The Panel Upgrade Permit & Inspection Process in Marin

Yes. A panel upgrade requires an electrical permit from your local jurisdiction, and your licensed electrician pulls it before work begins. The permit isn’t bureaucratic box-ticking — it triggers the independent inspection that verifies the work is safe and to code, and it documents the upgrade, which matters for your insurance and for resale. Unpermitted panel work is both a safety risk and a liability that tends to surface during a future sale or insurance review. Permitted, inspected work is the standard, and handling the permit is part of what your electrician does.

Because your panel connects to PG&E’s service, and safely replacing it requires the utility to disconnect power first and reconnect it afterward. This utility coordination is a necessary, scheduled part of any service-panel upgrade — the electrician can’t and shouldn’t work on a live service connection. PG&E’s involvement is why a panel upgrade includes a planned power shutoff for part of the day, and why the timing depends partly on utility scheduling. Your electrician coordinates this with PG&E as part of managing the project, so you don’t have to arrange it yourself.

Typically for part of a day — the window needed to disconnect the service, remove the old panel, install and connect the new one to code, and have power restored after inspection or as coordinated with the utility. The exact duration depends on the scope and the utility and inspection scheduling. Your electrician will give you an expected window so you can plan around it — for instance, managing refrigeration and any medical or work needs. It’s a planned, temporary shutoff, not an open-ended outage, and it’s a normal part of the process.

The inspection is the local jurisdiction’s independent verification that the panel upgrade was done safely and to current code — covering the panel installation, breakers, grounding and bonding, connections, and overall compliance. It’s a critical safeguard: an outside authority confirming the work meets the standard, rather than relying solely on the installer’s say-so. Passing inspection is what completes and legitimizes the upgrade and documents it for your records, insurance, and any future sale. It’s a core reason panel work is permitted, inspected work rather than something to do without oversight.

It’s strongly inadvisable and, for the service-panel connection, involves work that must be coordinated with the utility and meet permit and inspection requirements. A panel upgrade is high-stakes work — errors create serious fire and shock hazards — and it requires pulling a permit, coordinating the PG&E disconnect and reconnect, working to current code, and passing inspection. Unpermitted DIY panel work also creates insurance and resale liabilities. This is precisely the kind of job that belongs with a licensed electrician who manages the whole permitted, inspected, utility-coordinated process correctly. The safety and documentation are worth far more than the attempted savings.

Call a licensed electrician to assess your panel and your needs, and to confirm whether an upgrade is warranted and what size is appropriate for your current and planned loads. From there, the electrician handles the sequence: pulling the permit, coordinating the PG&E disconnect and reconnect, scheduling the work and the power shutoff, performing the upgrade to code, and arranging the inspection. Your part is mainly the initial decision and planning around the shutoff window. The point of hiring a licensed professional is that they manage this multi-step, permitted, utility-coordinated process for you from start to finish.