Alectrona
Commercial guideMCS is a domestic-scale certification that caps at 50 kWp, so it does not apply to a commercial system. On work this size the engineering is the trust signal, and the assurance comes from named component standards, regulatory compliance and a documented handover.
These are representative example reviews, not yet-collected customer feedback. They are written to illustrate the kind of feedback Alectrona aims to earn and are shown as design placeholders while we gather and verify reviews from our first commercial clients. Alectrona is the commercial solar trading brand of RVTC LTD.
What set Alectrona apart was the documented design pack. We had quotes from three installers, but only Alectrona handed us a full set of drawings, a single-line diagram and a design referencing BS 7671 and the G99 connection process. The whole thing read like an engineering submission rather than a sales brochure. Our M&E consultant reviewed it and signed it off without a single query. That gave the board the confidence to release the capital.
Other firms priced our roof off a satellite image and a desktop guess. Alectrona flew an in-house drone survey, fully insured and flown by a qualified commercial drone pilot, and built a 3D model of the actual roof. It picked up plant, vents and a parapet line that a flat aerial photo had completely missed, which changed the panel layout. I would rather find that out at design stage than on the day the scaffold goes up. The accuracy of that survey is the reason I trusted everything that followed.
As a finance director I was wary of being oversold a system bigger than we could use. Alectrona modelled the array against our actual half-hourly consumption data rather than an annual total, so it is sized to what we genuinely draw on site during the day. They were honest that exporting surplus is worth far less than self-consumption, and built the design around that. The capital case stacked up because the engineering was honest, not because the numbers were inflated.
We were undecided between buying outright, leasing and a PPA. Alectrona laid out all three side by side with the pros and cons of each against our balance sheet, instead of pushing the one that pays them best. They were clear about where a PPA makes sense and where capex wins, and pointed us at our own accountant for the tax treatment. The survey and design took a little longer than I expected, but the thoroughness was worth the wait. Genuinely consultative.
The install crew were tidy and well run, and worked to a clear CDM 2015 plan with a proper site induction and RAMS. What impressed me most was the handover. We received a full commissioning pack with the IEC 62446-1 test results, certification, O&M documentation and an as-built record for our maintenance team. As the people who have to live with this asset for the next twenty years, having that paperwork in order matters enormously. Nothing was left loose.
I expected the usual hard sell and got the opposite. After surveying our site Alectrona told us one roof section was not worth covering because of shading, and that a smaller, well-sited array was the better investment than filling every square metre. There was no commission-driven upselling and no pressure. For a six-figure capital project, that straight talk is exactly what you want from the people advising you. We will be using them again on our second site.
OrientationThis guide is plain-English orientation for a finance or facilities director, not formal advice. The standards, duties and handover documents described are how we assure a system over 50 kWp; we confirm the exact specifics for your site before any work begins.
Most buyers have heard of MCS, and many assume it is the quality mark to look for on any solar installation. For a home it is. For a commercial roof it is the wrong question, because MCS does not reach this far up the scale.
This guide is a plain-English orientation for a finance or facilities director weighing a commercial system. It sets out why MCS stops at the domestic scale, what governs quality and safety above it, and what you should expect to be handed at the end of the job. It is a guide, not formal advice; we confirm the specifics for your site.
MCS, the Microgeneration Certification Scheme, certifies small-scale renewable installations and the products and installers behind them. Its purpose is consumer protection at the domestic end of the market, and its PV scope stops at 50 kWp. A commercial system is larger than that, so it falls outside the scheme entirely.
An installer cannot honestly be MCS-certified for work the scheme does not cover. So when a contractor presents an MCS logo against a commercial enquiry, it is at best irrelevant and at worst a sign they do not work at this scale day to day. The right question for a system over 50 kWp is not whether MCS signed it off. It is which engineering standards govern the design, who is accountable for the safety of the build, and what you are handed at the end. Those are the things this guide answers.
Commercial work is assured by a set of named standards and duties, each doing a specific job that MCS never did at this scale:
Taken together, this stack is more demanding than the domestic scheme, because it governs the same asset under construction law, grid-code compliance and a binding contract.
Standards set the floor. What separates a system that lasts its design life from one that does not is the quality of the work at the component level, and that is where Alectrona's engineering shows.
Sealed connectors on every site-made joint. Plug-and-socket connectors are a well-known weak point in rooftop PV, and field-made joints are where the risk concentrates: a poorly made or corroded connection can arc, and connector faults are a recognised cause of rooftop PV fires. Every connector we crimp on site is finished in a sealed, weatherproof, UV-rated enclosure, so the field-made joints are protected against the failure mode that matters.
