Solar permit to PTO in Los Angeles: the official timeline

• LADWP interconnection agreement approval: 2–5 days — after the submitted information is verified accurate and complete (LADWP Guide to Electric Service, March 2024).
• SCE permission to operate: within 10 business days for complete, simple solar-only requests; SCE publishes no figure for paired storage.
• The permit is rarely the wait in LA: eligible standard residential systems get automated plan review, so inspection, application completeness and utility stages control the timeline.
• Who controls what: LADWP labels every stage customer / city / utility — and seven of the eight common delay causes sit on the applicant’s side.
• No official contract-to-PTO total exists. End-to-end ranges you see online are installer estimates, not utility figures.

A utility’s published figure and a homeowner’s lived experience can differ by weeks — and both can be accurate, because they measure different things.

The utility processing clock runs from a complete interconnection application to permission to operate. The homeowner’s clock runs from signing a contract to the day the system is switched on, and includes design, permitting, installation, inspection and any corrections along the way. A utility target says nothing about the second. Keeping the two apart is the only way to set honest expectations.

This is the most useful public document for Los Angeles homeowners, and almost nobody cites it. In its Guide to Electric Service, LADWP sets out typical timelines for solar projects and colour-codes every step by who controls it. The residential path is the process for systems under 30 kW.

Two of LADWP’s own footnotes carry real weight. The interconnection approval time applies “after information submitted by the customer has been verified to be accurate and complete” — an incomplete submission does not start the clock. And the energisation timing holds “provided no LADWP distribution system upgrade is required”; if a transformer or line work is needed, the picture changes.

Note what these figures are and are not. Added together, the LADWP-controlled stages come to roughly three and a half to eight weeks — but that is only the utility’s share. LADWP publishes no duration for the customer and city stages, and the stages can overlap. This is not a contract-to-switch-on estimate, and anyone presenting it as one is misreading the source.

For SCE customers the current guidance is narrower but clear. SCE states that “simple and standard (solar-only) interconnection requests that have all the correct information and required documents, may receive Permission to Operate within 10 business days.” Complex requests — SCE names paired storage or non-standard metering — “will need more time to process as they require additional technical and engineering review.” Source: SCE — Solar Billing Plan FAQs.

SCE does not publish a number for those complex requests, so neither will we. If you see a specific week count for battery projects attributed to SCE, ask where it comes from — in our checking, such figures trace back to installer blogs rather than to the utility.

SCE recommends submitting the whole package at once: the application, single line diagram, signed interconnection agreement, final electrical permit approval issued by the local building department, and any other applicable documentation. That last item is the practical hinge — the review depends on the local authority’s final approval being in hand.

There is a persistent muddle here worth settling. In its guidance on applying for interconnection, SCE has stated that a standard interconnection request for a residential system of 30 kW or less can be submitted after the city or county final permit inspection, or at least 30 days prior to it, while non-standard requests should start at least 30 days before inspection. In other words it is an either/or, not a rule that the application must come first.

One caveat we will state plainly: that wording comes from an SCE fact sheet published in 2019, describing the earlier NEM 2.0 programme, and its stated processing time (two to three business days) no longer matches SCE’s current published target. Treat the 2019 document as a guide to procedure and the current Solar Billing Plan FAQs as the guide to timing — and confirm both with SCE for your own project.

The City of Los Angeles participates in SolarAPP+, the automated plan-review platform developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. For eligible standard residential systems, automated review can remove much of the plan-review delay. It does not apply to every project: battery storage, service-panel work, structural corrections, fire-setback issues, historic properties and anything falling outside the eligibility rules can still require conventional review. See NREL — SolarAPP+.

Where automated review does apply, it shifts the pressure elsewhere: inspection, corrections, the completeness of the interconnection package and the utility’s own stages then control the timeline. Where it does not apply, plan review can still be the constraint. Los Angeles projects also coordinate LADBS for the permit and inspection, LAFD where fire access or setbacks are triggered, and then either LADWP or SCE depending on the service territory.

How long does LADWP interconnection take?

LADWP publishes 2–5 days for interconnection agreement approval, once the information you submitted has been verified as accurate and complete. Around it sit three more LADWP-controlled stages: a Solar ESR site visit at 1–3 weeks, ESR verification of the finished installation at 1–2 weeks, and setting the meters and authorising energisation at 1–2 weeks. Those four stages are the utility’s share of the timeline; LADWP publishes no duration for the customer and city stages between them.

How long does SCE take to grant permission to operate?

