Electrical
What to Know Before a Commercial Electrical Panel Upgrade
Panel upgrades come up constantly in commercial electrical work — a tenant build-out needs more capacity, an older building's panel is at or past its rated load, or an insurance inspection flags outdated equipment. It's one of the most common jobs, and also one of the most misunderstood by property owners and GCs who aren't in the trade.
It's rarely just "swap the panel"
A panel upgrade almost always touches more than the panel itself. Depending on the building, it can involve upsizing service conductors, coordinating with the utility on service capacity, updating grounding and bonding to current code, and making sure downstream circuits and breakers are actually rated for what's now feeding them. Treating it as a simple swap is how projects run into surprise change orders mid-job.
Permits and inspections aren't a formality
Commercial panel work requires permitting and inspection in virtually every jurisdiction, and for good reason — a panel is one of the highest-risk points of failure in a building's electrical system if it's done wrong. Any contractor proposing to skip or rush that process is a red flag, not a time-saver.
Timing matters for occupied or operating spaces
A lot of the panel work I did across retail tenant build-outs — Tanger Outlets locations, automotive dealership service centers, and similar commercial spaces — had to happen around business hours or store opening deadlines. That takes real scheduling discipline: staging materials in advance, doing as much prep work as possible before the shutdown window, and having a clear plan for exactly how long power will actually be down.
Questions worth asking a contractor
- Will this require a utility coordination or service upgrade, and how long does that typically take?
- What's the actual downtime window, and what's the fallback if it runs long?
- Are downstream breakers and wiring being evaluated, or just the panel itself?
- Who's pulling the permit, and when is the inspection scheduled?
A contractor who can answer these clearly, before the work starts, is generally one who's done the job right before.