How long does solar interconnection take?

It depends on your utility, so we publish no national figure. Deadlines are set state by state and utility by utility, and a stale benchmark could push you to escalate at the wrong time. Your utility’s interconnection handbook gives the review target that governs your queue; this tool compares against it.

Who is holding up my project?

One of three organizations, depending on the stage. The utility holds application review and permission to operate. Your installer holds the gap between approval and installation. The local building department holds inspection. Three of the six stages are not the utility’s, so chasing the utility is not always the right move.

My application has been under review for weeks with no response. What should I do?

First, ask whether it was accepted as complete: an application returned for missing information can look submitted while no review clock runs. If it was accepted and the stage has passed your utility’s published target, send a written request for a status and a date, copied to your installer.

The system is installed and inspected. Why can I not switch it on?

Because permission to operate has not been issued. Until it is, you have no agreement permitting you to export, and energizing anyway can put you in breach of your interconnection agreement and can complicate a later claim. This stage can include a bidirectional meter change, which is a separate field visit with its own scheduling.

Can I make the utility go faster?

Not by asking: utilities process applications in queue order. You can remove reasons for delay: confirm the application is complete, answer any information request the same day, and check your installer supplied everything asked for. A missed tariffed deadline is a matter for your state regulator.

Why does the tool ask me for the target instead of knowing it?

The alternative is a 50-state table we cannot retrieve or keep current. Interconnection rules live in state regulator dockets and individual utility handbooks. An out-of-date deadline could mislead your decision to escalate, so we ask you to look up your own.

Does a battery change the interconnection?

It can. Storage can trigger additional review, a different application path, or an engineering study. If a battery was added to your design after the application was submitted, expect the clock to restart rather than continue.

What if my installer goes out of business mid-process?

The interconnection application is generally in your name with the installer acting as agent, so it does not disappear with them, but somebody has to take over the submissions, the responses and the inspection. Our piece on what to do when your installer closes covers the practical steps.

Does the PTO date matter after the fact?

Yes. It can be the start date for equipment warranties and the date your export tariff attaches to, and in some states it determines which version of a net metering rule applies to you. Keep the letter.

HyreSolar tools

How long will your interconnection take?

Six stages held by three different parties: the permit office, the utility and your installer. Find your stage and who is holding it.

Checked September 3, 2026. Data as of September 5, 2026. HyreSolar sells and installs nothing.

The stage you are in tells you who to chase. With the example inputs, 45 days since application and 38 of them in utility review against a 30-day target, you are in stage 2 of 6, the utility holds it, and the stage is at 127% of target.

That is the point where a written status request is reasonable.

An incomplete application can stall this stage without notice, so confirm yours is complete before you escalate.

Where is it stuck?

Your own dates and your own utility’s published target. Nothing is stored or emailed.

Example values The filled-in numbers are an example, not your home. Type over them with your own.

— Who holds it

— Stage

— Against your target

— Next gate

— What to do now

— Total elapsed

How this result was worked out

Working it out from the numbers above.

Compares against the target you entered. HyreSolar publishes no national interconnection timetable.

Not legal advice and not a complaint procedure. HyreSolar does not sell systems and has no relationship with your utility.

How to read where you are

Knowing who holds it is worth more than knowing how long it has taken. Three organizations touch a residential interconnection and they do not talk to each other on your behalf.

A homeowner chasing the utility while the file is sitting with their installer awaiting an install date will get polite, accurate, useless answers for weeks.

The overdue judgment uses your utility’s target, not ours. We publish no national timetable, because interconnection deadlines are set state by state and utility by utility, and a stale figure here would be harmful: you would use it to decide whether to escalate.

Enter the target from your own utility’s interconnection handbook and the comparison becomes real.

An elapsed total is not a problem on its own. A hundred days from application to permission to operate can be entirely normal if it includes an install, a permit inspection and a meter change. What matters is whether any single stage has run long, which is why the tool asks for both figures.

Within the target you entered: Ordinary. The useful action is confirming the application is complete rather than asking for it to be hurried. Utilities process applications in queue order.
Past the target, first time: A written status request to whoever holds it, copied to your installer. Do it in writing rather than by phone: the record matters if it stalls further.
Well past the target, or stalled twice: Escalate to a named person, and find out whether your state regulator has a published deadline that applies. Some do, and a utility missing a tariffed deadline is a different conversation from one that is merely slow.

Where to find each number

Where each input comes from, so nothing is a guess.

1. Enter days since you submitted the application

The interconnection application, not the contract signing and not the site survey. These can be weeks apart, and the clock that matters starts at submission.

Where to find it: Your installer may submit it on your behalf. Ask them for the submission date, or check the utility interconnection portal if you have a login.

2. Pick the stage you are in

Six stages, and the boundaries matter. "Approved to install" and "installed" are separated by your installer’s schedule, which is not the utility’s responsibility.

