Is your facility's electrical service keeping up with your operation? Call Ehling Electric at (267) 935-9336 for a free assessment.
A commercial facility's electrical service is its power infrastructure — everything downstream depends on it being sized correctly, maintained properly, and capable of handling today's loads and the ones coming in the next five years. When it isn't, the symptoms are familiar: nuisance trips, voltage fluctuations that damage equipment, no capacity for new machinery or EV chargers, and a panel schedule that no longer reflects what's actually connected to it.
Ehling Electric provides commercial panel upgrades, service entrance work, and electrical distribution improvements for businesses and facilities throughout Bucks County and Montgomery County. We assess what you have, determine what you need, and deliver an upgraded system that meets current code, coordinates with PECO, and gives your operation room to grow.
Why Commercial Facilities Need Service Upgrades
Commercial electrical loads grow over time in ways that weren't always anticipated when the building was first energized. New HVAC equipment, additional production machinery, EV fleet charging, server room expansion, tenant build-outs that weren't part of the original occupancy — each one adds load to a distribution system that was sized for a different operation.
The consequences of an undersized service aren't always dramatic. They're often chronic: breakers that trip under load that shouldn't trip, voltage that sags when large equipment starts up, equipment that runs hotter than it should because it's operating below rated voltage, and a panel with no available slots for new circuits. Left unaddressed, these conditions accelerate equipment wear and create the conditions for failures that cause unplanned downtime.
Services We Provide
Service Entrance Upgrades Upgrading the electrical service from the utility — the service entrance conductors, meter socket, main disconnect, and the connection point to your distribution system. Service entrance work requires coordination with PECO for the utility disconnect and reconnect, which we handle as part of the scope. Common upgrades for commercial facilities in Bucks County include 200A to 400A, 400A to 800A, and single-phase to three-phase conversions for facilities that have added three-phase equipment.
Main Distribution Panel Replacement Replacing an aging or undersized main distribution panel with modern equipment — properly rated for the connected load, with adequate space for current and future circuit requirements, and with the breaker types required by current NEC code. We replace equipment from all major manufacturers and handle the coordination with PECO and the authority having jurisdiction for the required inspections.
Subpanel Installation Adding a subpanel to serve a specific area of your facility — a new production wing, a tenant space, a server room, or an EV charging installation — allows you to expand electrical capacity without modifying the main distribution. We size and locate subpanels to minimize distribution losses and branch circuit lengths, and feed them from the main panel with properly sized feeders and overcurrent protection.
Three-Phase Service and Equipment Facilities adding three-phase equipment — industrial HVAC, machine tools, compressors, or production equipment — that currently have single-phase service need a service upgrade before the equipment can be connected. We coordinate the three-phase service installation with PECO, install the new distribution equipment, and make the connections to your new three-phase loads.
Motor Control Centers For industrial facilities with multiple large motors — HVAC, pumps, compressors, conveyors — a motor control center consolidates the starters, disconnects, and overload protection into a single managed location. We install, maintain, and troubleshoot MCC equipment and work with your equipment suppliers on the integration of new drives and starters.
Switchgear Replacement Older switchgear — particularly equipment from the 1970s and 1980s — presents both performance and safety risks as it ages past its design life. Parts become unavailable, contacts wear, and the arc flash incident energy of aging equipment increases. We assess the condition of existing switchgear, provide options for replacement or upgrade, and manage the full replacement project including utility coordination and inspection.
EV Fleet Charging Infrastructure Adding Level 2 or DC fast charging for a fleet of commercial vehicles requires electrical infrastructure that most existing commercial facilities weren't designed for. We assess your existing service capacity, design the distribution infrastructure required for the number and type of chargers being installed, and install the complete system — from the service entrance upgrade, if required, through the charger connections.
The Assessment Process
Before recommending any panel or service upgrade, we assess what you currently have and what you actually need — not a generic upsell to the largest available service size.
Our assessment covers your current service size and available capacity, your existing panel configuration and condition, the load profile of your facility including peak demand, the loads you're planning to add and their electrical requirements, the condition of your service entrance equipment and conductors, and any code deficiencies in the existing installation that need to be addressed.
From that assessment, we give you a clear recommendation with the reasoning behind it, options at different capacity levels if there are meaningful tradeoffs to consider, and a written estimate for the work.
Coordination With PECO
Service entrance upgrades require PECO to disconnect the utility service before work begins and reconnect after the new equipment passes inspection. PECO scheduling can add days or weeks to a project timeline depending on the time of year and their workload. We coordinate with PECO early in the project schedule, submit the required applications, and plan the installation sequence to minimize the duration of the service outage — typically scheduling the utility work to fall on a weekend or planned shutdown period when possible.
Code Compliance
Current NEC requirements for commercial electrical installations differ in several meaningful ways from the code editions in effect when many Bucks County commercial facilities were originally built. Arc fault circuit interrupter requirements, ground fault protection requirements, working clearance requirements around electrical equipment, and available fault current labeling requirements have all evolved. A panel upgrade is the right time to bring the installation into compliance with current code — and doing so now, proactively, is considerably less disruptive than addressing code deficiencies identified during a future inspection or triggered by an insurance claim.
Is your electrical service keeping up? Call (267) 935-9336 or email Alex@Ehlingelectric.com. We'll come out, assess your current distribution system, and give you an honest picture of where you stand and what your options are.
