Filing after construction starts
Custom tracks generally require pre-approval before work begins. Equipment installed before the application is submitted is usually ineligible, and the window does not reopen.
Rebate Administration
Utility Rebate Filing
Registered Trade Ally in PECO, PPL, and FirstEnergy territories.
Pennsylvania's Act 129 programs pay for efficiency work that has already been done or is about to be. The money is real and the programs are open. Most facilities capture less than they could, and the reasons are procedural rather than technical.
Failure Modes
Why applications get returned
Six failure modes account for most of it.
Wrong track
Prescriptive pays per-unit against defined measures with fixed documentation. Custom pays against modeled or measured savings and requires an engineering case. Measures that would have paid more on the custom track are routinely filed prescriptive because prescriptive is easier.
Incomplete baseline documentation
The savings figure is a delta, and a delta needs a defensible starting point. Applications that assert post-installation performance without establishing what came before get returned.
Equipment that misses the TRM specification
Each utility maintains a technical reference manual defining what qualifies. Equipment that performs well but does not meet the stated specification does not qualify, and this is discovered after purchase more often than before.
Measures filed as one project that should have been several
Prescriptive, custom, and demand-side tracks are funded and evaluated separately. Bundling them into a single filing can push measures out of the track that would have paid best.
Missing post-installation verification
Payment is conditioned on confirming the work was done as described. Projects that skip or delay this step delay payment.
Our Scope
What we do
We work the filing as a process with a sequence, starting before the equipment is ordered and ending when the payment clears — then reuse the same file downstream.
Documentation carried forward
The same package that supports a custom rebate is the evidentiary core of a PA Tier II AEC application. We prepare it once and use it twice — see how a rebate and a Tier II AEC stack on the same project.
- Pre-construction reviewIdentify which tracks apply before the pre-approval window closes, and flag equipment selections that will not meet TRM specifications.
- Track allocationDetermine what files prescriptive, what files custom, and what files demand-side — so measures land where they pay best rather than where filing is easiest.
- Application preparationAssemble the savings calculation, methodology, equipment documentation, and baseline evidence in the form each utility requires.
- Filing and follow-throughSubmit as a registered Trade Ally, respond to reviewer questions, and manage post-installation verification through payment.
Credential
What a Trade Ally registration means
It is a working relationship with the utility's program, not a marketing badge. Registered Trade Allies file directly under program rules, work within current program-year requirements, and have a channel to program staff when a filing needs clarification.
We hold registration in PECO, PPL, and FirstEnergy territories, which covers most commercial and industrial load in Pennsylvania.
Where You File
The three territories
Each utility runs its own program under its own PUC-approved plan. Structures differ.
PECO territory
Southeastern Pennsylvania
Read the guidePPL territory
Central and Northeastern Pennsylvania
Read the guideFirstEnergy territory
Met-Ed, Penelec, Penn Power, and West Penn Power
Read the guideCaps, per-unit values, and custom incentive rates are set in each utility's current program-year documentation and change between phases. We work from the current published terms rather than from figures that may have moved.
Already Built?
If the project is already built
Pre-approval has passed and the rebate is likely gone. The AEC pathway has not — certification is available for measures with remaining useful life, and issuance begins at certification.
Send it over. We will tell you what is still available.
Start before construction
The rebate window closes when work begins.