Palms, CA · August – October 2022 · LADWP / LADBS

Palms: what the numbered progress updates mean.

Everyone with a solar project in this city gets these emails. Almost nobody is told what the numbers stand for, or which one is the one that matters.

Written by the Cali Energy project team · California contractor license 1032379 · Updated September 2026

LADWP reports an interconnection through numbered progress notices sent to both the installer and the owner. In outline: the request is received and reviewed, the details are confirmed, a site assessment is completed or waived, the interconnection agreement is issued and then approved, the building department release arrives, the installation is approved, and finally permission to operate is authorized. Cali Energy closed the whole sequence in thirty-two days on this 11.6 kW project in Palms, Los Angeles; the notice to watch is the interconnection agreement, because it is the only step that needs a signature from the owner.

At a glance

System

11.6 kW AC-CEC

Filing to permission to operate

Thirty-two days

Notices received

The full numbered sequence

Step needing the owner

The interconnection agreement

Utility / AHJ

LADWP / LADBS

The story

If you have a solar project in Los Angeles you will get a run of emails with numbers in the subject line. They arrive from a no-reply address, they are long, they are written for the installer, and the numbering is not explained anywhere. Owners generally read the first one, skim the rest and wait.

This Palms project ran the sequence cleanly in about a month, which makes it a good place to set out what the numbers actually are.

The first notice means the request has been received and a work request number assigned. That number is the file. Every later email and every phone call refers to it, and it is the one thing to save on day one.

The second means the application has been reviewed and the details confirmed — the system size, the address, the equipment. If the utility disagrees with any of it, this is where the disagreement surfaces.

The site assessment notice means somebody has either been out to the property or the visit has been waived because a waiver was on file. It is a step that can add weeks when it happens and adds nothing when it is waived, which is why so much of the variation in interconnection timelines comes from here.

Then the agreement notice. This is the one that matters, and it is the only step in the sequence that needs something from the owner rather than from the installer: the interconnection agreement has to be signed. A project can sit at this step indefinitely while everybody assumes somebody else is dealing with it, and the notices stop arriving because nothing is moving.

The next notice confirms the agreement has been approved or bypassed. After that the building department's release reaches the utility, the installation is approved, and the last notice is permission to operate — the one that means the system may legally run and export.

On this project the request was acknowledged in the middle of September. The acknowledgement, the confirmation, the site assessment and the agreement notice all arrived on the fourth of October, the agreement was approved the following day, the installation was approved on the seventeenth, and permission to operate came on the eighteenth.

Thirty-two days from filing on an 11.6 kW system, which is quick and is mostly explained by the fact that nothing in the sequence stalled.

What to do with this as an owner. Save the work request number. Read the subject lines rather than the bodies — the numbers tell you where you are. And if the sequence goes quiet for more than a couple of weeks, ask which notice was the last one, because the answer tells you exactly which desk the file is sitting on.

Cali Energy designed, permitted and interconnected this 11.6 kW array in Palms, Los Angeles.

How it ran

Thirty-two days from filing, with four of the notices landing together and nothing stalling in between.

What we did

• Filed the interconnection request the week the agreement was signed.
• Kept the agreement step moving rather than waiting for a reminder.
• Answered the service planner's queries the day they arrived.
• Closed the whole sequence in thirty-two days.

System specifications

Is your project like this one?

• You are getting numbered emails from the utility and do not know what they mean.
• Your notices have gone quiet and you do not know which step you are on.
• Somebody has asked you to sign an interconnection agreement.
• You want to know which part of a solar timeline is actually variable.

Cali Energy in Palms

Frequently asked questions

What is a work request number and why does it matter?

It is the file number the utility assigns when the interconnection request is received, and it appears in the first notice. Every later email, every progress update and every phone call refers to it. Writing it down on day one is the single most useful thing an owner can do, because without it nobody can find the project.

Which progress notice is the one to watch?

The interconnection agreement notice. It is the only step in the sequence that needs something from the owner rather than the installer — a signature — and a project can sit there indefinitely while each side assumes the other is handling it. The notices go quiet at that point because nothing is moving.

Why do some projects take weeks longer at the site assessment?

Because that step is either an actual visit or a waiver on file. A visit has to be scheduled against a crew's calendar and can add weeks; a waiver adds nothing. Much of the variation between two otherwise identical interconnection timelines comes from this one step.

Does Cali Energy install larger systems in Palms, Los Angeles?

Yes. This Palms project was 11.6 kW AC-CEC, permitted through LADBS and interconnected through LADWP. Lots here are narrow and buildings sit close together, so a system of this size usually means working across more than one roof plane rather than one large face.

What this would look like on your roof

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