7 On Your Side helps Alamo couple after activation of solar panels delayed

ALAMO, Calif. (KGO) -- Imagine if you were all dressed up to go to the prom, but your date never showed up. That's how an Alamo couple must have felt when their new solar panels were all installed but no one would activate them.

It's safe to call David Steinberg an early adopter. He was one of the first on the road with his all-electric Tesla in 2013.

At about the same time, he and his wife Nancy had solar panels installed on their Alamo home.

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"We thought it would be good for the car and good for the environment, too," David said.

Fast forward to 2017. The world is all abuzz about Tesla's Model 3 rollout.

The wait for the vehicles has proven long. Nancy and David are among the first to receive their order.

The couple also adds more solar panels to increase their capacity by 50 percent..

"We felt for the environment, whatever, might as well go solar," said David.

Solar City installed the panels back in October.

However, the panels could not be turned on until after an inspection from PG&E.

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The Steinbergs said it was an unexpectedly long process.

"October, November, December, January -- nothing happened in all those months," Nancy said.

The couple said calls to PG&E resulted in little happening.

Then Nancy suggested they reach out to 7 On Your Side. We contacted PG&E.

PG&E told us it "supports customers'" choice when it comes to energy, including those who install solar. We apologize for any inconvenience or delay."

The Steinbergs now have all their solar cells up and running.

PG&E did not elaborate on the cause of the delay. But in a notice dated February 12 that has since been removed from PG&E's website, the utility blamed delays on a backlog in interconnection requests for solar, fuel cells and other technologies.

It said a number of measures were being taken, including doubling the staff responsible for processing interconnection applications.

"The fact that 7 On Your Side was communicating to PG&E and I was somewhere along the line, it clicked and moved this process ahead," said David.

Written and produced by Randall Yip

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