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What is NEM? NEM or Net Energy Metering is the agreement with your utility company that grants the homeowners system permission to produce energy to be exported back to the grid.
What is PTO? PTO or Permission to Operate is the utility company's permission for ESP to turn on the system so the panels can start producing.
Overview
ESP will send the NEM documents to the utility after receiving the plans. NEM approval usually takes around 2-6 weeks on average, but it might extend to 3 months in some cases. ESP will be eligible to apply for PTO only after receiving NEM approval from the utility.
After NEM is approved and ESP has passed the inspection, ESP will initiate the PTO process, which involves obtaining permission from the utility company to activate the newly installed system. ESP will submit the passed inspection card to the utility company and await their approval. On average, the PTO submission takes approximately 1-2 days, but approval from the utility company may take around 2-6 weeks.
It's important to be aware that timelines for NEM & PTO may be affected by changes in California's NEM regulations.
Once we have received PTO, ESP will remotely activate the system. The activation process typically occurs within a day of receiving the PTO from the utility company.
The homeowner will be notified of the system activation and will receive a link to the monitoring portal where they can see how their system is producing from the app or webpage. We encourage homeowners to monitor their systems regularly and look out for any unusual changes in production.