Utility timeliness for processing interconnection applications have been painful lately. We are hearing it from everyone. You are not alone. Everyone is feeling it. Some contractors are relating to us that customers are upset by these delays and assuming their contractor doesn’t know what they are doing. To help address that, we have produced this memo. It is addressed from CALSSA to you, but the intention is to give you something you can in turn show customers that they see as impartial.

CALSSA is pushing the utilities to work faster and more efficiently. The utilities created this mess with their outrageous NEM-3 proposals. Pushing export rates off a cliff with no meaningful transition created the biggest surge they’ve ever seen, and they weren’t ready for it. However, we also have to recognize that they are overwhelmed catching up with our unprecedented sales and delays will continue. We submitted more than a year’s worth of applications during the 120-day NEM-2 sunset period.

PG&E received 49,000 applications in March alone, more than four times the normal volume. SCE received 142,000 applications in the first four months of 2023, compared with 114,000 applications for all of 2022. SDG&E received 60,000 applications during the sunset period, which was up from 39,000 in all of 2022.

All that said, even the steps in the process that are largely automated have been incredibly slow. Doing the initial review of an application for a small residential system or issuing the permission to operate communication are taking as much as 50 days. Some contractors have thousands of applications that have not moved forward. Applications for larger and more complex systems are stalled behind the large volume of applications for small systems.

CALSSA is in regular communication with the utility interconnection directors to make sure they understand our perspective and to help them operate efficiently. We are particularly concerned about PTO timing because we know you need to get paid for the work you do. Delays with the automated steps should be fixable. In the meantime, we need to help customers understand that the current delays do not reflect any mismanagement on the part of contractors. We hope this memo helps….

Sincerely,

Bernadette Del Chiaro, Executive Director
California Solar & Storage Association