Where to find it: The utility portal if you have one. Otherwise your installer should be able to say precisely which stage you are in, and an installer who cannot is itself a signal.

3. Enter days in the current stage

This is the figure that decides whether something has gone wrong. A long total with short stages is normal; a short total with one very long stage is not.

Where to find it: The date of the last status change. If nobody can tell you when the stage started, use the date of the last communication you received.

4. Enter your utility’s published target

Utilities publish review targets in their interconnection handbooks or tariffs. That is the number your queue is governed by, which is why the tool does not supply one.

Where to find it: Your utility’s interconnection handbook, its net metering or DER tariff, or the rule your state regulator has adopted. Ask your installer, who submits these applications.

5. Read the holder before the elapsed time

The action changes completely depending on whether the utility, your installer or the building department has the file.

Where to find it: The output names it. Chase that organization, not the one you have a phone number for.

6. Put any chase in writing

Not because anyone is acting in bad faith, but because a written request creates the record you will need if the matter goes to your state regulator.

Where to find it: Email is sufficient. Copy your installer on anything you send to the utility.

How the calculator works it out

1
Place you in the sequence
Six stages from application to permission to operate, each with a defined owner.
2
Name who holds it
The utility, your installer, or the local building department. Only the utility stages are governed by an interconnection target.
3
Compare the stage against your target
Days in the current stage against the figure you entered from your own utility. Reported as a percentage so the margin is legible.
4
Give the next action
Different for each holder, and different again once the target has passed.

The formula, in full. stage position = 1–6. overdue = days in current stage > your utility’s published target. percentage = days in stage ÷ target × 100. The elapsed total since application is reported but never used to judge whether a stage is late.

A worked example, start to finish

A homeowner 45 days after their installer submitted the application, still without an approval to install. Their utility’s handbook publishes a 30-day review target.

Step	Value
Days since application	45
Current stage	Under utility review (stage 2 of 6)
Days in this stage	38
Utility published target	30 days
Who holds it	The utility
Next gate	Written approval to install
Result	127% of target: a written status request is reasonable

Forty-five days in total is unremarkable. Thirty-eight of them in a single stage against a 30-day target is not. The right move is a written request to the utility for a status and a date, copied to the installer.

Before that, make one check: ask whether the application was ever accepted as complete. An application returned for missing information can sit in a portal looking submitted while no review clock is running at all.

How the answer moves

The same project at each stage of the sequence. Every row is computed by the tool on this page.

Situation	Stage	Who holds it	Against target
Base case45 days in, 38 in review, 30-day target	Under utility review	The utility	127% of target
Same, but 18 days in the stage	Under utility review	The utility	Within the 30-day target
Approved, 12 days waiting on an install date	Approved to install	Your installer	Within the 30-day target
Installed, 21 days awaiting inspection	Installed, awaiting inspection	The building department	Within the 30-day target
Inspection passed, 41 days awaiting PTO	Inspection passed, awaiting PTO	The utility	137% of target
Permission to operate received	PTO received	Complete: nothing outstanding	complete

Read rows three and four. In both, the utility is not the holder: the file is with the installer’s scheduling and then with the local inspector. A homeowner phoning the utility during either stage is chasing an organization that is correctly doing nothing.

Note too that the last utility stage can stall unnoticed: the system is physically installed and inspected, the homeowner assumes it is finished, and the meter change or PTO letter sits unissued for weeks.

What moves this number most

Ranked, largest first. A proposal can change any of these without saying anything untrue, so check these inputs first.

1. Whether the application was complete

A cause of a stalled review that is invisible from outside. An application returned for missing information can look submitted in a portal while no review clock runs. Confirm acceptance before escalating anything.

2. Which organization holds the current stage

Three of the six stages are not the utility’s, and chasing the wrong one loses weeks. The tool exists mainly to answer this.

3. Whether a meter change is needed

A bidirectional meter swap is a separate field visit with its own scheduling, and it sits inside the final utility stage. It can explain a long wait after inspection.

4. Local inspection capacity

Entirely outside both the utility and your installer. A busy jurisdiction can add weeks at stage four and no amount of chasing the utility changes it.

5. Your state’s adopted rule

Some states impose tariffed deadlines on utility review; others do not. Where a deadline exists, a missed one is an enforceable matter rather than a service complaint. Know which before you escalate.

6. What is deliberately absent

Any national timetable, any typical duration, any prediction of how long yours will take. We have no retrievable dataset for those and a fabricated benchmark would be used to make a real decision about whether to escalate.

