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Electrical Panel Upgrades in Austin

We publish what the rules actually say about electrical work across the Austin metro — sourced, dated, and specific to your permit office and your utility. The work itself is carried out by electricians licensed by the state.

A panel upgrade replaces the equipment that everything else in the house depends on: the main breaker, the bus the branch circuits land on, and often the meter enclosure and the service conductors feeding it. It is the one electrical job that involves your utility as well as your city, and that is what makes it slower and more procedural than the size of the work suggests.

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Why this job is different in Austin

Almost everything written about panel upgrades treats the permit as the first step. In Austin Energy territory it is not.

The utility's own contractor guidance sets out the order plainly. For a residential service under 350 amps single-phase, outside the Downtown Network, where the infrastructure already exists, the contractor files an Electric Service Planning Application first. That application goes to the utility's review team, comes back stamped, and the stamped copy is then attached to the electric permit application filed with Austin Development Services. A site visit fixes the spot location — the point where the service physically attaches to the building. Metering equipment goes in, the city inspects, and only after all of that does the utility energise the service.

Austin Energy is explicit that the project timeline to energisation starts at that first submission. Not when the electrician arrives; not when the permit is issued. If someone tells you their crew is "waiting on the utility", this sequence is usually where the wait is, and it started weeks earlier than the day you noticed.

Above 350 amps, or inside the Downtown Network, the route is heavier: an application per address, a CAD site plan, a riser diagram and an address verification report, all submitted through the utility's build portal. Worth knowing before someone quotes you a two-week turnaround on a large-service job.

Outside Austin Energy territory the sequence belongs to whichever utility serves your address, and it is not safe to assume it matches. Each area page names the candidates for that city.

How to tell you need it

The honest version: most houses do not need a bigger service, they need a panel that is not full or not faulty. The cases that genuinely point to an upgrade are:

A fuse box rather than breakers, or a main rated at 60 or 100 amps in a house that has since gained central air, an electric range or a second oven.
No spare spaces on the bus, and no room for tandem breakers.
A panel from a manufacturer whose breakers are no longer made, so a failed breaker cannot be replaced like for like.
A load calculation that fails once you add what you are actually planning — an EV charger, a heat pump, a hot tub, a workshop feed.
Visible damage: rust in the enclosure, scorching around a breaker, or a main that is warm under normal load.

The last one is not a scheduling item. If your panel is warm, discoloured or making noise, stop adding load to it and have it looked at.

What it costs

No figures are published on this page, and that is deliberate.

The numbers circulating for this market come from pages that cite nothing and carry no date, so there is no way to tell what year, what scope or what jurisdiction they describe. A panel swap that reuses the existing service, a full service upgrade with a new mast and meter, and an upgrade that also needs the utility to change what feeds the property are three different jobs with three different costs, and the third one is not really under the contractor's control.

What to ask for instead of a headline number: a written scope that separates the panel, the service conductors and the meter work; whether the utility application is included; and what happens to the price if the spot location visit changes the point of attachment.

Permits and inspection for this work

This work is permitted and inspected everywhere this site covers. The question people actually ask is whether they can do it themselves, and here the answer is unusually clear-cut.

Can you do it yourself?

Three rules stack here, and the answer is not the one most people expect.

The state does not require a licence to work on a dwelling you own and live in (Texas Occupations Code sec. 1305.003(a)(6)).
But your city still regulates it — the state exemption is not an exemption from municipal rules (Texas Occupations Code sec. 1305.201).
Austin's homestead permit has limits. You need a filed homestead exemption, it must be your principal residence, and you cannot have taken a homestead permit for another property in the previous twelve months (City of Austin Code sec. 25-11-36).

And the part that catches people out: a homestead permit cannot cover work on the main electric service — which is exactly what a panel or service upgrade is.

Texas does not require a licence to work on a dwelling you own and live in, under Occupations Code sec. 1305.003(a)(6) — but sec. 1305.201 preserves municipal regulation, and Austin's homestead permit (City of Austin Code sec. 25-11-36) expressly excludes work on the main electric service. A panel or service upgrade is the main electric service. It is the one common job the homeowner exemption does not reach.

So this is contractor work, and the contractor should hold a TECL electrical contractor licence. State rules require that number to appear on their advertising, their vehicles and their written proposals — ask for it, and check it against the state's licence search before anyone starts.

What is behind the grey door: a main breaker at the top, a bus bar carrying the full service down the centre, and branch breakers feeding one circuit each. Running out of spaces on that bus is a different problem from running out of amps.

Worth reading before you call

Where we cover

Austinone utility
Georgetownpage in progress
Round Rockone utility
Cedar Park2 possible utilities
Pflugervillepage in progress
Leanderone utility
Lakeway2 possible utilities
Dripping Springsone utility
Kyle & Budapage in progress
San Marcos3 possible utilities

Common questions

How long will my power be off?

Plan for most of a working day. The disconnection and reconnection are the utility's, so the outage window is not entirely in the contractor's hands.

Do I need an upgrade before adding an EV charger?

Not automatically. It depends on a load calculation for your actual house, not on the age of the panel. Ask for the calculation — a contractor who says you need 200 amps without doing one has not checked.

Can I keep my existing meter?

Sometimes. Whether the meter enclosure and the service conductors also have to change is a question for the utility's review of the service application, which is another reason that application comes first.

Who inspects the work?

The city inspects the electrical installation. The utility handles its own side and energises last. Two approvals, in that order.

Talk to an electrician about this job

Tell us which city you are in and what you need done, and we will connect you with a licensed contractor who works your area.