Cable specified for the design life. Where the run allows, we specify a PV cable certified to EN 50618, the harmonised PV-cable standard, and rated for UV and ozone, in preference to a minimum-spec cable. On an asset with a multi-decade design life, that is the call our engineers make every time.
Reviewed and signed off by our Qualifying Supervisor. Our Qualifying Supervisor, a fully AM2-trained electrician, personally reviews the install report on every job before commissioning sign-off: photographs, test certificates, torque-check log and commissioning data, all filed and checked. We are an engineering company first, so the person who carried out the work never signs themselves off.
An MCS certificate is a one-line credential. A commercial handover is a document pack. When the system is energised you receive the BS 7671 electrical certification, the IEC 62446-1 commissioning data, the G99 connection paperwork, the as-built drawings and the operating documentation. That pack is what your insurer, your lender and any future O&M provider will ask for, and it is what proves the asset was built to standard.
The relationship does not end at switch-on either. A defined defects-rectification period covers the early life of the system, backed by an Insurance-Backed Guarantee, after which ongoing operations and maintenance keep the array performing across the operating life of the asset. The point of the stack is not to pass an inspection. It is to hand you a system you can run, finance and insure with confidence.
With MCS off the table above 50 kWp, the verification job shifts from looking for one badge to checking the credentials that genuinely govern this work. The good news is that every standard in the assurance stack has a verifiable counterpart you can ask to see, so the absence of an MCS logo is replaced by harder evidence you can check for yourself.
Start with the electrical registration. The competent person who certifies the installation to BS 7671 should be registered with a recognised scheme such as NICEIC or NAPIT, and that registration is checkable on the scheme's own online register. Ask which body, then verify the number rather than taking the claim at face value. The wiring-regulation basis for what they are certifying is set out in our guide to BS 7671 and solar.
Then check the construction-safety credentials. Because the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 apply to every commercial install, the contractor should be able to name who will hold the Principal Designer and Principal Contractor roles and show how they discharge those duties. The Health and Safety Executive, which enforces CDM 2015, publishes guidance on what those duty-holders are responsible for, and a competent installer will talk about them fluently rather than blankly. Our CDM 2015 guide explains what to expect, and our note on choosing an installer turns this into a checklist you can run during procurement.
Ask for an installed reference at your scale. A track record of systems above 50 kWp, with the handover packs to prove they were commissioned to standard, carries more weight than any single certificate. The right questions are which standards govern the design, who is accountable for safety, and what you are handed at the end. An installer who works at this scale answers all three without hesitation.
This is the question that worries finance directors most, because on the domestic side several support routes are explicitly tied to MCS certification. Above 50 kWp the support routes are different in shape, and the loss of those MCS-linked domestic routes does not leave a commercial project without a financial framework. The incentives that matter at this scale run through other mechanisms entirely.
Export is handled through your supply contract rather than a domestic scheme. A commercial system that exports does so under a commercial Power Purchase Agreement or an export arrangement negotiated with a licensed supplier, regulated by Ofgem, rather than through the domestic Smart Export Guarantee. The terms are commercial and negotiated, which is why we treat export value as a modelling input to confirm against live offers rather than a fixed rate to quote. Our commercial finance pages set out how export and self-consumption value feed a business case.
Capital-allowance treatment is the headline incentive at this scale. Commercial solar is plant and machinery, and the capital-allowance regime, administered by HMRC, is where the tax benefit of a commercial install actually sits. The specifics, including whether a given allowance applies to your expenditure and in which year, are a matter for your accountant and depend on the current published rules, so treat any allowance as a position to confirm rather than a settled figure. We flag where it applies and leave the tax advice to your adviser.
Grants and sector schemes are separate again. Where a grant or a sector-specific scheme exists, eligibility turns on the scheme's own rules rather than on MCS. The honest position is to confirm the current position of any incentive before it goes into a business case, because these schemes open, close and change terms. None of this depends on a certificate the commercial system was never eligible for, so the lack of an MCS route removes a domestic option while leaving the commercial financial framework intact.
MCS is a point-in-time credential: it speaks to how the system was certified on the day, and says nothing about year fifteen. A commercial asset is expected to run for two to three decades, so the more useful question is how the non-MCS stack keeps protecting the investment long after the scaffolding comes down. The answer is that several layers of the stack are deliberately durable rather than one-off.
