Westchester, CA · September – December 2025 · LADWP / LADBS

The correction came after the inspection was booked.

Solar and storage on one house, filed together in September. In the last week of October a correction arrived, and the project went back through plan check.

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

A correction notice is the building department saying the approved drawings do not match what the code or the field requires. On a project carrying both solar and storage, that can mean the whole set goes back through plan check as a fresh submittal with its own reference number, and the work finishes under a second permit rather than the first one. The array does not change; the paperwork under it does. Cali Energy carried this Westchester project in Los Angeles — 6.9 kW of solar and 7.08 kW of storage — through both plan checks and both permits.

At a glance

System

6.9 kW AC-CEC

Storage

7.08 kW AC

Plan check

Twice, under two reference numbers

Permits

Two on one house

Correction

Last week of October

First contact to switch-on

One hundred and ten days

Utility / AHJ

LADWP / LADBS

The story

The project opened on the second of September and moved quickly. Documents were uploaded to the building department the next day, the utility payment cleared the same day, and the interconnection request was acknowledged within twenty-four hours. By the fourth of September the electrical permit application was in and the plan check fee notice had been issued.

Three weeks later the utility came back with its progress notices, and the battery appeared on them with its own rating. That is the normal shape of a storage project: the array size and the storage size are recorded separately, because they are reviewed separately and they mean different things to the service.

On the twenty-first of October the department issued a notice to continue the permit issuance process. On the twenty-ninth the inspection was requested. On the thirty-first a correction arrived against the permit.

That order matters. An inspection had already been booked against a permit that was about to be corrected, and that order is the whole of it. A correction is not a failed inspection. It is the department saying the drawings that were approved do not describe what the code or the field requires, and it can arrive at any point while the permit is open — including after the work is finished and the inspection is in the queue.

What followed was a second trip through plan check. A fresh set of documents went up in the first days of November under a new reference number, with its own plan check fee, and waited its turn to be assigned to a reviewer. That assignment came in the first week of December.

Meanwhile the utility side kept moving independently. Electric service requirement approval came through on the thirteenth of November, a month before the building department finished. The two processes do not wait for each other, and it is common for the utility to be ready while the city is not.

On the eleventh of December the second permit was issued and the building department's service release went to the utility the same day. The installation was approved on the seventeenth, and permission to operate came on the twenty-first of December — a hundred and ten days after the first email.

Of those hundred and ten days, roughly half were the second pass through plan check. Nothing was rebuilt. No equipment changed. The array that was inspected in October is the array that was energized in December. What took six weeks was a set of drawings going through a queue for the second time.

The practical question this raises is worth asking of any storage project. If a correction comes back late, does it reopen the existing permit or start a new one — and who pays the second plan check fee. The answer is in the correction notice itself, and it decides whether you are looking at a revision or at another six weeks.

Cali Energy filed, built and interconnected this Westchester project through both plan checks and both permits. A few streets away in the same ZIP code another Westchester project went from filing to switch-on in thirty-seven days — same city, same utility, a third of the calendar. It is written up in the outlet that was in the first contract.

How it ran

A hundred and ten days end to end. About half of them were the second pass through plan check, and nothing on the roof changed in that time.

What we did

• Filed the permit application and the interconnection request in the same week.
• Took the correction back through plan check as a fresh submittal rather than arguing it.
• Kept the utility track moving while the building department queue ran.
• Closed both permits and carried the project to permission to operate.

System specifications

Is your project like this one?

• A correction has arrived on a permit that already has an inspection booked.
• You have been asked to pay a second plan check fee on the same house.
• Your utility approval came through and the city has not finished.
• You are adding storage and want to know what it does to the permit.
• There are two permit numbers on your project and only one array.

Cali Energy in Westchester

Frequently asked questions

Can a correction arrive after the work is finished?

Yes. A correction is the building department saying the approved drawings do not describe what the code or the field requires, and it can be issued at any point while the permit is open. On this project one arrived two days after the inspection was requested. It is not a failed inspection and it does not mean the installation is wrong — it means the paperwork under it has to be corrected.

Why would a project need a second permit?

Because some corrections cannot be handled as a revision to the open permit and have to go back through plan check as a fresh submittal. That submittal gets its own reference number, its own fee and its own place in the queue, and the work is finalled under the permit that issues from it. The array does not change; the document it is built under does.

Does adding a battery slow the permit down?

It adds review rather than time on the roof. Storage is recorded separately by the utility, with its own AC rating, and it brings additional requirements into the drawings — which is where a late correction usually comes from. On this project the installation was quick and the second plan check took six weeks.

Why was the utility ready before the city?

Because the two run independently. The utility reviews the interconnection and the service requirements; the building department reviews the drawings and inspects the work. Neither waits for the other, and on this project the utility's service approval landed a month before the second permit issued. Permission to operate still waits for the building department's release.

Does Cali Energy install solar and batteries in Westchester, Los Angeles?

Yes. Westchester is a Los Angeles neighborhood we work in regularly, permitted through LADBS and interconnected through LADWP, and storage is part of a good share of what we build there. This project shows what a battery actually adds: not difficulty on the roof, but a second review that can return a correction late.

What this would look like on your roof

Related

• A Westchester charger outlet, in the first contract Westchester, Los Angeles · thirty-seven days to switch-on Solar
• In Mid-City, the utility rewrote our own number Mid-City, Los Angeles · storage in the filing · the agreement signed twice Solar
• The final failed over three feet Granada Hills, CA · 31 modules · appeal or rebuild, and why rebuild won Solar
• Three lines on a pink form, and what each one means Encino, CA · 7.9 kW · a correction notice and 23 days to permission Solar
• The correction was a water bond sixty feet away Brentwood, Los Angeles · 12.87 kW · the final that failed off the roof Solar
• The inspections nobody tells you about Palms, Los Angeles · rough, then service release and final · one correction Solar
• A module broke on the day of the install Atwater Village, Los Angeles · 7.02 kW · why the gap cannot be left Solar
• Three permits, one inspection visit Westchester, Los Angeles · five days from array to closed permit Solar

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