Common mistakes with this calculation

Chasing the utility during an installer or inspector stage
You will get accurate, polite answers that change nothing, because the file is not with them. Read the holder first.
Measuring from contract signing rather than application submission
They can be weeks apart. The interconnection clock starts when the application is submitted and accepted, not when you signed.
Assuming a long total means something is wrong
A hundred days spanning an install, an inspection and a meter change can be normal. One stage running long is the signal; the total is not.
Assuming the job is done at inspection
Until permission to operate is issued you may not legally export, and switching on regardless can put you in breach of your interconnection agreement.
Escalating before confirming the application is complete
It is the first question, and asking it costs nothing. Escalating a file that was returned for missing information wastes the escalation and delays the fix.
Chasing by phone only
Not because phone calls are ignored, but because they leave no record. If the matter eventually reaches your state regulator, a written trail is what you will be asked for.

What this calculator leaves out

The result is a planning estimate. A real proposal accounts for these; this page does not.

HyreSolar publishes no national interconnection timetable.
Deadlines are set per state and per utility, and the target must come from your own utility.
Does not predict how long your interconnection will take.
It reports where you are against a figure you supplied.
Six stages is a simplification.
Some utilities add supplemental review, engineering study or a witness test, each with its own clock.
Does not know whether your application was accepted as complete, which can stall a review.
Not legal advice and not a complaint procedure.
Where a state has a tariffed deadline, enforcement runs through the regulator, not through us.
Does not cover systems requiring transmission-level study, commercial interconnection, or anything outside a residential application.

The research behind these numbers

How solar interconnection worksThe full sequence explained, including what the utility reviews at stage two.Read the research Permission to operateThe final gate, why you may not export before it, and why the PTO date matters for your warranties.Read the research Service panel checkOne of the things reviewed at stage two. A panel problem found late can send an application back.Read the research When monitoring reads zeroOne possible answer: PTO has not been issued yet and the system is correctly not exporting.Read the research Your installer has closedWhat happens to an interconnection mid-sequence when the company holding it disappears.Read the research If net metering endsWhy the tariff you are interconnecting under, and its date, can matter more than the wait itself.Read the research

Questions this calculator answers

How long does solar interconnection take?: It depends on your utility, so we publish no national figure. Deadlines are set state by state and utility by utility, and a stale benchmark could push you to escalate at the wrong time. Your utility’s interconnection handbook gives the review target that governs your queue; this tool compares against it.
Who is holding up my project?: One of three organizations, depending on the stage. The utility holds application review and permission to operate. Your installer holds the gap between approval and installation. The local building department holds inspection. Three of the six stages are not the utility’s, so chasing the utility is not always the right move.
My application has been under review for weeks with no response. What should I do?: First, ask whether it was accepted as complete: an application returned for missing information can look submitted while no review clock runs. If it was accepted and the stage has passed your utility’s published target, send a written request for a status and a date, copied to your installer.
The system is installed and inspected. Why can I not switch it on?: Because permission to operate has not been issued. Until it is, you have no agreement permitting you to export, and energizing anyway can put you in breach of your interconnection agreement and can complicate a later claim. This stage can include a bidirectional meter change, which is a separate field visit with its own scheduling.
Can I make the utility go faster?: Not by asking: utilities process applications in queue order. You can remove reasons for delay: confirm the application is complete, answer any information request the same day, and check your installer supplied everything asked for. A missed tariffed deadline is a matter for your state regulator.
Why does the tool ask me for the target instead of knowing it?: The alternative is a 50-state table we cannot retrieve or keep current. Interconnection rules live in state regulator dockets and individual utility handbooks. An out-of-date deadline could mislead your decision to escalate, so we ask you to look up your own.
Does a battery change the interconnection?: It can. Storage can trigger additional review, a different application path, or an engineering study. If a battery was added to your design after the application was submitted, expect the clock to restart rather than continue.
What if my installer goes out of business mid-process?: The interconnection application is generally in your name with the installer acting as agent, so it does not disappear with them, but somebody has to take over the submissions, the responses and the inspection. Our piece on what to do when your installer closes covers the practical steps.
Does the PTO date matter after the fact?: Yes. It can be the start date for equipment warranties and the date your export tariff attaches to, and in some states it determines which version of a net metering rule applies to you. Keep the letter.

Sources and methodology

Figures dated September 5, 2026. Last reviewed September 3, 2026 by the HyreSolar research desk, which writes and checks every tool on this site.

How solar interconnection works (HyreSolar Research Desk, retrieved September 5, 2026). Our own explanation of the six-stage sequence and what the utility reviews at each gate.
Permission to operate: what it is and when it is issued (HyreSolar Research Desk, retrieved September 5, 2026). Source for the statement that export is not permitted before PTO and that the PTO date commonly starts equipment warranties.
Rule 21: Generating Facility Interconnection (California Public Utilities Commission, retrieved September 5, 2026). An example of a state-adopted interconnection rule with published review timeframes. Named to show what a reader should look for in their own state, not used as a national benchmark.

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