North Hollywood, CA · July – October 2021 · LADWP / LADBS

The meter was in. The utility's record said it was not.

A system finished, inspected, released and metered in the first week of September sat unable to run until the middle of October. What finally released it was a photograph of the meter on the wall.

Permission to Operate is issued when the utility's records show the net meter installed — not when the meter is physically on the wall. If those two things fall out of step, a system can be finished, inspected, released and metered and still not be allowed to run. The way out is evidence: a photograph of the meter in place, put in front of somebody who can reconcile the record.

At a glance

System

13.3 kW as filed with the utility

Plan set

Finalized in seven days, load calculations included

Plan check

Approved 9 August 2021

Permit

Issued August 2021

Meter set

7 September 2021

Permission to operate

19 October 2021

Utility / AHJ

LADWP / LADBS

The story

By the seventh of September this system was, in every practical sense, finished. The plans had been approved, the permit issued, the inspection passed, the building department's release transmitted, the interconnection review completed, and a net meter fitted to the wall. The only thing it did not have was permission to run. That arrived on the nineteenth of October.

Six weeks. Nothing was built in them, nothing was corrected, nothing failed an inspection. What happened in those six weeks is that a record did not match a building.

The rest of the project is worth walking through, because the interesting part is how unremarkable it was.

The drawing came first. The permit set was worked through in a week at the end of July — the layout refined, then load calculations added. A plan set is a document that gets argued with, and a designer who sends one version and treats it as final is usually a designer who has not been asked hard questions.

The interconnection application went in on the twenty-third of July. Two weeks later the utility returned the agreement form with a note on each item it wanted settled, and Cali Energy answered them, explaining that the main service panel was not being upgraded on this job. The interconnection application existed because a solar system was being installed, not because the service was changing. The agreement was approved the following day.

Meanwhile the building department approved the plan check on the ninth of August. An approved plan check is not yet a permit: the permit issues once the licensed contractor's signature declaration is on file, and it was filed on the eighteenth.

After that everything moved. The permit fee was issued on the nineteenth of August, the inspection was requested the same day, and the building department's final release and the utility's interconnection approval both landed on the twenty-fourth. The net meter was set on the seventh of September.

And then nothing. We asked on the eighth of September and were told the job was scheduled and a permission letter would follow once the meter was installed. We replied the next day to say the meter was already installed. Nothing followed.

On the eighteenth of October we escalated past the representative handling the job to the section that manages it. The answer came back quickly and was more useful than a chased status: permission is issued when the net meter shows as installed in the utility's system, and the system did not show it. We sent a photograph of the meter on the wall. The reply was that a construction crew had probably completed the installation without recording the work as complete, and that the meter identifier in our photograph would let them sort it out. Permission to operate was issued the following day.

There is no villain in this. A large utility runs on records, and records are maintained by people finishing a job at the end of a long day. But it does mean something specific for anyone waiting on their own system.

Photograph your meter the day it is set, with the surroundings in shot so it is obviously your wall. Know that permission to operate is a bookkeeping event and not a physical one, and that being told a job is scheduled is not the same as the record showing it done. And if a fortnight passes with no movement, ask for the request to be looked at by the section that manages the queue rather than asking the same person the same question again.

Running a system before permission is issued is not an option — it is the one step in the process that is not ours or the homeowner's to take. On this North Hollywood house it came on the nineteenth of October 2021, the day after the photograph went in, and the system has run since.

How it ran

Forty-two days between a meter on the wall and permission to use it.

What we did

• Worked the plan set through layout and load calculations before filing.
• Answered the utility's notes on the interconnection agreement and had it approved the next day.
• Chased the missing permission twice at representative level, then escalated to the managing section.
• Photographed the installed meter and supplied it as evidence; the permission was issued the following day.

System specifications

Is your project like this one?

• Your system is finished and metered and you are still waiting for permission.
• You have been told a job is scheduled when the work already happened.
• Your interconnection paperwork came back marked incomplete.
• Your plan check passed and the permit still has not issued.
• You want to know who to escalate to and when.

Cali Energy in North Hollywood

Frequently asked questions

What is Permission to Operate and when is it issued?

It is the utility's written authorisation to run the system, issued once the net meter shows as installed in the utility's records. It is a record-keeping event. On this project the meter was set on 7 September 2021 and the permission was issued on 19 October.

Can I run my system before permission is issued?

No. That is the one step in the process that belongs to the utility, and running before it arrives is not an option on the table. It is also why the delay matters rather than being a paperwork curiosity.

What should I do if my permission is late?

Photograph the meter on the day it is set, with enough of the wall in shot to make the location obvious. If a fortnight passes with no movement, ask for the request to be reviewed by the section that manages the queue rather than repeating the question to the same representative.

Why was the permit not issued when the plan check was approved?

Because they are two different things: the plan check approves the drawings, and the permit issues once the licensed contractor's signature declaration is on file. On this project the permit followed nine days after the plan check of 9 August 2021.

What this would look like on your roof

Related

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• Before anything was built, the utility said where the meter goes North Hollywood, CA · 13.7 kW · concrete tile, overhead service Solar
• An interconnection refiled, switched on in ten weeks North Hollywood, CA · solar inside a whole-house renovation Solar
• Solar and the panel it connects to are two permits North Hollywood, CA · two houses · panel upgrades with solar Solar

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