Electrician in Pico Rivera

What we do in Pico Rivera

Everything we do in Pico Rivera, with what each job usually involves here. The photos are from our own jobs.

Panel upgrades in Pico Rivera

Residential panel upgrades in Pico Rivera filed as an Express Permit where the zone allows it, with the SCE portal request and the city inspection lined up in the right order.

More on panel upgradesCall (844) 430-7681

EV charger installation in Pico Rivera

Level 2 chargers for Pico Rivera garages and driveways, starting with the load figures the city's EV charging checklist asks for on a service that often dates from the 1950s.

More on EV charger installationCall (844) 430-7681

Electrical repair & troubleshooting in Pico Rivera

Finding the cause of tripping breakers, flickering lights and dead outlets in Pico Rivera houses where decades of add-ons sit on the original circuits.

More on electrical repair & troubleshootingCall (844) 430-7681

Rewiring in Pico Rivera

Partial or whole-house rewiring for Pico Rivera's 1940s and 1950s homes, replacing ungrounded runs and adding the circuits a modern kitchen and laundry need.

More on rewiringCall (844) 430-7681

Lighting & ceiling fans in Pico Rivera

Recessed, exterior and fan-rated fixtures for remodeled Pico Rivera houses, and LED retrofits for warehouses and shops near Telegraph Road and Washington Boulevard.

More on lighting & ceiling fansCall (844) 430-7681

Outlets, GFCI & new circuits in Pico Rivera

Grounded outlets in place of two-prong ones, GFCI and AFCI protection where the code now calls for it, and new 240-volt circuits for dryers, ranges and heat pumps.

More on outlets, GFCI & new circuitsCall (844) 430-7681

Mobilehome electrical in Pico Rivera

Repairs, added circuits and panel work for residents and owners in Pico Rivera's six mobilehome parks, after confirming which agency inspects the park.

More on mobilehome electricalCall (844) 430-7681

Commercial electrical in Pico Rivera

Tenant improvements, three-phase service work, machine circuits and lighting for the industrial buildings near the Towne Center and Telegraph Road, and for shops along Whittier, Washington and Rosemead boulevards.

More on commercial electricalCall (844) 430-7681

Also: subpanels, dedicated circuits, 240-volt outlets for dryers and ranges, exterior and security lighting, hard-wired smoke alarms, and small repairs of every kind.

Working in Pico Rivera

Infinity Electrical is a licensed electrical contractor taking on panel upgrades, EV charger circuits, rewiring, repairs and commercial electrical work in Pico Rivera. Permits inside the city come from the City of Pico Rivera's Building Division at City Hall, and Southern California Edison owns the wires and meters, while the city's own program, Pico Rivera Innovative Municipal Energy (PRIME), buys the energy for customers enrolled in it.

Pico Rivera sits on a strip of flat land between two rivers, the Rio Hondo and the San Gabriel, just downstream of the Whittier Narrows. The city traces its start to the 1870s, when railroad lines reached the area and settlers planted citrus, avocado and walnut groves; two country towns, Pico and Rivera, grew up among them. The postwar housing boom pushed the two together, and on January 7, 1958, 56 percent of voters chose incorporation, making Pico Rivera the 61st city in Los Angeles County. Ford had bought a large tract of land in the city the year before for an assembly plant.

The timing shows up in nearly every electrical panel in town. According to the July 2023 draft of the city's 2021–2029 housing element, which uses 2018 Census survey data, half of the housing stock went up in the nine years from 1950 to 1959, and only about 2.5 percent has been added since 2000. Most of those houses were wired for a refrigerator, a washer and a few lamps, not for central air, a heat pump water heater and a car charger. Before adding loads like these, it is worth having a licensed electrician, such as Infinity Electrical Inc. (CSLB #1100231), review the panel and the service size against what you plan to add.

What's common in Pico Rivera homes

Pico Rivera is mostly single-family houses from one decade, with a smaller share of apartments, six mobile home parks and a large industrial and retail base along its main boulevards.

