Three things decide how your job runs
For anything bigger than a repair, three parties are involved: your electrician, the office that issues the permit and sends the inspector, and the utility that owns the power up to your meter. Which office and which utility depends on your exact address, and the combinations across our service area are more varied than most people expect. Here's the map.
The City of Los Angeles
If you're inside the city limits, your permit comes from the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety (LADBS) and your power comes from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP). This covers most of the San Fernando Valley (Woodland Hills, Reseda, Encino, Sherman Oaks, Studio City, Northridge, Porter Ranch, Canoga Park, West Hills, Van Nuys, Chatsworth and more), the Westside, Hollywood, the Eastside and the Harbor area.
For a panel or service upgrade in the city, LADWP has to approve the new service and schedule the disconnect and reconnect. That approval and scheduling is usually the longest step in the whole project.
Cities with their own utility
Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena each run their own city utility (Burbank Water and Power, Glendale Water and Power, Pasadena Water and Power) and their own building departments. Azusa, Vernon and part of Cerritos in Los Angeles County, and Anaheim in Orange County, also run municipal utilities. The process is similar, but the rules, fees and scheduling are the city's own.
Everywhere else in Los Angeles County
Independent cities such as Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Calabasas, Torrance, Long Beach, Santa Clarita, Palmdale and Lancaster issue permits through their own building departments. Unincorporated communities (Altadena, Topanga, East Los Angeles, Hacienda Heights, Rowland Heights, La Crescenta-Montrose and others) go through Los Angeles County Building and Safety. The utility for nearly all of these is Southern California Edison (SCE).
Orange and Ventura counties
Orange County cities use their own building departments, with SCE as the utility for most of the county. Anaheim runs its own utility, and the southern end of the county (San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano, Dana Point, and parts of Laguna Niguel, Mission Viejo and Rancho Santa Margarita) is served by San Diego Gas & Electric rather than SCE. Ventura County cities and unincorporated areas use city or county building departments with SCE.
What this means for your timeline
- A repair or a new outlet is usually done in one visit, with no utility involvement.
- An EV charger or new circuits need a permit and an inspection, but not a service change, so the utility stays out of it.
- A panel or service upgrade needs the permit, the utility's approval and scheduling, the installation, and the final inspection. That is why it is measured in weeks even though the work itself takes about a day. See panel upgrades for the full process.
What we need from you
- Your address, so we can confirm the office and utility before the estimate.
- Clear access to the panel and meter on the day of the visit.
- If you rent or manage the property, who can sign for the work.