Reseda, CA · October 2018 – September 2019 · LADWP / LADBS

The roof was fine. The problem was the meter cabinet downstairs.

A 6-kilowatt array on one condominium in a six-unit Reseda building. The panels were installed and passed their city inspection in May. Permission to operate came in September, because a single owner's interconnection turned into a requirement to bring the building's shared electrical service up to current standards.

When one unit in a multi-unit building interconnects solar, the utility reviews the service that unit connects to, and that service is shared property. On this building the six-gang meter cabinet did not meet current clearance requirements and an air conditioning condenser stood in the working space in front of the meters. Cali Energy rebuilt the cabinet to the published standard and had the condenser relocated, and only then would LADWP energize one 6-kilowatt system.

At a glance

Recorded by the utility

6.0 kW AC-CEC

Building

Six units, one shared roof, one six-gang meter cabinet

Shared work

Meter cabinet rebuilt; condenser relocated

Meters upgraded

None — only the enclosure and the working space

Utility path

Fast Track canceled; refiled as Standard Process

Battery

None

Application to PTO

About nine months

Utility / AHJ

LADWP / LADBS

The story

The array itself was never the hard part. One owner in a six-unit building wanted solar on the section of roof over their own unit, the plan set was drawn, the city permit was pulled, and the installation went in. It passed its final building inspection at the end of May 2019. Permission to operate arrived four months after that.

What happened in between is the part that matters. In a single-family house, the service you connect solar to belongs to you. In a small condominium building, it does not. The meters sit together in one cabinet on a common wall, the roof is common area, and the moment one owner asks the utility to interconnect, the utility looks at the whole installation.

It looked, and it found two things. The six-gang cabinet was an older enclosure that no longer met the clearance requirements the utility publishes in its Electric Service Requirements. And an air conditioning condenser had been installed, years earlier and by somebody else, standing in the code-required working space directly in front of the meters. Neither had anything to do with solar. Both had to be fixed before one 6-kilowatt system could be switched on.

The useful clarification, and it is worth knowing before anyone panics about cost, is that the utility did not ask for six new meters. It said so plainly: the meters themselves were fine. What it required was that the enclosure defects be cured and the working space be cleared. That is a much smaller job than replacing a building's metering, and the distinction is the difference between a project that proceeds and a project that dies at the homeowners association.

Getting to that answer took four exchanges over six days. Cali Energy asked twice which standard the cabinet had to meet before being pointed at the clearance diagram on page 5-20 of the Electric Service Requirements, and then asked outright whether a new code-compliant cabinet was what was wanted, in order to get a yes on the record. The cabinet was rebuilt, the condenser was moved, and both were photographed for the file.

Two more things about a multi-meter address are worth carrying into your own project. First, the utility's fast-track review is not available: it was canceled here because a multi-meter location needs a representative to visit and decide where the photovoltaic disconnect goes, what signage it carries and where the map placard is mounted. The application was refiled on the standard path, which meant a new work request number. Second, the disconnect location is chosen in the field by the utility, not by the designer: the representative came out, photographed the wall, and marked the spot, with an engraved placard specified in white letters on red.

There is a smaller trap in the same file that costs more projects than any of the above. The first interconnection agreement was rejected because the installer's own email address had been entered in the customer contact field. The utility will not approve an interconnection agreement without the account holder's own email and phone number. On a rental or a second home that is a nuisance. On this project it contributed to a canceled work request.

The cost of the approach is time. About nine months passed between the interconnection application and permission to operate, and most of that was not construction. The file moved between service planning representatives and each handoff restarted the photo documentation. There was a stretch in early summer where nothing happened at all because the assigned planner was away and the out-of-office message named a colleague nobody had contacted. Cali Energy sent follow-ups in March, April, May, June and September, re-photographed the same relocated condenser as late as September, and corrected the last punch item the day it was raised. Permission to operate was granted on the twenty-fifth of September 2019.

If you own a condominium and have been told solar is not possible, the question to put to an installer is not about your roof. It is whether they have taken a shared meter cabinet through a utility review before, and what they expect the common-area scope to be.

How it ran

This timeline reflects this property and this permitting path: one unit of a multi-meter building, where the shared service had to be corrected before a single system could be energized.

What we did

• Pulled the city permit and installed the array on the roof section over the owner's unit.
• Established in writing which published standard the shared meter cabinet had to meet, then rebuilt it to that standard (C-10).
• Had the air conditioning condenser relocated out of the working space in front of the meters.
• Refiled the interconnection on the standard path after the fast-track review was canceled for the multi-meter address.
• Installed the photovoltaic disconnect at the location the utility marked in the field, with the engraved placard it specified.
• Carried the file through five rounds of photographs and corrections and every planner handoff between them, to permission to operate.

System specifications

Is your project like this one?

• You own one unit in a condominium or small apartment building and share the roof.
• Your building has one bank of meters in a single cabinet.
• You have been told the building's electrical service is too old for solar.
• Something has been installed in front of your meters over the years.
• Your Reseda property is served by LADWP, while permits are handled by LADBS.

Cali Energy in Reseda

Frequently asked questions

Can one owner in a condo building install solar?

Yes, and this project is a worked example. What is different from a house is that the service you interconnect to is common property, so the utility reviews the shared equipment as part of your application. Here that meant the building's meter cabinet and the working space in front of it, both of which had to be corrected before one 6-kilowatt system could be energized.

Does the whole building have to be upgraded?

Not necessarily, and it is worth getting that in writing early. On this building the utility stated plainly that all six meters did not need upgrading. What it required was that the enclosure defects be cured and that the code-required working space in front of the meters be cleared. That is a far smaller scope than re-metering a building, and the difference decides whether a project is affordable.

Why was the fast-track review canceled?

Because the address has more than one meter. On a multi-meter location the utility sends a representative to the site to decide where the photovoltaic disconnect is mounted, what signage it carries and where the map placard goes, and that decision cannot be made from photographs. The application was refiled on the standard path under a new work request number.

What is the contact-detail trap?

The interconnection agreement is a document between the utility and the account holder, so the customer contact fields have to carry the account holder's own email address and phone number. On this project the installer's email had been entered there, and the agreement could not be approved until that was corrected. It is a five-minute fix that costs weeks if nobody notices.

Does Cali Energy work on multi-unit buildings in Reseda?

Yes. Cali Energy holds B, C-10 and C-39 classifications under CSLB #1032379, which covers the electrical work on shared service equipment as well as the array itself. Reseda is inside City of Los Angeles boundaries, so permits run through LADBS and interconnection through LADWP.

What this would look like on your roof

Related

• One lot. Two meters. Two solar systems Sherman Oaks, CA · house and ADU · 7 days to the meter Solar
• Before anything was built, the utility said where the meter goes North Hollywood, CA · 13.7 kW · concrete tile, overhead service Solar
• The utility said where the new panel goes: exactly where the old one was Tarzana, CA · SolarEdge HD-Wave · new meter panel in place Solar
• Two dwellings on one lot. Two of everything on the paperwork Studio City, CA · 2.32 and 1.45 kW · house and ADU, two work requests Solar

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