West Adams, CA · October – November 2023 · LADWP / LADBS

West Adams: the second unit was on the main house meter.

The interconnection was filed under the new unit and canceled for having no service. The service existed. It was under the other address.

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

A utility interconnects solar to an electric service, not to a building. Where one meter serves both a house and the accessory dwelling behind it, the utility sees a single premise, and the address that holds the meter is the address every later filing belongs under. This 1.95 kW West Adams application was submitted under the new unit and canceled for having no permanent service at that premise. Under the main house address it moved to permission to install twelve days after the cancellation, and Cali Energy took it through.

At a glance

System

1.95 kW AC-CEC

Property

New accessory dwelling behind an existing house

Metering

One meter serving both structures

First application

Canceled — no service at that premise

Twelve days later

Permission to install

Utility / AHJ

LADWP / LADBS

The story

Just under two kilowatts on a new accessory dwelling behind an existing house. A small, tidy system, and the only complicated thing about it was which address it belonged to.

The interconnection application went in during October under the new unit. The automatic reply put the expected response at six to eight weeks or more for small systems, which is ordinary, and nobody blinked at it.

Four weeks later the answer came, and it was not a queue position. The application had been canceled. The reason given: there was no permanent electric service at the premise, and a meter spot had to be completed first.

Canceled rather than held is the part that costs money. The file is closed, not parked. Whatever time it spent in the queue is gone, and the next attempt starts at the beginning of the same six to eight weeks. The reply carried a second instruction in the same spirit: do not submit a manual application ahead of the proper steps. Filing early does not buy a head start, it buys a closed file.

But the reason was only half right, and the other half is the useful part.

The premise did have service. It had a meter, a riser and an inspection behind it. What it did not have was any of that under the address on the application.

Going back through the metering paperwork settled it. Months earlier, at the meter spot stage, the utility service representative had directed that the form be filled out as the main house adding the accessory dwelling, with one meter for both units. That is a normal arrangement and often the one the owner wants. It also decides something nobody thinks about at the time.

One meter means one premise. Two buildings on the lot, one service, one account, one address of record — the house. The second unit is a structure the utility knows about, not a premise it can interconnect anything to, because interconnection attaches a generating system to a service and the service is not filed under that door number.

So the cancellation was not about the accessory dwelling being new, or unfinished, or unpowered. It was about the address at the top of the form.

Filed under the address that held the meter, the same request moved. Received and under review, then confirmed with the details checked, then the site evaluation completed and permission to install granted — all three on the same day, twelve days after the cancellation.

What this is worth to anybody building a second unit with solar in the plan: get the meter spot sheet in your hands and read which address is on it, before anything is filed. If one meter serves both structures, the solar application is a main house application and can go as soon as the service is in. If the new unit is getting its own meter, it is its own premise, and it needs its own service before solar can be applied for at all. Those two paths look identical on the drawings and are weeks apart on the calendar.

And ask the question at design stage rather than the month the array is supposed to go up. One meter or two is settled long before solar, by people who are not thinking about solar when they settle it.

Cali Energy handles accessory dwelling solar in West Adams, Los Angeles, and files the interconnection under the address the service is actually on.

How it ran

Twelve days from a canceled application to permission to install, once it sat under the address that held the meter.

What we did

• Filed the interconnection for the accessory dwelling and got the cancellation reason in writing rather than chasing a silent file.
• Went back through the metering paperwork instead of resubmitting blind.
• Established that one meter served both structures, so the service was under the main house address.
• Carried the request to permission to install twelve days after the cancellation.

System specifications

Is your project like this one?

• You are building an accessory dwelling and want solar on it.
• Your interconnection application was closed rather than answered.
• Nobody has told you whether the new unit gets its own meter.
• You have a meter spot sheet and are not sure which address it covers.

Cali Energy in West Adams

Frequently asked questions

Does an ADU need its own electric meter for solar?

Not necessarily. Many accessory dwellings share one meter with the main house, and that is decided at the meter spot stage rather than when solar is designed. Where a single meter serves both structures the utility sees one premise, and the solar interconnection is filed under the main house address.

Why was our ADU solar interconnection application canceled?

Usually because the address on it holds no permanent electric service. Interconnection attaches a generating system to a service, so if the address named on the application has no meter there is nothing to attach to. The file is closed rather than queued, and the weeks it spent waiting produce nothing.

Which address does the solar application go under?

The one that holds the electric service. Where a single meter serves the house and the accessory dwelling, that is the house, whatever the new unit is called on the building permit. The meter spot sheet names the address, which is why it is worth reading before anything is filed.

Does filing the interconnection early save time?

No. Submitting ahead of the proper steps does not create a head start, and the utility reply on this project said so in as many words. The time is won by settling the metering question early, because one meter and two meters are different sequences with different lengths.

Does Cali Energy install solar on accessory dwellings in West Adams, Los Angeles?

Yes. West Adams has deep lots and a steady stream of second units going up behind the main houses, permitted through LADBS and interconnected through LADWP. The first thing settled on these projects is how the unit is metered, because that decides which address every filing afterwards belongs under.

What this would look like on your roof

Related

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