How the NEC is Revised – A Look at the Public Input Process

Ever wondered how the National Electrical Code gets updated every three years? The NEC revision process is open to everyone – electricians, solar installers, engineers, industry associations, and even individuals with ideas for improving electrical safety can all participate in shaping the code. Better yet, you can learn about the latest changes from people who are directly involved in writing the code itself.

Our 2026 National Electrical Code (NEC®) Changes: PV, ESS, EVs, PCS, and More course covers critical updates to PV systems, energy storage, EVs, and more – taught by instructors who serve as voting members and alternates on NEC Code-Making Panels 4 and 13. Rebekah Hren and Brian Mehalic bring insider expertise to every lesson because they helped create these changes as active members of the code-making panels. In this course, you’ll gain insider knowledge about what’s changing, why it matters, and how it affects your work. Purchase the course today to stay ahead of the code cycle and ensure your projects meet the latest standards.

Please note: This course focuses on changes and updates in the 2026 NEC®. A comprehensive deep-dive course (~10 hours) will be released later, and students can apply the cost of this course toward that longer format. 

Enroll in the course today to stay ahead of the code cycle – and watch the video below to learn exactly how the NEC revision process works and how you can get involved.

Transcript below.

 Hey, want to get involved in the National Electrical Code? You definitely can. Let’s take a look at what that process is. 

The NEC is revised based on an ANSI consensus-based process. We start off with a call for public inputs, so this could be from trade groups, it could be from industry associations, it could be from individuals that are working in the industry. It could just be from somebody that has an idea that just sends it into us. All of these are collected and then they’re broken up and sent to the individual code-making panels based on the articles that they refer to. As we go through those, some are accepted, some are rejected, many are modified and added to, and eventually the first draft is published.

Now this document is also made public and we accept comments on it as well, so there’s going to be another deadline for the public comments on those first draft changes. We will go ahead and consider all of those, make further modifications or additions as may be the case, and then the second draft will be published. Finally, that second draft will then be voted on.

If you want to get involved, there’s many different ways to do it. As I said, you could submit public inputs. You can submit public comments, but the fact of the matter is your input is going to have more weight if you have a group of people behind you. 

One thing that’s been done in previous code cycles is the Solar and Storage Industry Forum, which is sponsored by SEIA (Solar Energy Industries Association) and other groups. This brings together stakeholders from across the industry to work on consensus-based proposals that are then submitted as a group and have the weight of a bunch of people behind it. Not only are they worked out and they’re written up with good arguments and good language. They also have 20, 30, 50, 80 people signing off on them – people that are involved in the industry, which hopefully gives them a little more weight when they’re submitted and come before the code-making panels. 

Now the 2029 timeline here is really expedited, and that is because there is going to be a significant reorganization process in 2029. You can go to the NFPA website to find out more about that. The fundamental fact is they’re trying to modernize the existing structure to improve the usability of the document, because this document has been built up over a century or more, and it’s kind of been added on to and maybe the structure we have now isn’t the one you would want if you started with a fresh blank page.

The fact of the matter is though, this is going to compress the timeline. Now public inputs, which often in the past have been as due as late as September, are now going to be due in April 2026, that may have already passed by the time you’re watching this. Either way, that only gives you about six months from publication to the point where the 2029 public inputs have to be submitted. So if you want to get involved, you better do it quick. 

 As far as that code development timeline that I mentioned, it happens every three years. It’s a three year process, and realistically, unless you’re on a committee, there’s really two brief periods for the general public to weigh in and influence the process.

If you want to know what’s happening, if you want to have some influence on what’s happening, you really need to be directly involved with a committee.