Short answer: your electrical service size does not come from floor area. It comes from the load schedule — every load listed and totalled as total connected load in kVA, reduced by demand factors to a demand load, converted to a service current at your system voltage, and rounded up to the next standard breaker rating. That same total connected load figure is also the exact basis on which the Building Official assesses your electrical permit fee, which is why a sloppy load schedule costs money twice.
Connected load (kW) ÷ power factor → kVA → × demand factor → demand kVA → ÷ (V × √3 for three-phase) → service current → × 1.25 for continuous load → next standard breaker rating → transformer / utility service capacity
Everything downstream is arithmetic on the load schedule. Get the schedule wrong and no amount of care in the rest of the calculation rescues it. In Philippine commercial buildings, the blocks that dominate are predictable:
Cooling being the biggest block is exactly why the sequencing matters: if the mechanical design is finalised after the electrical design, the service is being sized against a guess. Fixing the cooling load first is the cheapest way to avoid a mid-project service upgrade.
Converts a connected load into kVA, demand load, service current, a main breaker rating and a transformer size — then applies the electrical fee schedules of the 2004 Revised IRR of PD 1096.
Equipment is rated in kilowatts, but a distribution system is sized in kilovolt-amperes. The difference is power factor: a load drawing 100 kW at a power factor of 0.85 pulls 118 kVA of apparent power through the conductors, breaker and transformer. The cables and the utility feel the kVA, not the kW.
This has a direct commercial consequence. Correcting power factor from 0.85 to 0.95 on the same 100 kW load reduces apparent power from 118 kVA to 105 kVA — roughly an 11% reduction in the current the service has to carry, which can be the difference between one standard transformer size and the next one up, and between paying a utility power-factor penalty and not.
The Code Compliance Hook Most Owners Never See
The IRR of PD 1096 attaches a forfeiture clause directly to the electrical fee schedule: if the electrical work or installation "is found not in conformity with the minimum safety requirements of the Philippine Electrical Codes and the Electrical Engineering Law (RA 7920), and the Owner fails to perform corrective actions within the reasonable time provided by the Building Official," the Building Official "shall forthwith cancel the permit and the fees thereon shall be forfeited." Non-compliant electrical work does not merely get a correction notice — it can void the permit and the money already paid for it.
Two of the schedule's items carry nearly all of the cost on a commercial project, and both are keyed to figures your own drawings declare.
The IRR's note is explicit about where the number comes from: "Total Connected Load as shown in the load schedule."
| Total connected load | Fee |
|---|---|
| 5 kVA or less | ₱200.00 |
| Over 5 kVA to 50 kVA | ₱200.00 + ₱20.00/kVA |
| Over 50 kVA to 300 kVA | ₱1,100.00 + ₱10.00/kVA |
| Over 300 kVA to 1,500 kVA | ₱3,600.00 + ₱5.00/kVA |
| Over 1,500 kVA to 6,000 kVA | ₱9,600.00 + ₱2.50/kVA |
| Over 6,000 kVA | ₱20,850.00 + ₱1.25/kVA |
The IRR's note here catches projects out: this total "shall include all transformer, UPS and generators which are owned/installed by the owner/applicant as shown in the electrical plans and specifications." A standby genset and a data-room UPS are inside the assessed capacity, not outside it.
| Total transformer / UPS / generator capacity | Fee |
|---|---|
| 5 kVA or less | ₱40.00 |
| Over 5 kVA to 50 kVA | ₱40.00 + ₱4.00/kVA |
| Over 50 kVA to 300 kVA | ₱220.00 + ₱2.00/kVA |
| Over 300 kVA to 1,500 kVA | ₱720.00 + ₱1.00/kVA |
| Over 1,500 kVA to 6,000 kVA | ₱1,920.00 + ₱0.50/kVA |
| Over 6,000 kVA | ₱4,170.00 + ₱0.25/kVA |
| Item | Fee |
|---|---|
| Power supply pole location | ₱30.00 per pole |
| Guying attachment | ₱30.00 per attachment |
| Electric meter — residential | ₱15.00 (wiring permit issuance ₱15.00) |
| Electric meter — commercial/industrial | ₱60.00 (wiring permit issuance ₱36.00) |
| Electric meter — institutional | ₱30.00 (wiring permit issuance ₱12.00) |
The IRR states the arithmetic plainly: "The Total Electrical Fees shall be the sum of Sections 4.a. to 4.d. of this Rule."
