The electrician calls it a straight swap.
The old 100-amp panel comes off the wall, a 200-amp panel goes up in the same spot, and the lights are supposed to be back before dinner. Then the utility will not set the meter. The city has not released it. The house sits dark because a service change was sold as a breaker swap.
That is the panel-upgrade problem. The building department permits and inspects the equipment on the house. The utility owns the meter and the conductors on its side of the socket. On PG&E's published process for changing an existing electric service, you arrange for the local agency to inspect the panel, and you contact PG&E to schedule the meter connection after that inspection has passed. San José's panel page, updated April 15, 2026, is the city half of that handoff. It requires an electrical permit to upgrade the main service panel of a single-family home or duplex, and it uses the words "meter release" when the service is large enough that the inspector wants the utility's short-circuit numbers first.
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Related: small electrical jobs (outlets and circuits) · EV charger load calculation · whole-home rewire · home batteries · who pulls the permit · how to apply.
A swap and a service change are different jobs
Homeowners hear "same wall, same meter, more amps" and budget one day off work. PG&E's FAQ on changing an existing electric service lists "replace electric panel (like-for-like or upgrade)" under upgrade or change options, not under a maintenance note. Its temporary-disconnect FAQ separates "meter panel change out (increasing panel size)" from "replacement with no change to service," and the example it gives is an old 100-amp panel replaced with a new 100-amp panel. Both can push you out of a simple disconnect call and into a Your Projects application. Raising the rating is the upgrade. Replacing a tired 100-amp can with another 100-amp can is still a panel change. Neither one is "the electrician hangs it and the utility guesses."
Only PG&E employees or authorized PG&E contractors may disconnect, reconnect, or work on PG&E-owned electric facilities. The company says an unauthorized disconnect or reconnect may mean a service interruption, repair charges, and other consequences, and it tells people to schedule through 1-877-743-7782. Pulling the meter yourself to save a trip is how a one-day job becomes a utility problem before the city ever sees the panel.
San José says the permit is available online and points people to its electrical-projects steps. The referenced documents on that page are the California Electrical Code and the PG&E Greenbook. Load calculations and undergrounding of the service conduit are generally not required, unless additional load is being added and the inspector wants the calculations, or the existing service entrance is already underground, or PG&E, Public Works, or the Building Division decides the service-entrance conductors need to go underground. If the new amps are for an EV charger, a heat pump, a battery, or a standby generator, say so on day one. That is added load. A mini-split on a new circuit is the same kind of surprise. The mini-split guide and the HVAC guide are those jobs, not a footnote on the panel quote.
The screws are step two. The meter is step five.
Clearances the inspector can fail before the cover is on
San José's placement rules, from that same page: the meter center sits 48 inches minimum and 75 inches maximum above the ground, and 66 inches is preferred. Clear space in front of the service panel is 30 inches wide by 36 inches deep, with minimum headroom of 6 feet 6 inches.
PG&E's ready-panel checklist, written against Design Standard 063927, is not a copy of that paragraph. It wants the panel on an exterior wall, readily accessible, not behind a fence, not inside a garage, and not blocked. It wants 36 inches of clear working space in front of the meter and 78 inches above the ground. The meter's center is 48 to 75 inches above finished grade. The panel is not within 36 inches of a home window. Neutral and ground are bonded only in the main-breaker section. Conduits are sealed against water at both ends, using the method in Design Standard 062288. A permanent, weather-resistant address label has to be visible from the street or the access point, which PG&E ties to Greenbook section 7.7.1. The last line of that checklist is to pass the local city or county inspection.
If you are in San José and served by PG&E, draw both. The city's working space and the utility's working space are not the same sentence. The meter-height band overlaps: both use 48 to 75 inches, and San José adds a preferred 66. The tighter dimension is the one that keeps the truck from making a second trip. A solar fast-track approval does not redraw those clearances. PG&E also publishes gas-meter clearances, citing Gas Design Standard J-15: 12 inches horizontally on either side of the gas meter set, 10 feet vertically above the gas regulator vent, and 36 inches radially from that vent. A new 200-amp can is often wider than the 100-amp can it replaces. That is how a panel "in the same place" lands inside the gas clearance. San José also prohibits gas-bonding connections on the utility side of the gas meter.
Same wall, two published rulers. Use the tighter one, then confirm it on your address.
What the final actually looks at
The breaker brand has to be listed for that panel, as stated on the panel label. A multi-wire circuit, the 3-wire 120/240-volt circuit that often feeds both a disposal and a dishwasher, needs an identified handle-tie on the single-pole breakers. Where branch-circuit wiring is modified, replaced, or extended, San José requires listed combination-type AFCI breakers. A panel upgrade that also lengthens a kitchen home-run is not "just the main."
Grounding is sized from California Electrical Code Table 250.66, which is the table that page tells you to use. If underground metal water piping is the only grounding electrode, a supplemental electrode is required. The grounding electrode conductor has to be continuous from the main service and land on the piping at an accessible point within 5 feet of where the water service enters the house. A single ground rod is not automatic. If you use only one, San José wants documentation from the contractor that resistance to earth is 25 ohms or less, before final approval. The rod itself is a minimum of 5/8 inch, with at least 8 feet of its length in the soil, as close as practicable to the service.
Bonding is a separate sentence. If the water service into the house is metal, that grounding connection does the bonding. If the water service is nonmetallic, the metal cold-water piping may be bonded anywhere accessible, commonly at the water heater. San José accepts a single bond to the cold piping and does not require a separate jumper to the hot, because mixing valves at tubs and showers tie the two. Gas piping, when gas appliances are present, is bonded through the equipment grounding conductor of the appliance circuit. If the wiring has no equipment grounds, the gas piping has to be bonded externally.
