Case: the solar interconnection that took four months
In one paragraph
A 7.2-kilowatt rooftop system with a battery is installed in four days and does not export for four months, and every one of the delays is paperwork: a single-line diagram that showed a different inverter than the one on the wall, an inverter model not on the utility's approved list, a customer authorization signed by the wrong spouse, an inspection release the contractor forgot to upload, and a meter change appointment missed because nobody told the customer. The customer's contract promised 'completion' in six weeks, the final payment was tied to permission to operate, and the contractor floated $14,000 for a season. The names are invented; the process is Rule 21's.
The rule
A generation system in investor-owned utility territory interconnects under Electric Rule 21 through the utility's application, review, inspection-release and permission-to-operate steps, and may not export before permission to operate; since April 15, 2023 new customers take service on the Net Billing Tariff (CPUC). The building permit is administrative and, for small rooftop systems, expedited by statute (Gov. Code 65850.5(b), (g)(1)); the electrical work must satisfy 690.12 rapid shutdown and 705.12 at the point of connection. The contract's completion date and payment schedule (B&P 7159(d)(9)-(11)) must describe what the contractor controls, and a payment may not exceed the value of work performed (7159.5(a)(5)).
Why it matters
The customer signed for a system that makes power, and until permission to operate it is an expensive roof ornament they are paying a loan on. Every stall in this case was preventable at the desk, and the contract language that tied the final payment to the utility's schedule turned the utility's delay into the contractor's cash-flow problem. The case is the checklist for the paperwork half of solar.