San Antonio Solar Plan Sets

Avila Solar Drafting produces permit-ready solar plan sets for installers working in San Antonio and across Bexar County. Standard turnaround is 2–3 business days from a complete intake, with free revisions for six months. San Antonio sets are drawn to Information Bulletin 153 — the city’s own solar requirements document — and built to survive CPS Energy’s review first, because in San Antonio the utility stamps your drawings before the city ever sees them.

Key takeaways

• 2–3 business days standard, 1–2 on Fast Roof, 1 business day where Fast Roof is paired with a Roof Order or EagleView XML.
• Free revisions for six months from the order date.
• The drawing goes to CPS Energy before it goes to the city — and comes back stamped. A set that isn’t right the first time costs utility review time, not just permit time.
• San Antonio runs a split code cycle: the 2023 NEC with the 2024 IBC and IRC, both effective May 1, 2025.
• IB 153 sets a hard geometry limit most drafters never encounter: no array side may exceed 150 feet.

What a San Antonio plan set contains

San Antonio is unusually explicit about what it wants on the page. Information Bulletin 153, “Requirements for Solar Photovoltaic Systems (PV),” revised May 2025, breaks the submittal into three document groups, and a set built for this city answers each of them in turn.

Site plan

Existing structures on the property and any newly proposed ones, setback locations dimensioned to the property lines, the main electrical service, and a wall layout showing where existing equipment sits alongside the proposed. On the PV side: modules and the listed mounting system, inverters and disconnects, conduits and combiner boxes, batteries where they are in scope, and — called out specifically — the rapid shutdown equipment, whether that is optimisers, micro-inverters or a roof-level enclosure.

Roof plan

This is where San Antonio asks for more than most jurisdictions. Alongside the array layout, the bulletin wants the roof covering type and the number of overlays, the deck type, rafter or beam sizes with their spacing, the roof slope, and every plumbing, mechanical and attic vent terminal on the roof. It wants firefighter access clearances dimensioned to International Fire Code sections 1205.2 and 1205.3. It wants the listed and labelled fastening method with either manufacturer specification sheets or an engineered design behind it, and it wants the method of sealing roof penetrations shown rather than assumed.

And it caps array geometry outright: solar arrays may not be greater than 150 feet on any one side. That rarely bites a residential retrofit and regularly bites a large commercial roof, which is precisely the kind of constraint worth knowing before the layout is drawn rather than after.

Electrical and system information

A single- or three-line diagram carrying conductor size and type, the voltage and amperage of every circuit, the ampacity and type of all overcurrent protection, equipment grounding, both AC and DC disconnecting means, and the voltage and ampacity of the main service and its disconnect — with manufacturer specification sheets and listing information for every component.

The jurisdiction-agnostic breakdown of each sheet is on what’s in a plan set. The submittal route, the portal and who is allowed to file are covered on our San Antonio permit design page.

Why the drawing matters more here than in most Texas metros

In Dallas or Houston the building permit and the utility interconnection run as parallel tracks. San Antonio inverts that. Per CPS Energy’s published residential step-by-step interconnection process, the contractor submits the registration form, the interconnection application and the electrical drawings to CPS Energy first. CPS Energy reviews, and then stamps the drawings. Only after that does the contractor pull the city electrical permit.

The consequence for a plan set is direct. Your drawing is the artefact the utility approves, not merely paperwork the city files. A revision after the CPS Energy stamp is not a quick resubmittal — it re-enters a utility queue that runs 7 to 10 business days, and up to 30 days for systems above 25 kW. Getting the set right before it leaves your office is worth more calendar time in San Antonio than anywhere else in the state.

Turnaround, and what the clock waits on

A standard San Antonio set is 2–3 business days. Fast Roof runs 1–2 business days, and 1 business day paired with a Roof Order or an EagleView XML file. The count begins at a complete intake, not at order placement.

Complete means survey data, an equipment list with model numbers, existing service and panel details, and roof measurements. San Antonio adds two intake items that other cities do not force: the number of existing roof covering layers, because it is both a drawing requirement and a trigger for engineering calculations, and the rafter or beam size and spacing, which IB 153 wants on the roof plan rather than inferred. Our site survey checklist is what our designers work from, and field crews are welcome to use it.

Revisions and the review your set passes first

Revisions are free for six months from the order date, covering comment responses, equipment substitutions and layout changes after a site condition turns out differently than surveyed.

Every set passes an independent senior-designer review before delivery — someone who did not draw it, checking code citations, sizing and sheet-to-sheet consistency. We guarantee accurate solar plan sets, drawn to the electrical and building code requirements of your specific jurisdiction and designed to pass first-time review. We do not promise an approval, because that decision belongs to the reviewer. What we control is whether the set gives anyone a reason to say no. Our pre-submittal checks are worth running on any set.

The code cycle your San Antonio set is drawn to

San Antonio adopted the 2023 NEC together with the 2024 IBC and 2024 IRC under Ordinance 2025-01-30-0075, passed January 30, 2025 and effective May 1, 2025, with city amendments carried in Chapter 10 of the city code. The 2021 IECC came along in the same package.

That split cycle is the detail that catches out-of-state drafters. San Antonio is a full I-code cycle ahead of Dallas and Houston, which both remain on 2021 building and residential codes, while sitting on the same 2023 NEC. A set drawn to a Houston standard is not automatically drawn to San Antonio’s, and the difference is on the building side rather than the electrical side — which is exactly where people forget to look. Moving from the 2021 to the 2024 I-codes also moves the referenced ASCE 7 edition forward, so structural references get confirmed per project rather than carried across from another metro.

On the statewide picture: the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation has proposed adopting the 2026 NEC with a stated effective date of September 1, 2026, published in the Texas Register in March 2026. Final adoption of that amendment is not yet confirmable from the codified rule, so we treat the date as expected rather than settled and confirm at intake. Either way it governs licensed electrical work rather than San Antonio’s permit cycle, which is set by the city’s own ordinance. The statewide view is on our Texas solar plan sets page.

What moves the price of a San Antonio set

Cost follows scope: roof complexity and plane count, whether a main panel upgrade or line-side tap is involved, whether storage is in scope, roof mount versus ground mount, and how complete the site data is at intake. San Antonio adds two of its own levers — the roof overlay count, since two or more existing coverings pull engineering calculations into the job, and any new structure built to carry the array, which the city treats under a separate bulletin. Supplying a Roof Order or EagleView XML remains the biggest single saving on both price and speed. Current figures are on the solar plan sets page.

San Antonio-area jurisdictions we draw for

City of San Antonio, unincorporated Bexar County, New Braunfels, Schertz, Cibolo, Converse, Live Oak, Universal City, Selma, Boerne, Helotes, Leon Valley, Alamo Heights, Windcrest, Seguin and Floresville. Adopted cycles and amendments are confirmed per jurisdiction at intake — the surrounding cities do not automatically follow San Antonio’s ordinance. Examples of our work are in the portfolio.

San Antonio Solar Plan Sets FAQs

Order a San Antonio plan set

In a market where the utility stamps the drawing before the city reviews it, an accurate first issue is worth more than a fast one. We draw to IB 153 and the adopted cycle, ship in 2–3 business days, and revise free for six months.

Or call 971-410-0655 if you want a jurisdiction checked before you order. Avila Solar Drafting LLC, 11995 SW Walker Rd, Beaverton, Oregon · 971-410-0655 · info@avilasolar.com. We draft for Texas installers from our Beaverton office — there is no Texas branch.