All submissions must be made using the Electronic Plan Review portal.
You must be a valid ESA account customer holder and registered to use the portal.
For assistance, please contact the ESA Plan Review department at 1-800-746-6480.
Learn more: Electronic Plan Review Portal FAQs
Yes, we do accept requests for rush plan reviews at the discretion of the Plan Review Manager. There is a three-hour administrative charge for this service in addition to the minimum two-hour fee plus review time. This request can be made when creating your submission in the Electronic Plan Review portal.
You may contact the Plan Review department for clarification on issues up until the project is underway. After that, please contact the local field inspector, who has the authority to accept or reject your changes.
You would be required to resubmit if there is a major change in the scope of the project. Examples include changing the service size or the main feeder size and quantity or changing from tamper-resistant equipment to non-tamper-resistant equipment. The field inspector may also ask you to resubmit.
The report is valid if your submittal was reviewed to the current or last edition of the Ontario Electrical Safety Code with no major changes.
Plan review Plan review for a proposed electrical installation is a review and audit of the electrical design for compliance with the Ontario Electrical Safety Code. The plan review does not approve or substitute for the work of a Professional Engineer.
Electrical work may not start until plans have been reviewed when the installation involves:
- a three-phase consumer service or standby generation, equal to or over 400 amp circuit capacity
- a single-phase consumer service or standby generation, equal to or over 600 amp
- a feeder greater than 1000 amp
- an emergency power supply for life safety systems (see Section 46), excluding unit equipment
- any installations within the scope of Section 64 or bi-directional electrical vehicle supply equipment, with an output rating more than 10 kW
- any installation of electrical vehicle supply equipment, except for a single dwelling unit, where the total nameplate rating(s) of the electrical vehicle supply equipment including both existing and new is greater than 20% of the rating of the service equipment
- any installation operating more than 750 volts, except:
- installations of pole lines exclusively within the scope of Section 75
- that portion of an underground installation between a supply authority-owned transformer and the related supply authority-owned switch
- equipment replacement as described in Rule 2-010 2) c) and Bulletin 2-11-*
We aim to start a plan review within 10 to 20 business days for low-voltage equipment, and 20 to 30 business days for plans that include customer-owned high-voltage equipment, from the date a Plan Review notification is issued. How quickly the plan review is completed from that date will depend on several factors such as size, complexity and completeness of information provided.
Yes, as long as the sketches are legible and contain all required information.
The submittal form is designed to help you include the specific information required. It also smooths the submission process so ESA can complete the review within the intended times.
If information is missing, we cannot issue a plan review notification. You will receive an email prompting you to log into the Electronic Plan Review portal to see what additional information is required. If you don’t provide the information within 10 business days, your submission may be cancelled, and a new submission would be required.
If you don’t have all the information, don’t send anything. Wait until all information is available before submitting.
