Guest Authors: Madina Tulegenova and Merey Tursynbayeva, NY State Solar, LLC

Abstract: This research was prepared by Merey Tursynbayeva (M.S in Business Analytics) and Madina Tulegenova (M.S in Business Analytics) and examines The Inactive System Gap: Customer Experience Impacts of Inspection and PTO Delays in New York Solar.

This study investigates a persistent structural inefficiency within New York’s residential solar ecosystem: the delay between system installation and Permission to Operate (PTO), driven by inspection backlogs and interconnection processes. While installation capacity in the state continues to expand, these administrative bottlenecks create a critical “inactive system gap”, during which completed solar systems remain non-operational and unable to deliver value to customers or the grid.

From an academic and systems perspective, this gap represents a misalignment between deployment speed and operational activation, introducing inefficiencies that distort customer experience outcomes, capital deployment cycles, and realized emissions reductions. The result is not only delayed energy generation but also measurable deterioration in customer trust, satisfaction, and perceived reliability of the solar adoption process.

The significance of this research lies in its focus on the end-to-end customer journey rather than installation alone. By isolating inspection and PTO delays as a distinct phase of system friction, the study reframes these administrative steps as a central determinant of adoption experience and market confidence rather than a peripheral operational issue.

For NYSEIA, this topic is strategically important because it directly affects the pace and credibility of New York’s clean energy transition. Even with strong installer growth and policy support, systemic delays in activation reduce effective solar capacity, slow progress toward state climate targets, and introduce avoidable inefficiencies across the value chain. Addressing these bottlenecks is essential to ensuring that installed capacity translates into realized generation at scale. This analysis is informed by interdisciplinary perspectives on organizational change and customer experience, with advisory input from Dr. Melissa Mitchell (Ed.D., Organizational Change & Leadership)