Beware: You are going to waste a lot of your time and nerves babysitting Solar Negotiators and…read moremaking sure your project actually moves forward.
It has now been 1 year and 7 months since my project started, and I still do not have Permission to Operate (PTO).
I'm attaching a receipt showing when the project was initiated, as well as a photo of the solar panels installed on my roof, as evidence that this is a genuine review and not something made up.
Things went somewhat acceptably until the panels were installed, which happened in December--10 months ago. There were some hiccups on Solar Negotiators side figuring out the permitting process with the city. They went back and forth with the city on the design because they were apparently confused about what was and wasn't allowed under the city code. This cost me a couple of months of delay before the installation. Already not great, but it's acceptable.
After the panels went on my roof, that's when things really went south.
When trying to obtain PTO (permission to operate), Solar Negotiators discovered that PG&E required a transformer upgrade. I'm not sure how they failed to identify this earlier. Given that a transformer upgrade can take 6+ months, you would think they would have applied for it well in advance. But I figured mistakes happen, so I gave them the benefit of the doubt.
Solar Negotiators needed to apply for the transformer upgrade and pay for the conditional PTO. Somehow, it took them another two months--and constant calls from me--to get the application submitted.
Finally, in March, they told me that my project was in the queue for the transformer upgrade and that I just needed to wait. I was specifically told that I should stop calling because the project was "under control."
I waited five months before following up. When I asked for an update, I received the response that "everything is good, we are waiting on the PG&E transformer upgrade."
I decided to call PG&E myself to make sure everything was actually in order. PG&E told me that nothing was planned on their side because Solar Negotiators had never responded to an email PG&E sent them back in March.
I brought this to Solar Negotiators attention, and they initially denied that there was an issue and assured me they were taking care of it.
This is probably the most frustrating part of dealing with Solar Negotiators: every time I call, the person I speak with tells me they need to talk to their "interconnections team" and that someone will call me back. Of course, nobody ever does. I have repeatedly had to call them again myself just to get any information.
They also refused to include me in their email correspondence with PG&E.
Eventually, I got tired of this and asked PG&E to add me to the email thread from their side. That's when the situation became very clear. Solar Negotiators had indeed failed to respond to PG&E back in March. Their own explanation was that the project had "fallen through the cracks on our end."
What makes this even more frustrating is that even after Solar Negotiators knew I was aware that the delay was caused by their failure to respond, they continued dragging their feet with PG&E. They would often take more than a week to respond to PG&E, and in several cases they only responded after I called Solar Negotiators and complained.
So, essentially, I have had to babysit my own solar project for months, contacting both Solar Negotiators and PG&E to make sure the companies communicate with each other.
Today, I finally received a call from someone at Solar Negotiators who apparently works directly with PG&E and was able to explain the current status of the project. Hopefully, this means things will finally start moving forward and I can get a conditional PTO soon, and a transformer upgrade 6 months later to get a full PTO.
Unfortunately, I'm stuck with Solar Negotiators at this point, and there isn't much I can do other than share my experience.
If you are considering Solar Negotiators as your contractor, my advice is simple: please don't.
