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National Electric Code (NEC) 120-Percent Rule

The National Electric Code's 120% rule requires that the rating of electrical equipment, like a home's meter enclosure or bus bar, is capable of handling up to 120% of the power supplied from multiple sources, like solar panels and the electric grid. This prevents overloading the equipment and causing potential fire hazards. For a home with a 200-amp rated electrical panel, the 120% rule allows up to 40 additional amps to be supplied by a solar system. Larger solar systems may require upgrading the electrical panel or installing a sub-panel to comply with the 120% rule.

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Shahul Ameen
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193 views3 pages

National Electric Code (NEC) 120-Percent Rule

The National Electric Code's 120% rule requires that the rating of electrical equipment, like a home's meter enclosure or bus bar, is capable of handling up to 120% of the power supplied from multiple sources, like solar panels and the electric grid. This prevents overloading the equipment and causing potential fire hazards. For a home with a 200-amp rated electrical panel, the 120% rule allows up to 40 additional amps to be supplied by a solar system. Larger solar systems may require upgrading the electrical panel or installing a sub-panel to comply with the 120% rule.

Uploaded by

Shahul Ameen
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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National Electric Code (NEC) “120% Rule”

As a licensed and bonded electrical contractor, the City and County permitting departments hold us to
very high standards. One of those standards is to adhere to strict electrical safety guidelines that are
published as part of the NEC. One particular rule makes certain that the meter enclosure installed on
your home is capable of handling the maximum amount of utility and solar + storage power to your
home at the same time. Adding a solar photovoltaic system to your home is like adding a second utility
connection on the opposite side of the meter. We must now consider the rating of the meter equipment
located between these two power sources, more specifically the bus bar rating. This is commonly
referred to as the NEC 120% rule.

When it comes to designing a solar PV or battery energy storage system for any residential property, the
120% rule is used to determine the limit of how much new power generation the site’s electrical
infrastructure can safely handle.

Yes, maybe the roof may be able to support several kilowatts of solar PV and you have enough wall
space to install a large capacity battery, but can the existing electrical infrastructure handle all of that
extra power? This is where you will hear whispers of the 120% rule. Well, what does that even mean?

This rule is meant to calculate how many amps can be back-fed through the customer side of the meter
within a measure of safety. In this instance, you have to consider that not only is the solar PV and/or
battery energy storage system supplying power to the home but the grid is also present and able to
supply additional power to the home from the utility side of the meter. With multiple sources feeding
power from opposite ends, what prevents the electrical equipment in the middle of the two from
becoming overloaded and possibly becoming a fire hazard? Prior to the installation of the solar PV and/
or battery energy storage system, all of the power is supplied from a single source through the home’s
main breaker.

Main Breaker
Main Breaker

Load
Load Breakers
Breakers

Busbar

Example of a home’s electrical service meter panel on the left


and an illustration view of the same on the right.

hawaiienergyconnection.com July 2020 1


Prior to the installation of the solar PV 200A Main
and/or battery energy storage system, Breaker
all of the power is supplied from a single would trip
source through the home’s electrical
service. In this example, there is a 50A Power draw
potential of 250 amps of power draw that
100A Power draw
could exceed the 200 amp main breaker
and bus bar limit. This is allowed under 50A Power draw
the code because the main breaker
50A Power draw
would trip and prevent a safely hazard if
the load breakers tried to pull more
power than the rating of the main
breaker.

Now, under a similar scenario to the


200A Grid
example above, lets now introduce a
Power Supply
solar PV or battery energy storage
system that can supply additional power
from the opposite side of the main 50A Power draw
breaker supply. There are now two
100A Power draw
separate sources feeding power from
opposite ends and no single protection 200 50A Power draw
device that prevents the electrical amp
50A Power draw
equipment in the middle (bus bar in this rated
case) from becoming overloaded. In this Busbar
example, there is a total of 250 amps of 60A PV
power draw that would exceed the Power Supply
safety rating of the busbar, allow it to
heat up becoming a serious fire hazard.

The NEC 120% rule limits the size of 200A Grid


additional power sources (PV or battery) Power Supply
to within an acceptable safety limit
based on the equipment label rating.
In this case, the PV breaker would be
limited to a maximum of 40 amps.

200 amp rating x 120% = 240 amps 200


Reduced to
amp
40A PV breaker
rated
240 amps minus the 200 amp main to meet 120%
Busbar
breaker = 40 amps max. for PV breaker. Rule

hawaiienergyconnection.com July 2020 2


Basically, the NEC 120% rule allows solar PV equipment to be installed in electrical boxes up to 120% of
the installed electrical equipment safety label rating. For example, if the home’s electrical meter
enclosure safety label rating was 200 amps, then this rule allows an extra 20% of wiggle room, or 40
additional amps for solar power.

Unfortunately, this additional 40 amps is not sufficient for many solar PV or battery energy storage
systems. A typical PV+Battery installation could require upwards of 60 - 80 amps.

Said another way, with a bit more detail…

NEC code mandates that “The sum of the ampere ratings of overcurrent devices in circuits supplying
power to a busbar or conductor shall not exceed the rating of the busbar or conductor”. Further, it goes
on to allow as much as 120% of a busbar’s rating to be exceeded. This is where the calculation comes
in to play.

(Busbar Rating (A) x 1.2) - Main Breaker Rating (A) = Max (PV + Battery) (A)

Let’s start with an example. We have a 200 Amp bus rating for our service panel. In it, we have a 200
Amp main breaker.

200A x 1.2 - 200A = 40A

In this example, the maximum output of our PV system can be 40A. This would satisfy the busbar rating
without an issue. However, in many instances there is a need or desire to have a much larger system, so
what then?

If we exceed the rating of the busbar without regard to the 120% rule, we are creating a scenario where
we are feeding a panel board with too much energy and have nothing in place to prevent the sum of the
loads in that panel from drawing more current than the busbar can handle.

What do we do in this case? Above all else, we need to have a PV system that is safe and installed to
code. What can we do to remedy this and still retain the system size we have targeted?

One solution is to feed the existing main breaker power into a new “sub-panel” that has a higher busbar
safety rating. This solution may require additional boxes the side of your home, but it may be a very cost
effective solution compared to others.

Another solution may be to downsize the main breaker in your existing service panel. So in our case
above we could remove the 200A main breaker and replace it with a 175A main breaker to allow us to
install up to 65A of PV. This approach is effective when taking careful consideration of all the existing
loads in the home. There could be a potential for these loads to draw close to or more than the amp
rating of that 175A breaker.

Alternative solutions could include upgrades to your existing electrical service equipment or possibly a
reduction in your overall PV system size to meet the 120% rule guidelines.

hawaiienergyconnection.com July 2020 3

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