SCE states that simple and standard solar-only requests may receive permission to operate within 10 business days — provided the request has all the correct information and required documents. That clock measures a complete application through to PTO, not your project from contract to switch-on.

How long does a battery add?

SCE does not publish a figure. It identifies paired storage and non-standard metering as requests that “will need more time to process as they require additional technical and engineering review,” without stating how much. Any specific week count you see attributed to SCE for battery projects did not come from SCE. We are not going to invent one.

How long does an LADBS solar permit take?

Short answer: for eligible standard residential systems, plan review is largely automated and fast, which is why the permit is rarely the longest wait in Los Angeles. The permit step itself — what is required, which documents, what it costs, and which cities do not use LADBS — is covered in our companion guide to solar permits in Los Angeles. This page stays on durations and where projects stall.

How long does inspection scheduling take?

Neither LADWP nor SCE publishes this, because it is not theirs to publish — inspection is the city’s stage. What LADWP does publish is a related figure worth knowing: an Electric Service Request will schedule a site visit within five to 10 business days. Ask your installer for the current inspection lead time in your specific jurisdiction; it moves with workload.

Because a grid-connected system may not legally operate until the utility issues permission to operate. Installation finishing is not the finish line — it is roughly the halfway point. After the panels are up, the city still has to inspect, the utility still has to receive a complete interconnection package, review it, set or exchange the meter, and issue written authorisation.

If your installer says the job is “done” and the system is dark, the honest translation is that construction is done and the approvals are not.

Can I turn it on early, just to test?

No. Energising a grid-connected system before permission to operate is a violation of the interconnection agreement and can carry consequences from the utility, up to disconnection. It can also complicate your interconnection application. Wait for the written authorisation.

How do I check the status myself?

Most of this process is visible to your installer, not to you. Two things you can check directly: the permit and inspection status with the local building department — for the City of Los Angeles that is LADBS, and the records are public, and your utility account, where a meter exchange and the eventual authorisation will appear. For the interconnection application itself, ask your installer for the submission date and the reference number — if they cannot produce either, that is informative.

SCE asks for the following, and recommends submitting them together rather than piecemeal:

• the interconnection application
• a single line diagram
• the signed interconnection agreement
• final electrical permit approval issued by the local building department
• any other applicable documentation — for example a plot plan where an AC disconnect applies

LADWP frames the same principle differently but to the same effect: its published approval time applies “after information submitted by the customer has been verified to be accurate and complete.” An incomplete package does not start a slow clock — it starts no clock at all.

It is often said that this stage is entirely on the utility. That is not accurate, and LADWP’s own customer/city/utility labelling shows why. Ordered roughly from most to least common:

• The application package is incomplete — missing the final permit approval, the signed agreement or the single line diagram. The review clock has not started.
• The installed system does not match the approved design — a different module count, inverter model or panel location than what was submitted.
• The city’s final approval has not been released to the utility yet, even though the inspection passed.
• Panel, service or meter work is outstanding — a service upgrade that has not been signed off holds up the meter.
• Storage or non-standard metering pushes the request into additional technical and engineering review.
• Customer signatures are missing on the interconnection agreement.
• A distribution system upgrade is required. LADWP’s published timings hold only “provided no LADWP distribution system upgrade is required.”
• Genuine utility queue and engineering backlog — the one item on this list nobody can influence.

Seven of those eight are on the applicant’s side of the line. That is the useful news: most of the wait is addressable if someone asks the right question early.

• Your project’s actual total time. The utilities publish stage targets, not an end-to-end clock; customer and city stages carry no published duration and stages can overlap.
• The live status of your own application. That sits with your installer, the building department’s permit records, and your utility account.
• How much time a battery adds. SCE says paired storage needs additional engineering review and publishes no number.
• Whether a distribution system upgrade will be required. LADWP’s published timings explicitly assume none is needed; if one is, the picture changes and only the utility can say by how much.

Widely-quoted ranges — four to six weeks for solar, eight to twelve with a battery — are not utility figures. We have not published them here because we could not trace them to a utility source, and we have not yet published our own observed timelines because doing that honestly requires stating the sample size and period. What is on this page is what LADWP and SCE themselves publish.

Figures on this page come from the primary sources below and, where noted, from Cali Energy calculations using the stated assumptions. Rates, incentives, and program terms change; each was verified August 11, 2026.

1. LADWP — Guide to Electric Service (March 2024), pages 22–23
2. SCE — Solar Billing Plan FAQs
3. NREL — SolarAPP+