Porter Ranch, CA · March – April 2025 · LADWP / LADBS

Porter Ranch: the loads moved, the main panel stayed.

A 200 A sub panel, a long conduit run, and a main panel left holding nothing but the service and the solar.

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

Where a main service panel cannot accept a solar breaker, one standard answer is to move the household circuits out of it into a new sub panel, leaving the main with the service conductors and the solar connection. On this Porter Ranch project Cali Energy relocated a 200 A sub panel next to the alternating-current disconnect and ran the conductors between them in 2.4-inch conduit — a day of electrical work that has nothing to do with the roof and everything to do with whether the array can connect at all.

At a glance

Problem

Main panel could not take the solar breaker

Answer

Household loads moved to a 200 A sub panel

Between them

2.4-inch conduit run

What the main keeps

Service conductors and the solar connection

Installation

March 2025

Utility / AHJ

LADWP / LADBS

The story

Every rooftop array has to land somewhere electrically, and on a full or undersized panel there are only a few ways to make that happen. Derate the main breaker. Replace the panel. Or take the household loads out of the main panel entirely and put them in a new sub panel, leaving the main holding the service and the solar connection and nothing else.

The trade has a nickname in the field — crews call it a Hawaiian tap, or a Hawaiian tie-in — and it is worth knowing what it means, because it appears on quotes as a line item with no explanation.

What it involves here: a 200 A sub panel installed beside the alternating-current disconnect, every branch circuit moved across to it, and a conduit run between the two enclosures sized for conductors that carry the whole house. On this project the run was 2.4-inch conduit, which is heavy pipe by residential standards and gives a sense of the scale — this is not a breaker swap, it is a rebuild of how the house is fed.

Why do it at all? Because it solves the 120 percent problem from the other direction. Instead of arguing about how much the busbar can take with a main breaker and a solar breaker both feeding it, the main panel stops being a distribution panel. Its busbar carries the service and the array, and the loads sit downstream in equipment sized for them.

What it costs: a day or more of electrical work, the sub panel and its breakers, the conduit and conductors, and a wall that looks different afterwards. What it buys: an array that can connect without replacing the service, and headroom for what the household adds later.

The part owners should insist on is the same as with any service work — that it is priced and described before the crew arrives, not discovered as a change order when the array is already on the roof. A line that reads sub panel relocation on a quote is a day of work and a set of materials; it deserves a sentence explaining what will be different when it is finished.

The installation was completed in the second half of March 2025, and the photographs of the finished work were reviewed and accepted in the first week of April.

The household came out of it with every branch circuit in a panel sized for it, an array that could finally connect, and headroom on the service for whatever it adds next — without a new service ever being bought.

Cali Energy carried out the service work and the installation on this Porter Ranch project.

How it ran

The roof work was the short part. The wiring underneath it was the project.

What we did

• Moved the household circuits instead of replacing a serviceable main panel.
• Sized the conduit and conductors for the whole house, not for the array.
• Left the main panel carrying only the service and the solar connection.
• Documented the finished work in photographs before closing the job.

System specifications

Is your project like this one?

• Your main panel cannot take a solar breaker.
• Your quote has a line about a sub panel and no explanation.
• You have been offered a derate and want to know the alternatives.
• You expect to add load to the house later.

Cali Energy in Porter Ranch

Frequently asked questions

What is a Hawaiian tap, or Hawaiian tie-in?

A field name for moving every household circuit out of the main panel into a new sub panel, so the main carries only the service conductors and the solar connection. It is one of the standard answers when a main panel cannot accept a solar breaker.

When is moving the loads better than replacing the panel?

When the existing main panel and service are sound and the only problem is where the solar can land. Moving loads keeps the service intact and puts the branch circuits in equipment sized for them.

Why does the conduit have to be so large?

Because the conductors between the main and the sub panel carry the entire house, not the array. They are sized to the service, which is why a residential job can end up with pipe that looks oversized next to solar wiring.

Should this work be on my quote before installation?

Yes, priced and described. Service work found after the array is on the roof becomes a change order at the worst moment. A line that says sub panel relocation should come with a sentence about what it does.

Does Cali Energy do service work as well as solar in Porter Ranch?

Yes. Panel upgrades, sub panels and load relocations are part of the same permit route through LADBS, and they are what makes an interconnection through LADWP possible on a house whose panel is already full.

What this would look like on your roof

Related

• The roof allowed thirty-four, the panel allowed nine Porter Ranch · 9 modules · the service panel set the system size Solar
• The panel was full, and one breaker fed nothing Porter Ranch · 6.82 kW AC-CEC · a dead circuit made room for the array Solar
• The utility was waiting on a volunteer board Porter Ranch · association approval before the service point Solar
• The panel came out. What went back has a bigger busbar Granada Hills, CA · 6.00 kW DC · 225 A busbar, 70 A of headroom left Solar

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