Two items get left off the quote. Where service equipment serving a dwelling is replaced, San José cites California Electrical Code 230.67 and requires a Type 1 or Type 2 surge-protection device. And a surface-mounted panel may not be mounted over the old semi-flush panel. The old panel comes out. At least one layer of water-resistive barrier goes over the studs or sheathing behind the new can. Boxes, splices, and loose conductors are not hidden behind it. The page cites CRC R703.1 and CEC 314.29 for that.
Service equipment over 225 amps has a step a plain 100-to-200 upgrade does not. Before meter release, the inspector wants the utility's maximum available short-circuit current, and the equipment has to be rated at least that high. Series-rated breaker combinations have to be the type listed on the panel label. San José also cites California Electrical Code 230.71: generally one service and one disconnecting means. Where two to six service disconnects are allowed, each one sits in its own enclosure or in a separate vertical section with barriers. A row of "solar-ready" service disconnects is a question for the counter, not a guess in the driveway.
San José's list, from the page updated April 15, 2026. Another city will write its own.
Two clocks, and they meet at the meter
San José's permit center is at City Hall, 200 E. Santa Clara Street, first floor. The published phone is 408-535-3555, weekdays 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Inspections are scheduled at SJPermits.org. Code questions can go to InfoInspector@sanjoseca.gov, or a message at 408-535-7641. Counter hours on that page are not the same as the phone hours. Read the current sheet before you drive over. None of that replaces the utility application.
PG&E runs the service change through Your Projects. You upload what it asks for, including permits when they apply. A job owner contacts you within five business days. Mandatory documents are due within 35 calendar days or the application can be cancelled, and the review is to finish within 66 calendar days, which PG&E describes as the CPUC timeline. A contract, if one is required, is signed within 90 days of receipt, stays valid up to 12 months once executed, and the design stays valid up to 18 months from issuance. Those clocks are not a promise about your city permit. The permit timing guide is the city side, not the utility crew.
Stick to the cost sentence PG&E actually wrote. If you are upgrading the panel, it says it will cover replacing distribution transformers, metering equipment, and underground distribution conductors so the service meets the new ampacity. That is not a bid for the electrician, the permit fee, or a trench. When a trench is required, PG&E says the customer pays for trenching and the permits that go with it. Call 811 before anyone digs. PG&E describes that California notice as at least two working days ahead, through Underground Service Alert, weekdays 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. except holidays.
A temporary shutdown is a different request. PG&E says those take about 30 business days to schedule, through the Building and Renovation Service Center at 1-877-743-7782, weekdays 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. If the city must inspect the same day the power is off, you line up the reconnect on that call, and someone 18 or older has to be there if the crew needs to come inside. Do not assume a 100-to-200 change qualifies for that short call. The FAQ lists increasing the panel size as a reason you may need Your Projects instead.
The order that keeps the lights from staying off is dull, and it works. Permit in hand. Utility job opened. Disconnect on a day the inspector can actually come. City release. Then the utility sets the meter. The inspection prep guide covers access and labels. It does not replace the correction the inspector writes down.
Published clocks from those two offices. Not a quote for your address.
If the power is already off
An open electrical permit with no final is still an open permit. The expired-permit guide is what happens when the inspections stop, and the failed-final playbook is the correction list, not a new theory of the job. If the panel was changed with no permit, the path is an after-the-fact permit, not a story at the listing appointment. Buyers ask. The selling guide is that conversation, and an inspector who is already there for the service can notice other open work. Read whether the inspector will flag other unpermitted work before you hope they only look at the new can. Who signs the application is local. Ask, and read who pulls the permit before the deposit assumes the wrong name.
Outside California: how Portland packages a service change
Not every city writes a San José-style checklist, but most have a way of naming the job on the application. Portland’s version is a useful comparison. It defines the service/feeder as everything from where the utility connects at the house, usually the weatherhead on the mast, to the main distribution panel: the meter base or meter-main, the service conductors in the mast, the feeders, and the panel itself.
A single 200-amp service/feeder line item covers the first main panel and all the circuits that were in the old panel, even if they have to be moved or extended to reach the new one. Portland uses that same line item for replacing a basement breaker box, installing a new meter base to go to 200 amps, or adding a subpanel next to the existing one for more breaker spaces. New circuits, or circuits you alter or extend beyond reaching the panel, are bought separately. The application has to show the panel’s amperage, and the work gets a service inspection (codes 120/145) before the final.
One more Portland rule fits the “power is already off” situation. If a house has been without power for six months or more and the utility won’t reconnect without a city inspection, the city sells a “service/reconnect only” permit. It covers one inspection and no work. If the inspector finds something that has to be fixed first, a contractor needs a full permit.
The short version for a service change
A 100-to-200-amp upgrade is a service change. San José requires the electrical permit and publishes the clearances, grounding, bonding, AFCI, and surge-device rules above. PG&E schedules the meter connection after the local inspection has passed, and it does not want anyone but its own crews or authorized contractors pulling its meter. Start both applications before the disconnect day.
Last checked: October 31, 2026.
Official sources
- City of San José — Electrical service panel upgrades (page updated April 15, 2026)
- Portland Permitting & Development — Lights, outlets, switches, and service reconnect (service/feeder definition, 200A line item, reconnect-only permit)
- PG&E — Residential project resources (service-change process and the ready-panel checklist tied to Design Standard 063927)
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