing that actually varies: the design. Ask what size system, worked out from what consumption, with what export limit applying on your street, and what happens to the quote if the switchboard needs work. The company that answers those clearly is the one to use, seal or no seal.
If you want that working shown for your address, ask for a written price.