Passing city inspection but not PTO? Paying Tesla after passing inspection but before PTO

[hiltxan]

Hi,

I finally got my city permits approved and install date scheduled with Tesla. I've read and confirmed with Tesla that the full payment needs to be paid after passing city inspection but before PG&E PTO.

Are there any cases of PG&E not approving PTO after passing city inspection? I know that things like typos, submission errors on the application can result in delays, but what about install errors and following NEC code? Is the PTO completely an online submission and there's no separate inspection by PG&E, such that if the install passes city inspection then PG&E will for sure authorize PTO? With Tesla, I'm trying to be cautious since I've heard so many stories.

Thanks!

 

[power.saver]

Hi,

I finally got my city permits approved and install date scheduled with Tesla. I've read and confirmed with Tesla that the full payment needs to be paid after passing city inspection but before PG&E PTO.

Are there any cases of PG&E not approving PTO after passing city inspection? I know that things like typos, submission errors on the application can result in delays, but what about install errors and following NEC code? Is the PTO completely an online submission and there's no separate inspection by PG&E, such that if the install passes city inspection then PG&E will for sure authorize PTO? With Tesla, I'm trying to be cautious since I've heard so many stories.

Thanks!

PTO is mostly a formality where you state that your system is installed and ready for operation. The utilities rely on the AHJ inspection to enforce code compliance, so if you have that, PTO is usually straightforward once the proper forms are submitted.

 

[bmah]

I finally got my city permits approved and install date scheduled with Tesla. I've read and confirmed with Tesla that the full payment needs to be paid after passing city inspection but before PG&E PTO.

Are there any cases of PG&E not approving PTO after passing city inspection? I know that things like typos, submission errors on the application can result in delays, but what about install errors and following NEC code? Is the PTO completely an online submission and there's no separate inspection by PG&E, such that if the install passes city inspection then PG&E will for sure authorize PTO? With Tesla, I'm trying to be cautious since I've heard so many stories.

I had a bit of an odd case. I believe it's an outlier, but here goes.

I had solar for many years, added three Powerwalls with Tesla installation (this was in 2019). For some reasons that were never quite made clear to me, PG&E came to do a their own inspection before PTO, and they failed the install. Not because of anything that Tesla did, but over access to my meter. Basically in order to get to the meter, one had to hop up on a retaining wall next to my driveway, and this wasn't allowed. Literally nobody had commented on this in any prior inspection (including inspections when we had our solar installed years prior). The PG&E inspector was polite but very firm on this, although he suggested several possible ways to mitigate the problem. We ended up doing some landscape modifications to allow access to the meter a different way, which finally got approved months later, in early 2020 (just before COVID shut everything down). Because of earlier delays in Tesla submitting inspection paperwork, the total time from install to PTO was almost exactly a year.

Again, I don't think this situation is typical.

Bruce.

 

[h2ofun]

I paid after inspection, but before PTO.

 

[sorka]

Are there any cases of PG&E not approving PTO after passing city inspection? I know that things like typos, submission errors on the application can result in delays, but what about install errors and following NEC code? Is the PTO completely an online submission and there's no separate inspection by PG&E, such that if the install passes city inspection then PG&E will for sure authorize PTO? With Tesla, I'm trying to be cautious since I've heard so many stories.

Sure, it happened to me a bunch of times between two installations because Tesla kept messing up the submission paperwork. But it's partly on me. Had I been on top of it, I would have seen the obvious mistakes they made every time like getting my address wrong.

 

[CrazyRabbit]

Now you need utility approval. Patience…

 

[sorka]

If you have a powerwall, you can turn the system on and leave it on and Tesla will keep you from exporting to the grid by turning off solar if you're powerwall gets too full and your home isn't using enough enough. It's like grid disconnection mode except you can pull power from the grid, but you can't export.

 

[hiltxan]

Thanks for the responses.

I’m not really worried about PTO application errors and delays. I’m more worried about Tesla installing something incorrectly that is noticed by PG&E but not the city and then not fixing it, especially after I paid in full.

If PTO is just a formality and everything just depends on passing city inspection then I feel more comfortable paying Tesla.