The handover pack is the asset's permanent record. The BS 7671 certification, the IEC 62446-1 commissioning data and the as-built drawings serve as the baseline every future inspection, insurer review and resale due-diligence exercise measures against. A documented baseline is what lets a later engineer tell whether the array has degraded or simply been measured differently. That same pack is the evidence an insurer asks for at each renewal, as our guide to commercial solar insurance explains.
Periodic inspection keeps the certification alive. BS 7671 contemplates periodic inspection and testing across an installation's life, not only at first energisation, and IEC 62446 covers recurring inspection of grid-connected PV. For a rooftop array that means the thermographic and electrical checks that catch a degrading DC connection before it becomes an arc. The set-backs and walkways designed in at the start are what make that inspection physically possible, which ties directly to a workable maintenance regime and to RC62 fire safety.
The contract and guarantee carry the early-life risk. The defined defects-rectification period under the JCT or NEC contract, backed by an Insurance-Backed Guarantee, means defects that surface after handover have a route to resolution that does not depend on the original installer still trading. Together these layers turn a one-day certification into a managed asset, which is the standard a lender, an insurer and a future buyer all assess against.
Our own insured pilot flies your roof and captures the real geometry and shading, so the design starts from your building instead of a satellite guess.
Booked to suit your operating hours
We model the array in bankable-grade software, size it around your daytime load, and set out generation, savings and payback across three funding routes.
Modelled, not promised
Designed and installed to BS 7671, commissioned to IEC 62446-1, connected under G99 and run under CDM 2015. Alectrona is typically the Principal Contractor.
Outside MCS, assured by the non-MCS stack
A 12-month defects period backed by an Insurance-Backed Guarantee, then ongoing operations and maintenance so the asset keeps earning for its full working life.
Kept performing, year on year
Last updated June 2026
No, and no honest installer can be. MCS is a domestic-scale scheme with a PV ceiling of 50 kWp, so it does not cover commercial systems and is not the trust signal for them. We assure work over 50 kWp through the standards that do apply: BS 7671 design and testing, IEC 62446-1 commissioning, a G99 grid connection, CDM 2015 construction-safety duties, and a JCT or NEC contract with a defined defects-rectification period.
You receive a full handover pack rather than a single certificate. That includes the BS 7671 electrical certification, the IEC 62446-1 commissioning data, the G99 connection paperwork and the as-built documentation. Every site-made connector is sealed in a weatherproof enclosure, the cable is specified for the design life, and our Qualifying Supervisor, a fully AM2-trained electrician, signs off the install report before the system is energised.
It is more demanding than MCS. A commercial install is governed by construction-safety law under CDM 2015, formal grid-code compliance under G99, and a binding commercial contract, none of which an MCS certificate addresses at this scale. MCS is right for a home. For a system over 50 kWp the heavier framework is the correct one.
Under CDM 2015 a Principal Designer and a Principal Contractor are formally appointed, each with legal duties for how the work is planned and carried out. This is a statutory requirement on commercial installs, and it gives you named, accountable roles for site safety that a domestic scheme does not provide.
A document pack: the electrical certification to BS 7671, the commissioning data to IEC 62446-1, the G99 connection documents, as-built drawings and operating documentation. A defined defects-rectification period backed by an Insurance-Backed Guarantee follows, then ongoing operations and maintenance. It is the evidence your insurer, lender and any future O&M provider will ask to see.
No. The price is driven by the engineering rather than by which certification scheme applies. MCS is a domestic scheme that never reached this scale, so a system over 50 kWp is costed on the array size, roof and structural work, inverter architecture, grid-connection requirements and the documented handover, the same factors that would apply with or without MCS. Pricing is survey-led on a commercial project rather than a list rate; our guide to commercial solar cost sets out what shapes the figure, and we confirm it for your site before any work begins.
The on-roof installation is not slower, but the commercial timeline carries steps a domestic MCS job never faces, chiefly the G99 grid-connection approval from Northern Powergrid, which has its own statutory timescales and can run for weeks before work starts. Survey, design to BS 7671, CDM 2015 planning and commissioning to IEC 62446-1 also add structured time that protects the asset rather than padding the schedule. We sequence the grid application early so it runs alongside design, and confirm a realistic programme for your site once the survey and connection position are known.
A guide can only take you so far. The figure you get is modelled from your own half-hourly load and a system sized from the on-site drone survey. No obligation, and systems this size sit outside the domestic MCS scheme, so the assurance is the engineering stack.