A PECO solar interconnection application comes back incomplete when the one-line still shows a 200 A overhead that is actually an underground network, or when Philadelphia L&I has 14 modules and MyGeneration has 18. PECO is an electric distribution company under 52 Pa. Code Chapter 75. The building permit is the township or the City of Philadelphia. PTO is PECO’s letter after the bidirectional meter. Mix those three and the crew waits.
Athol Energy handles Pennsylvania solar design, interconnection, and Philadelphia permit design on the same East Coast queue. We draw for installers. Homeowners who want panel shopping should not be in this portal.
PECO solar interconnection documents Green Power Connection actually opens
PECO’s public solar page (MyGeneration / Green Power Connection) tells customers to apply before they operate. Internal PECO process, as presented to Pennsylvania stakeholders in 2022 and still the way GPC and Grid Connection Engineering split work, is intake by GPC and technical review by GCE. Every application gets a technical pass: IEEE 1547 / UL 1741, a single-line with required information, and a site plan used to check AC disconnect access and secondary voltage rise. If your diagram is pretty and missing conductor sizes, GCE still has nothing to model.
Chapter 75 Level 1 (certified inverter, 10 kW or less) is the residential default. PECO brochures still quote 10 to 20 days for typical review, with longer clocks if studies appear. Do not treat that as a guaranteed SLA. Level 2 (above 10 kW through the Chapter 75 certified path) adds screens and can add minor modifications the customer pays for. Fees are in PECO’s current application materials. [NEED SOURCE: current PECO Level 1 and Level 2 application fees as of 2026-09-19.] Do not print a fee from a 2019 township reprint onto a 2026 bid.
Submit electronically through PECO’s contractor process (PECO.com/MyGPC and the MyGeneration project flow, reviewed September 2026). Paper mail to 1050 W. Swedesford Rd., Berwyn, PA 19312 still appears on older brochures. Use the portal unless GPC tells you otherwise. Include the application, payment, computer-generated one-line, site plan, inverter and module data sheets, and customer account information. If the customer is new service, say so. If there is storage, say so. Storage is not a silent icon on a PV one-line.
The one-line PECO will bounce
Show existing service configuration, meter number, proposed PCC, inverter manufacturer and model, AC kW, OCPD, disconnect with location note, and grounding. Match the permit design SLD. If the township set uses a load-side 40 A breaker and PECO sees a supply-side tap, you will own a revision in both places. Conductor and conduit notes can live on the AHJ sheet if the PECO one-line at least agrees on size and the interconnection method.
Secondary voltage rise is a PECO engineering topic. They care about transformer to PCC to inverter impedance. You cannot fix that with a thicker lineweight. You can show accurate conductor lengths over long garage runs. If GCE asks for a longer AC run to be upsized, that is a construction change. Update the township set.
Network services in Philadelphia are not a suburban radial. If Screen-style Chapter 75 Level 4 network rules apply, you are not on a Level 1 house form just because the array is 8 kW. Confirm service type from photos and the PECO account, not from the ZIP code.
Philadelphia versus everyone else on PECO’s wires
City of Philadelphia L&I issues electrical permits for all solar, and building permits when the job is not EZ. EZ standards (city PDF updated 2026 on phila.gov) exclude engineered trusses unless a PE letter is provided, roofs steeper than 2:12, and ESS. EZ also wants that PECO dashboard screenshot. If you cannot produce the screenshot, you are not on EZ this week. Non-EZ jobs need plans. Structural plans need a Pennsylvania PE. Older city process notes also tied a design professional seal to work over $25,000. Confirm the current L&I threshold before you bid an unstamped set. [CONFIRM AS OF 2026-09-19: $25,000 seal trigger still in force.]
Suburbs and townships on PECO (Delaware, Chester, Montgomery, Bucks, and others) enforce the UCC with local amendments. Some use third-party agencies. Their building permit is not PECO. Their electrical inspector’s certificate is what PECO wants with Part 2. Photograph the meter and the AC disconnect for the closeout package. PECO sample Part 2 language asks for a photo showing the AC disconnect accessible to PECO personnel, plus the underwriter certificate sent to PECO.
Part 2, meters, and as-builts
After install, the electrical inspection happens. Then Part 2 / certificate of completion, photos, and PECO’s meter work. Only after the bidirectional meter does PECO issue PTO. If the field swapped an inverter, file a new interconnection request. Chapter 75 is unforgiving on “as built different than Part 1.” As-built drawings should match the nameplate the meter tech will see.
Net metering is a tariff issue under the PUC, not a drawing title. Still, the one-line should show the meter PECO will replace. If the site has two services, say which account is interconnecting. Dual-service warehouses fail when the array lands on the wrong meter.
Send the PECO account, township or Philadelphia, service photos, equipment list, and whether EZ is even possible. We will draw one SLD for L&I or the township and a PECO one-line that tells the same story.
Intake details that stop a GPC deficiency
GPC intake fails on customer name mismatches more than on inverter physics. The PECO account name, the township permit applicant, and the interconnection customer have to be reconcilable. A landlord, a tenant, and an installer LLC on three documents is a deficiency. Get a letter of authorization. Put the service address as PECO lists it, including unit number. Row homes in South Philadelphia will bounce if you use the mailing address around the corner.
Show transformer location if you can see it. Secondary voltage rise comments come from long secondaries and long AC homeruns. If the inverter is in a basement 80 feet from the meter, the site plan should show that run. If GCE later asks for a conductor upsize, that is a permit revision. Do not tell the electrician to pull a larger conductor off-drawing.
Line-side taps in PECO territory are a favorite of sales and a favorite of comments. If you use one, draw the tap, the new disconnect, the AIC rating, and working clearances. Philadelphia and many townships will look at that as electrical construction, not as a utility sketch. PECO will look at it as the PCC. Both have to see the same tap.
For Level 2 and above, expect the possibility of an engineering study and customer-paid minor modifications under Chapter 75. The EDC has to give a nonbinding good-faith estimate before that extra review. That estimate is not a construction cloud on the roof plan. Keep it with the interconnection file. If the modification is a transformer upgrade, the site plan may need a pad or a clearance note. That is the moment interconnection becomes AHJ work.
Witness tests are not automatic on Level 1 houses. PECO’s Part 2 form still has a witness-test waiver line. If they do not waive it, show up with the settings the one-line claimed. If the inverter firmware was updated in the field, the as-built settings table has to move. A passed township sticker on old settings is not a passed interconnection test.
HOA and historic commissions along the Main Line are not PECO. Keep shutter-color boards out of MyGeneration. If historic review changes the array, update PECO kW in the same week you revise L&I or the township. A dashboard screenshot that L&I already accepted will not match a smaller array unless you refresh it.
Cut sheets must include the inverter’s UL 1741 listing. If PECO has moved to SB language in the live checklist, follow the portal. [CONFIRM AS OF 2026-09-19: PECO UL 1741 SB requirement text.] Do not attach a battery hybrid cut sheet to a PV-only application for later. File storage when it is real.
PECO solar interconnection is a Chapter 75 file. Treat the municipal stamp as a parallel clock, not a substitute for PTO. Phone +1 (209) 266-2669. If Green Power Connection returns incomplete, read the deficiency. It is usually the one-line, the disconnect access note, or a Level that does not match nameplate. Fix the CAD. Re-upload. Do not open a second application because the first one felt stuck. Philadelphia L and I and suburban UCC clocks keep running while PECO is incomplete. Tell the PM which clock is actually red so the crew is not sitting in a driveway waiting on a portal that never saw a complete one-line.