Electronic Signatures for Energy and Utilities

Land access, wayleave and easement agreements

Linear infrastructure and generation projects depend on agreements with people who own the land: access licences for surveys, wayleaves for overhead lines and cables, option agreements and leases for wind and solar sites, crop and damage compensation forms. A single route can involve dozens of landowners, some of them jointly owning a field with relatives in another city.

• Every owner on one document. Add each joint owner as a signer — there is no limit on signers per document — with their own Signature, Full Name and Date fields.
• Plans travel with the agreement. Pages are unlimited, so route plans and compensation schedules can go out in the same file.
• Sign at the farm gate. When a land agent visits in person, In person Signing lets the landowner sign directly on the agent’s phone or tablet.
• See who is still outstanding. The Waiting for Others filter shows every agreement still waiting on a landowner, and the Opened status tells you whether they have seen it.

Solar installation contracts and connection applications

Residential and commercial solar, battery storage and EV charger installations all start with paperwork: the installation contract, a site survey sign-off, finance or subsidy forms, and the connection or net metering application that goes to the network operator. Homeowners are often comparing quotes, so a contract that is easy to sign on a phone the same evening is a contract more likely to be signed.

• No account for the homeowner. Customers sign as guests after accepting an electronic-records consent screen, with nothing to install.
• A checkmark for every term. Place Checkmark fields beside warranty, cancellation and system-specification terms, and Initials on pages with pricing.
• Joint owners sign too. Add both homeowners as signers on one document, in a set order if one must sign first.
• Dates in the right format. Date fields support DD/MM/YYYY, MM/DD/YYYY, YYYY-MM-DD, DD-MM-YYYY and “MMMM DD, YYYY”, so they match the rest of your forms.

Sales teams can prepare a contract after the site survey and save it as a draft until the quote is accepted — drafts don’t use a document credit. If the system design changes after sending, void the document and send the revised contract, so the customer never signs an out-of-date version.

Contractor agreements and safety acknowledgements

Power stations, substations, wind farms and treatment works all depend on contractors, and every contractor brings paperwork: the service agreement, method statements, site induction records and acknowledgements that they have read the safety rules for the job. On paper, those forms are collected on a clipboard at the gate and filed later, if they survive the weather.

• Sign at the gate. In person Signing lets each worker sign directly on a supervisor’s phone or tablet, and the signature is recorded in the audit trail like a remote signature.
• Scan the paper that remains. The SignPe app’s Scan option captures up to 20 pages with automatic edge detection, turning a paper method statement into a document ready to sign.
• Contractor agreements in order. Use Set signer order so the contractor signs first and your site or project manager countersigns after.
• Your company stamp. Upload your stamp once and place a Stamp field where your contracts carry one.

Statutory permit-to-work systems and safety records may have specific requirements of their own. Use SignPe for the acknowledgements and agreements your safety team is happy to keep electronically, and keep their sign-off on anything else. For more on site paperwork, see electronic signatures for construction.

Supply, procurement and power purchase agreements

Utilities and energy companies sign large commercial contracts: equipment supply agreements, maintenance contracts, fuel and materials supply, and power purchase agreements with generators or large customers. These usually need several signatories on each side and a legal or commercial team who must know the moment they are complete.

• Several signatories, one document. Add every signatory from both organisations and choose Set signer order so approvals happen in the sequence your delegation of authority requires.
• Legal and finance as observers. Copy them as observers so they receive updates without being asked to sign.
• Delegation when a director is away. A signatory can delegate their signing to a colleague in the same organisation, who signs on their behalf; the delegate is notified.
• Declines surface immediately. If a counterparty disagrees with a term, they can choose Decline to sign? and you are notified straight away.

Contracts kept in Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive or Box can be imported directly — see cloud storage integration — and our guide to signing vendor agreements online covers supplier paperwork in more detail.

A typical energy and utilities signing workflow

1. 1

   Prepare the document

   Upload the access agreement, installation contract or supply contract, or scan a paper form with the SignPe app. Save it as a draft while details are confirmed.

2. 2

   Place and assign fields

   Drag Signature, Initials, Full Name, Date and Checkmark fields onto the page and assign each to the landowner, customer, contractor or your own signatory.

3. 3

   Add signers and observers

   Add each signer, set the order if approvals must happen in sequence, and copy the land agent, project manager or legal team as observers.

4. 4

   Send or sign in person

   Email the document for remote signing, or choose In person Signing on site. Use Remind for anyone who stalls.

5. 5

   Keep the record

   When everyone has signed, all parties receive the signed copy. Download the audit trail PDF and file it with the project, site or customer record.

Compliance considerations for energy and utility documents

Commercial contracts, customer agreements and supplier paperwork are widely signed electronically, and e-signatures are recognised under laws including the US ESIGN Act and UETA, the EU’s eIDAS regulation and India’s Information Technology Act 2000. Energy and utilities is a regulated sector, though, and land, safety and customer-protection rules vary by country, state and regulator. Confirm with your legal or regulatory adviser which documents can be signed electronically.

• An audit trail per document. The downloadable audit trail shows the document ID, sent and completed dates, and when each signer was emailed, viewed and signed.
• Access limited to participants. Only the sender, signers and observers on a document can open it.
• Encryption in transit and at rest. Documents travel over HTTPS/TLS and are stored in encrypted cloud storage — see eSignature security.
• Aadhaar eSign in India. Aadhaar eSign adds OTP verification through eMudhra and a PKI-signed PDF for agreements where signer identity matters.

Landowner and customer documents contain personal information. Apply your own data-handling and retention policies to the signed copies you download.

How to send a land access agreement for signature

1. 1

   Upload the agreement

   Upload the access agreement and route plan as one PDF or Word file, or import it from cloud storage.

2. 2

   Add the landowners

   Add each owner as a signer, choose Set signer order if needed, and copy the land agent as an observer.

3. 3

   Place the fields

   Add Signature, Full Name and Date fields for each owner, and Initials on the pages carrying access terms.

4. 4

   Send and track

   Each owner is emailed a Review & Sign Document link. Watch for the Opened status and use Remind if needed.

5. 5

   Receive the signed copy

   Once everyone has signed, all parties receive the signed PDF and the audit trail is ready to download.