North Hollywood, CA · October – December 2025 · LADWP / LADBS

North Hollywood: an interconnection request refiled, and switched on ten weeks later.

Solar as part of a whole-house renovation — roof, kitchen, bathrooms, windows, heating and floors. A filed interconnection request cannot be edited, so it was refiled, and the project ran to permission to operate in ten weeks.

A filed interconnection request cannot be amended: on this project the utility's interconnections group confirmed that a figure on a request is updated by filing a new work request, with the first cancelled once the second arrives. Cali Energy asked before any fee was paid, refiled the same day, and the project ran to permission to operate on 16 December 2025, ten weeks later.

At a glance

Scope

Whole-house renovation including solar

Also included

Partial re-roof, kitchen, three bathrooms, windows, HVAC, floors

Interconnection

Refiled once, four days after the first request

Utility's answer

Figures cannot be amended; file a new request

Service

Underground — separate fee

Refiling to PTO

Ten weeks

Utility / AHJ

LADWP / LADBS

The story

This project is one where the solar is a component rather than the job. The house was being renovated across the board — a partial re-roof, a kitchen, three bathrooms, replacement windows, heating and air conditioning, and new floors — and the array went in as part of that programme rather than on its own.

When a house is being reworked in several trades at once, the specification moves, and a number that was right when a form was drafted can be out of date by the time the form is submitted.

The interconnection request went in at the start of October. Four days later the total AC output on the request needed updating, and we asked the interconnections group — before any fee was paid — whether it could be amended at their end.

The answer came back the same day and it is worth quoting in substance: the figures cannot be changed, a new work request has to be submitted, and once the new one is received it will be processed and the previous one cancelled.

So that is what happened. A second work request was filed the same afternoon and the expenditure recovery charge paid against it. A further fee followed the next day for the underground cable portion of the work, because the service on this property is underground rather than overhead.

There is no drama in any of this and nobody was obstructive. The department is consistent: an application is a record, not a working document, and a record that can be edited after submission is not much of a record. But it does mean two things practically.

First, a correction to a filed request is not a correction — it is a resubmission, so it pays to ask the utility before the fee is paid, as was done here. Second, on a project where several trades are moving at once, the interconnection is best filed when the system design is settled.

Once the second request was in, the project ran without further incident. The utility's review, confirmation and completed site evaluation all landed two days later. The interconnection agreement was signed in the middle of November, the installation was released a few days after that, and permission to operate arrived on the sixteenth of December — ten weeks from the refiling.

When solar sits inside a larger job, it is worth knowing which contractor is answerable for the interconnection specifically. Here it was Cali Energy, and the house has run on its array since permission to operate on 16 December 2025.

How it ran

Two work requests, four days apart; the second ran to permission to operate in ten weeks.

What we did

• Carried the solar as one trade inside a whole-house renovation.
• Asked the interconnections group directly whether it could be amended, before paying the fee.
• Filed the replacement work request the same day the answer came back.
• Paid the separate fee for the underground cable portion of the work.
• Took the refiled request to permission to operate in ten weeks.

System specifications

Is your project like this one?

• You are renovating and solar is one of several trades on site.
• Your interconnection application has an error on it.
• You are not sure who on a multi-trade job owns the utility paperwork.
• Your service is underground and you want to know what extra fees apply.
• You want the system design settled before anything is filed.

Cali Energy in North Hollywood

Frequently asked questions

Can a mistake on a solar interconnection application be corrected?

Not by amendment. On this project the interconnections group said plainly that the figures could not be changed and that a new work request had to be submitted, with the previous one cancelled once the new one was received.

Does refiling cost more?

There is a fee against the new work request, so it pays to ask before the first one is paid. On this project the expenditure recovery charge was paid once, on the second request, and a separate fee followed for the underground cable portion of the work.

When should the interconnection be filed on a renovation?

Once the system design is settled. On a job with several trades moving at the same time, a figure that was right when the form was drafted can be out of date by the time it is submitted.

Does an underground service cost extra on the utility side?

There is a separate fee for the underground cable portion, paid in addition to the expenditure recovery charge. On this property that was a second payment the day after the first.

Who is responsible for the interconnection on a multi-trade renovation?

Whoever is named as the contractor on the application. It is worth settling explicitly, because the interconnection has its own timeline and its own fees and is the piece most often assumed to belong to somebody else.

What this would look like on your roof

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