Aharon Davoyan launched NRG Incentives after a life-changing event, and is now looking to expand his business as utilities once again begin issuing rebates. Photo by Ben Hensley

Aharon Davoyan launched NRG Incentives in Fresno after a dramatic career turn, transforming a personal setback into a thriving energy-efficiency consulting business.

Now, nearly a decade after founding the company, Davoyan aims to expand its reach, eyeing Southern and Northern California markets as potential hotspots for investment in energy-efficient upgrades.

A former PG&E employee, Davoyan was involved in a physical altercation for which he was convicted, leading to his termination. During the legal battle, he was promoted at PG&E three times. He spent his subsequent incarceration drafting a business plan to replicate the energy-efficiency work he had done for agricultural clients at PG&E.

“While I was incarcerated…I put together a business plan,” he said. “I wrote a business plan that I would be doing something similar to what I did at PG&E.”

His early experience managing large agricultural accounts at PG&E, which included helping dairies, food processors and other businesses shift to LED lighting and more efficient machinery, made his goal at NRG Incentives clear — build on his skills as a former rebate consultant and incorporate the other two phases of successful business development into his new company.

“I went from just doing rebate consulting to putting all three phases together — sales, contracting and financing — the three core business operational needs,” he said. “I consider myself a rebate consultant — that’s how the name ‘NRG Incentives’ came about.”

Davoyan said that the company quickly evolved past rebates alone, adding distribution, contracting and financing to create the complete, all-in-one business model that NRG Incentives follows.

He landed his first client, Ed Kashian, a $100,000 rebate in his remodel of the Rowell Building in Downtown Fresno, he said. Since then, he has continued to work with Kashian along with a number of other business owners and developers.

Davoyan said he is able to retain such large clients and outpace the competition by maintaining a fast-pay, personal approach, leveraging his accounts to manage his buying power.

“My workaround for procurement is I don’t ask for terms,” he said. “When I process a [purchase order], I pay on the spot. That puts me ahead of everybody else that needs terms.”

While rebates once formed the heart of the business, Davoyan said that programs have become more complicated — and in many places disappeared altogether.

Southern California Edison, for example, had not offered rebates for seven years until this year, presenting a new opportunity for NRG Incentives to expand.

“The biggest difference is the cost of power,” he said, adding that the average difference generally favors Southern California Edison over PG&E by 20 to 30 percent. “That’s why you’ve seen the city of Visalia sprawl in terms of industrial.”

The timing of the return of rebate programs from Southern California Edison aligns with new state regulations such as AB 2208, which bans the sale and distribution of fluorescent bulbs in 2025.

Davoyan said that shift is already pushing more businesses to consider LED upgrades.

“The 2025 implementation of AB 2208, which banned the sale and distribution of fluorescent lightbulbs, also helps expand NRG Incentives’ clientele in Southern California where the rebate and requirement have lined up hand-in-hand in terms of timing,” he said.

The utilities in Southern California, Davoyan said, are often more cutting-edge, crediting Southern California Edison’s leadership as forward thinking in terms of energy efficiency and incentive programs.

Since its founding in 2017, Davoyan hopes to continue to grow the company, working with contractors, lenders and businesses to continue building on a model that has encompassed his entire career, first at PG&E, and now with his own business.

“When I got out, I just replicated that business and charged for my service,” he said. “I considered myself a rebate consultant — that’s how the name ‘NRG Incentives’ came about.”

His strategies, he said, has helped keep NRG Incentives’ projects on time and clients satisfied — all while growing a business that started from one man’s decision to chart his own course.