NY SIR cost transparency drawings fail two ways. The utility gets a pretty one-line with no PCC, no existing service, and no place to hang a recloser. The town gets that same one-line with CESIR dollar clouds, a DTT box the electrician is not installing, and a note that “customer pays $184,000.” Plan check stalls on equipment that is not in the building permit. CESIR stalls on a diagram that still looks like a house job.
Athol Energy prepares interconnection packages that match permit design for New York installers. New York solar design and commercial and utility sets are where this split shows up. Residential 8 kW jobs rarely need cost exhibits. Anything that can hit CESIR does.
Where NY SIR cost transparency drawings should live
The SIR effective February 9, 2026 (DPS case 24-E-0621) tells the utility, at CESIR completion, to give the applicant a written package: whether the system meets the criteria, system impacts, where it is out of compliance, a detailed justification of upgrades, a good-faith detailed estimate of interconnection cost or a statement of cost responsibility, and a Qualifying Upgrade Disclosure if applicable. Cost estimates must be itemized: specific equipment, materials, labor, overhead, and other categories. Contingency treatment has been a live IPWG topic; do not invent a contingency percentage on a drawing. Read the CESIR you received.
DPS has also pushed utilities to publish cost matrices for typical upgrade equipment, updated at least annually. Those matrices are estimating tools. They are not construction documents. Do not paste a National Grid sagebook line onto a city roof plan. If you need to show an owner why a recloser appeared, attach the CESIR PDF and a one-page scope sketch titled for the utility.
Screen A still asks if the PCC is on a networked secondary. Screens still ask about UL 1741 SB. None of that is a cost item, but failing a screen is how you get into CESIR, which is how you get cost items. Draw the existing service correctly on day one so you are not paying for a study of a fictional radial tap.
What belongs on the utility SLD
Customer-owned equipment: modules as a block, inverters, AC disconnect, production meter if any, customer PCC, grounding, GSU if any, settings table. Existing utility service as it is: overhead, underground, network protector, transformer. Proposed point of interconnection that matches the site plan satellite pin. If CESIR added utility-owned work, show it in a distinct symbol language: dashed, “utility furnished,” or on a separate interconnection exhibit. A recloser, DTT, primary riser, or service upgrade is not a load-center in the electrical room.
After the 25 percent payment, the SIR wants an updated three-line and site-specific test procedure. That three-line should include the wiring configuration at the PCC and an exact representation of existing utility service, language the SIR already uses for three-phase PV. This is the sheet National Grid field audit and Con Edison DG desks will walk. PE stamping belongs here when SIR Appendix F hits 1,000 volts or when the utility’s CESIR checklist asks for a PE-stamped single-line. The town PE stamp on a USP roof plan does not automatically cover this three-line.
Do not put dollar amounts on the SLD. Put a keynote: “Utility distribution upgrades per CESIR dated [date], cost exhibit CE-1, not in building permit scope.” If the CESIR is revised because the cost matrix updated, you change CE-1, not 14 municipal sheets.
What must stay on the AHJ set
Site plan, roof or racking plan, attachment dimensions, electrical single-line for the building, conductor and conduit notes, cut sheets, placards, fire path. The AHJ SLD should show customer equipment the inspector can see. If a utility recloser will sit on a pole in the public way, the site plan can show the pole as existing/proposed utility work with a note that it is not customer construction. That keeps the fire marshal from asking for a cut sheet on a utility recloser.
If the CESIR requires a customer-owned transformer, that transformer is now AHJ equipment. It needs a pad, clearances, and often a structural note. That is the exception: when cost transparency turns into customer-owned gear, it migrates onto the construction set and the PE reviews it as construction. When it stays utility-owned, it stays an exhibit.
HOA exhibits, NY-Sun site maps, and owner cost summaries are more folders, not more construction sheets. A clerk who uploads the whole zip to the building portal will examine whatever is not labeled. File names matter: “24-E-0621-CESIR-exhibit.pdf” versus “A-101-roof-plan.pdf.”
Payment milestones are not inspection milestones
SIR Section I-D payment language (25 percent, then 75 percent, with 90 and 120 business day structures for qualifying upgrade charges on sharing projects) is a queue control. It is not a building inspection. Do not tell the town the job is “paid in full with the utility” as a substitute for a final. Do not tell the utility the CO is issued as a substitute for the three-line. Track PAM/IOAP/PowerClerk IDs next to the building permit number on the job jacket.
If the project is not in service within the window the CESIR discusses, utilities may update estimates from the latest cost matrix. Staff proposals in this docket have argued about whether deposits increase. [CONFIRM AS OF 2026-09-19: which cost-estimate update rule is in the SIR your utility is actually using.] Drawings should cite the CESIR date so nobody applies a 2024 dollar cloud to a 2026 matrix.
How we split the model without lying
One electrical model. Two title blocks. Shared equipment schedule: inverter, kW AC, module count, disconnect. Utility layout view gets PCC detail, existing service, CESIR keynotes, PE seal if required. AHJ view gets constructability. QA checks that CESIR-only symbols did not leak onto A-101 and that the PCC on the utility view matches the site plan pin.
When CESIR scope would change the service entrance, we stop and revise the AHJ set before the crew roughs in. That is a real construction change. When CESIR scope is a feeder reconductor three spans away, the AHJ set should not move. Explain that to the PM so they do not hold the building permit for a transmission comment.
How to label upgrade clouds so they survive both reviews
Use a symbol legend on the interconnection exhibit: solid lines for customer-owned, dashed for existing utility, clouded with a hex note for proposed utility work. Number the notes. Note 1 might be “replace 25 kVA transformer, Company work, CESIR item T-1.” Note 2 might be “customer relocates PCC to west wall, building permit sheet E-101.” That second note is the only one that should appear on the AHJ SLD, and it should appear as construction, not as a CESIR souvenir.
Site plans for large DG still need access roads, poles, switchgear spacing, and staking if National Grid is visiting. Those dimensions are interconnection constructability. They are not always what a town zoning officer wants. If zoning needs a fence height, put fence height on the civil/zoning sheet. If National Grid needs 15 feet of working clearance at a pole, put that on the utility site plan. Copying every dimension onto every sheet is how a town examiner starts commenting on utility construction they do not own.
Battery hybrid projects add Appendix K operating modes. Limited-export settings are a cost and a protection issue. If CESIR assumed non-export and the SLD shows export, the cost estimate is for the wrong machine. Align Appendix K, the utility SLD, and the AHJ electrical sheet before the 25 percent check goes out. Changing export later is a new study, not a cloud.
For sharing projects, the Qualifying Upgrade Disclosure is a queue document. Do not summarize another developer’s upgrade on your town set. Your interconnection exhibit can reference “see utility Qualifying Upgrade Disclosure dated [date]” without drawing someone else’s feeder.
Send the CESIR PDF, the current AHJ set, and the utility. We will mark which clouds belong on the interconnection exhibit and which ones just became construction. NY SIR cost transparency drawings are how you show the PSC the money without asking a town plans examiner to approve a utility construction estimate. Call +1 (209) 266-2669 before you put a dollar sign on sheet E-001. If the CESIR lists a Qualifying Upgrade off the customer’s property, keep the dollar table in the interconnection exhibit. If the upgrade is a pad-mounted transformer on the lot, that is construction: site plan, possibly PE, possibly a town revision after the 25 percent CESIR payment. Split those two drawing jobs on day one so plan check does not stall on a utility estimate the examiner cannot approve.