Encino, CA · February 2023 – December 2023 · LADWP / LADBS

The array was done. The release had expired.

A 4 kilowatt array on a new Encino house with a habitable basement and a sprinkler system. The inspection was cleared in February. By December, the document that tells the utility the building department is satisfied had gone stale, and it could not simply be re-dated.

A service release is the building department's message to the utility that the work is inspected and the meter can proceed. It has a shelf life. When too long passes between the release and the meter work, it ages out, and the building department cannot simply re-issue it on request — the restart has to come from the utility as a discrepancy notice. Once that notice went out, the release was reissued the next day and permission to operate followed eight days later.

At a glance

System size

4.0 kW AC-CEC recorded by the utility

Building

New two-story house, habitable basement, NFPA-13D sprinklers

Inspection cleared

February 2023

Application filed

27 March 2023

Release found expired

6 December 2023

Release reissued

7 December 2023

Permission to operate

15 December 2023

Utility / AHJ

LADWP / LADBS

The story

The house is a new two-story with a habitable basement, an attached three-car garage, a detached recreation room, a pool and an NFPA-13D sprinkler system. The array on it is four kilowatts — small, relative to the building, and entirely ordinary. Nothing about the solar was complicated. The schedule was.

On a build like this the solar sits at the end of a long queue of other people's inspections. The inspection on this property was called in February 2023. The interconnection application went to the utility at the end of March, the application was reviewed and the site evaluated the next day, and then the project waited on the rest of the house.

By December, a problem appeared that has nothing to do with equipment. The service release — the building department's notice to the utility that the work is inspected and the meter can go ahead — had aged out. Releases are not open-ended. They are a statement about a condition at a point in time, and when enough months pass, the utility will not act on one.

The part worth knowing is what unsticks it. The building department cannot simply put a new date on the release because somebody asks. When a release ages out, the process restarts from the other side: the utility issues a discrepancy notice, and that notice is what allows the release to be reissued. It is a small procedural fact and it is the difference between a week and a month of phone calls, because the party you would naturally call is not the party who can act.

Cali Energy arranged the notice, the release was reissued the next day, on the seventh of December, the utility's interconnection review closed the same week and permission to operate came on the fifteenth — eight days from the restart.

About the nine months in the middle: on new construction the array is finished long before the building is, and the solar file waits for the certificate of occupancy path to clear. The sequence is simply longer than a homeowner expects when they are looking at a finished-looking array from the street.

What can be done about it is narrower and more useful. Know that the release has a shelf life. Watch the gap between an inspection clearing and the meter work, and when that gap stretches, expect the release to need reissuing and know which office starts it. On a new build, plan the interconnection timing around the building schedule rather than filing early and letting the paperwork sit.

The question to ask when a project has gone quiet: is anything waiting on a document that has expired, and who has to move first to replace it?

How it ran

Eight days from the restart to permission to operate. This timeline reflects this property and this permitting path.

What we did

• Filed the interconnection application and carried the review through site evaluation while the building work continued (C-10).
• Identified that the service release had aged out rather than that the file had been lost.
• Arranged the discrepancy notice from the utility that allows a release to be reissued.
• Carried the reissued release through to the meter set eight days later.

System specifications

Is your project like this one?

• Your array is finished and the meter has not been set for months.
• You are building a new house and the solar is done long before the rest.
• You have been told the inspection is cleared but the utility has nothing on file.
• You want to know which office restarts a stalled interconnection.

Cali Energy in Encino

Frequently asked questions

Does Cali Energy handle LADWP interconnections in Encino?

Yes. Cali Energy files the application, carries the utility review and chases the release and meter steps to the end, including restarts like this one where a release had aged out. Twelve completed Encino projects are documented on our projects page. Our license is CSLB #1032379.

Does a building department release expire?

Yes. A service release states that the work was inspected and the meter can proceed, and when enough time passes between that statement and the meter work, the utility will not act on it. On this project the release was cleared in February and had aged out by December, which is long but not unusual on new construction.

How is an expired release restarted?

From the utility side. The building department does not simply re-date a release on request; the utility issues a discrepancy notice, and that notice is what allows the release to be reissued. Knowing which office moves first saves weeks of calling the wrong one. Here the reissue came the day after the notice.

Why does solar on new construction take so long?

Because the array is finished before the building is, and the solar file waits for the rest of the house to clear its inspections. What it means in practice is that the interconnection timing should be planned around the building schedule instead of filed early and left to sit.

What should I ask when a project has gone quiet?

Ask what specifically is being waited on and whether that document is still valid. Applications, releases and agreements each have their own life, and a project can look stalled when in fact one form has expired and needs a notice from the other party before anything can move.

What this would look like on your roof

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This timeline reflects this property and this permitting path. Updated September 2026.