Solar panels and battery installation in Los Angeles, CA

The first question for any Los Angeles address is which utility serves it. Inside the city of Los Angeles, that is the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. LADWP is municipally owned, is not regulated by the CPUC and did not adopt NEM 3.0. Its Net Energy Metering Rider credits the solar you export at the energy rate on your bill, so a system sized to your annual usage can offset most of it without a battery. Unincorporated county areas, Santa Clarita and neighboring cities are Southern California Edison under NEM 3.0, where a battery becomes much more important. We confirm your utility from a recent bill before we design anything.

Most of our Los Angeles installs are in the San Fernando Valley: Sylmar, Granada Hills, Porter Ranch, Chatsworth, Northridge, Sunland-Tujunga, Reseda and Woodland Hills. Valley summers are hot and the sun is strong, and the housing stock is older than the Antelope Valley's: a lot of 1950s–1970s ranch homes with composition shingle, some Spanish tile, and 100-amp main panels that often need an upgrade before solar, a battery or an EV charger can be added. Because we hold a C-10 electrical license, panel upgrades are done by our own crew rather than a subcontractor.

Permits in the city of Los Angeles go through the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety. Standard residential rooftop systems that fit LADBS's criteria can be issued as express permits or through SolarAPP+ in about a day; larger systems, ground mounts, hillside lots and most battery projects go through plan check, which takes longer. Separately, LADWP handles the interconnection and installs the net meter. We manage both tracks, and we tell you at the quote stage which one your project falls into so the timeline is realistic.

Incentives work differently in the city. The federal residential credit ended for systems placed in service after 2025, but the Section 48E business credit is still available through 2027 for commercial solar and for third-party-owned residential systems such as leases and PPAs. California's SGIP battery rebate is administered by the investor-owned utilities, so LADWP customers are generally not eligible; we will tell you what LADWP itself is offering at the time of your quote rather than guess.

LADWP is not part of the CPUC Public Safety Power Shutoff program, but the city still sees heat-wave outages and equipment failures, and hillside neighborhoods in the Valley and foothills sit in high fire-hazard zones. For homeowners who want power during an outage, a battery covers the essentials for hours, and a Generac standby generator covers days. Commercial customers, from Valley warehouses to small multi-unit buildings, get the same design-and-permit process with the 48E credit in the numbers.

Ready to see numbers for your home? Request a free quote, or read about financing and 2026 incentives first. For the background, our guides cover what solar panels cost in Palmdale, whether solar is worth it in the Antelope Valley in 2026 and what still lowers the cost now that the homeowner tax credit is gone.