There is a line between a planning tool and an electrical design, and it is worth being explicit about where it sits.
| Failure | What it costs |
|---|---|
| Cooling design finalised after the electrical design | Air conditioning is usually the largest connected-load block. Adding it late means the transformer, main breaker, riser and sometimes the utility service all get resized after they were priced. |
| Tenant equipment left off the schedule | A fit-out that adds kitchen or process equipment to a service sized for a shell building. The upgrade lands on whoever discovers it last. |
| Power factor ignored | Conductors, breaker and transformer sized for apparent power the building never needed, plus a utility penalty for the life of the account. |
| Continuous loads not taken at 125% | A breaker sized on running current that nuisance-trips under real duty, then gets replaced with a larger one without re-checking the conductor. |
| No spare capacity designed in | Every future tenant change becomes a service upgrade. Spare ways in the panel and headroom in the transformer are cheap at design stage and expensive later. |
The last one deserves emphasis for commercial landlords: a building whose service has no headroom limits which tenants you can sign. That is a leasing constraint created by an engineering decision made years earlier.
Sizing the service is the design half. The operating half is the annual electrical inspection — a commercial building's Certificate of Annual Electrical Inspection is part of the compliance stack that keeps a business permit renewable, and it has to be signed by a practitioner of the right grade. The annual electrical inspection requirement is covered here, and it sits inside the wider preventive maintenance stack alongside the mechanical and fire safety certificates.
The electrical fee schedules, the transformer/UPS/generator note, the forfeiture provision and the kW-per-ton air conditioning evaluation figures were read from the text of the 2004 Revised IRR of PD 1096 as published by the DPWH. Standard breaker ampere ratings and standard transformer kVA sizes are the commonly manufactured ratings, not a Code table. Demand factors, conductor ampacity and every other Philippine Electrical Code requirement are outside what this article quotes — they must be applied by a registered electrical practitioner under RA 7920 on your specific project.
How is electrical service size determined in the Philippines?
It comes from the load schedule, not the floor area. Every load in the building is listed and totalled to give the total connected load in kVA. Demand factors from the Philippine Electrical Code are applied to get the demand load, which is converted to a service current using the system voltage and phase. The main overcurrent device is then the next standard ampere rating at or above that current, with continuous loads taken at 125 percent, and the transformer or utility service is sized to suit.
What is total connected load and why does it matter?
Total connected load is the sum of every load shown on the load schedule, expressed in kVA. It matters for two separate reasons. Technically it is the starting point for demand calculation and service sizing. Administratively it is the exact basis on which the Building Official assesses your electrical permit fee — the IRR fee table is keyed to Total Connected Load in kVA, with a note that it is taken as shown in the load schedule.
How much is the electrical permit fee in the Philippines?
Under the 2004 Revised IRR of PD 1096, the electrical fee on total connected load is ₱200.00 for 5 kVA or less; ₱200.00 plus ₱20.00 per kVA over 5 up to 50 kVA; ₱1,100.00 plus ₱10.00 per kVA over 50 up to 300 kVA; ₱3,600.00 plus ₱5.00 per kVA over 300 up to 1,500 kVA; ₱9,600.00 plus ₱2.50 per kVA over 1,500 up to 6,000 kVA; and ₱20,850.00 plus ₱1.25 per kVA above 6,000 kVA. A separate schedule applies to total transformer, UPS and generator capacity, and the total electrical fee is the sum of all the schedule items.
Who is allowed to sign electrical plans in the Philippines?
Electrical plans forming part of a building permit application must be prepared, signed and sealed by a registered electrical practitioner of the appropriate grade under RA 7920, the Philippine Electrical Engineering Law. The IRR of PD 1096 backs this with a forfeiture provision: if the electrical work or installation is found not in conformity with the minimum safety requirements of the Philippine Electrical Codes and RA 7920 and the owner fails to correct it within the time given, the Building Official cancels the permit and the fees paid are forfeited.
Why do air conditioning decisions change the electrical service size?
Cooling is usually the largest single block of connected load in a Philippine commercial building. The IRR's own evaluation figures put air conditioning at 0.90 kW per ton for compressors of 1.2 to 5 tons, 0.80 kW per ton above 5 up to 50 tons, and 0.70 kW per ton above 50 tons. A 60-ton plant is therefore on the order of 42 kW of connected load before lighting, receptacles, lifts or pumps, which is why finalising the cooling design after the electrical design is a common cause of a mid-project service upgrade.
Electrical service size is decided by the mechanical design, the tenant mix and the spare capacity you choose to build in — three decisions that belong together, early. AEDO delivers coordinated MEPFS design nationwide, with design-build in Negros Oriental.