Utility and rates
Pomona is served by Southern California Edison. New solar systems go on SCE's net billing tariff (NEM 3.0), which pays very little for power you export, so we size every system to your actual usage and usually pair it with a battery so your evening hours run on your own stored power instead of the most expensive grid rates.
Pomona has a wrinkle most SGV cities do not: since October 2020 the generation portion of most bills comes from Pomona Choice Energy, the city's community choice program, while SCE still delivers the power and bills the delivery side. Solar customers stay on SCE's net billing tariff, and export credits run through Pomona Choice Energy's program terms, so we model your bill against both before sizing the system.
Permits
Building and electrical permits in Pomona are issued by the City of Pomona Building & Safety Division at 505 S. Garey Avenue. VertX prepares the plan set, files the application, and schedules the final inspection; you sign, we handle the rest.
Pomona has automated its residential solar permit. Rooftop systems up to 38.4 kW AC on the main dwelling are reviewed through SolarAPP+, and the permit is then issued automatically through the city's online EnerGov portal for licensed contractors. Battery installations must meet Los Angeles County Fire requirements, and ballasted or building-integrated systems still go through manual plan check. Homes in one of the city's historic districts need a certificate of appropriateness first (see below).
Fire and outages
Pomona is the lowest-wildfire-risk city on this list. CAL FIRE's 2025 map puts only a sliver of the city in the Very High zone, near the 10 and 57 interchange, with High zones limited to the Phillips Ranch hills, Ganesha Hills, and the slopes along the 60. We found no record of SCE Public Safety Power Shutoffs affecting Pomona. Here the case for a Tesla Powerwall is the ordinary one: running your evenings on stored solar instead of peak grid rates, and riding through routine outages.
Homes and roofs
Pomona has about 44,000 homes and roughly 54 percent are owner-occupied. It has the oldest housing stock in our service area: the median home was built in 1967 and about four in ten predate 1960, from the Craftsman and Spanish bungalows of Lincoln Park and Wilton Heights to the 1950s tracts around the Fairplex. That age means two things on a solar job: the roof is often due before the panels, and the electrical panel is often 100 amps. Phillips Ranch, master-planned from 1965, is the newer exception, with 1970s and 1980s hillside homes on tile.