• The 1950s tracts. In the housing element draft's year-built figures, 50.6% of units date from 1950 to 1959, 12.9% from the 1940s and 5.4% from 1939 or earlier, so roughly two in three homes are more than 65 years old. Original fuse boxes and small breaker panels, two-prong outlets and ungrounded circuits are common in houses of that age, and a panel upgrade is often the first step before a remodel, a heat pump or an induction range.
• Single-family, mostly owned. The same draft counts 17,244 housing units in 2018, 76.1% of them single-family detached and 4.8% attached, with 16.7% in multi-family buildings. About 67% of households own their homes, and 93.4% of owners live in a detached house, so most work is arranged by the people who live in the house.
• Renters and crowded households. Roughly a third of households rent, split between detached houses and apartments. The draft found 14.5% of occupied units overcrowded in 2018. More people on the same few circuits means more tripped breakers, warm cords and space heaters, which is where troubleshooting and added circuits and GFCI protection come in.
• Mobile home parks. A 2025 city presentation on the mobilehome rent stabilization ordinance counted six mobilehome parks with 404 spaces in Pico Rivera, and the housing element draft counts 386 mobile homes. California's Department of Housing and Community Development is the enforcement agency for mobilehome parks unless a local agency has taken that role with its approval, so the inspecting agency is confirmed before work in a park starts.
• Industry and retail on the old Ford site. The city's general plan says the Ford plant built 1.4 million cars before it closed in 1980; Northrop then bought the plant and established a 2.0 million-square-foot facility that became home to the B-2 bomber program; in 1993 Northrop announced that it would close the plant in 1997. The site is now the Pico Rivera Towne Center, a 630,000-square-foot retail center, alongside several million square feet of industrial space. Industrial building also followed Telegraph Road, Paramount Boulevard and the San Gabriel River, and that is where three-phase service, machine circuits and high-bay lighting come up.
• Shops along the boulevards. The general plan describes commercial development along Beverly, Whittier and Washington boulevards, Slauson Avenue and Telegraph Road, with smaller shopping areas on Rosemead Boulevard and Durfee Avenue. Restaurants, clinics and storefronts there call for tenant improvements, new lighting and dedicated equipment circuits.

Permits and power in Pico Rivera

The City of Pico Rivera (ZIP code 90660; 90661 and 90662 are post office box ZIPs) covers just under nine square miles, according to the city. Montebello and Commerce lie to the west, Downey to the south and southwest, Santa Fe Springs to the southeast, Whittier to the east, and the Whittier Narrows Recreation Area directly to the north. Unincorporated West Whittier-Los Nietos also borders the city, and there Los Angeles County, not Pico Rivera, provides building permits, plan checks and inspections through its Public Works department. A mailing address alone does not settle the question near those edges, so the parcel's city is worth checking before work is planned.

How permits work in Pico Rivera. The city's permitting FAQ says work involving electrical systems almost always needs a permit, with new outlets and rewired circuits given as examples. Applications go through the city's online permit system, and inspections are requested by logging into the Pico Rivera Virtual City Hall portal or by looking up a permit by case number or address. For a residential panel upgrade, the city offers an Express Permit, available in certain zones, including single-family and variable-density multiple-family residential, to a contractor who can provide an active California contractor's license and a City of Pico Rivera business license. Other electrical work may go through plan check first.

EV chargers. The Building Division publishes an Electric Vehicle Charging Station checklist (form 072) that it describes as intended to help expedite permitting. It covers single-family, multi-family, commercial and mixed-use sites and asks for the existing load, the added charger load and the total, with a load calculation estimator for houses, along with the charger maker's installation literature and a signed statement of compliance. The form states that once the checklist is deemed complete, a permit shall be issued, although an installation that might have a specific adverse impact on public health or safety needs additional verification first. In a 1950s house the load figures decide whether a charger fits on the existing service or comes with a panel upgrade.

Edison and PRIME. The city launched PRIME in September 2017 as a locally run, not-for-profit community choice program, and today it buys power for more than 18,000 accounts. Pico Rivera is not a member of Clean Power Alliance, the program that serves neighbouring Whittier and Downey. SCE's joint rate comparison, using rates dated May and June 2026, describes the split: PRIME's rate covers producing or buying the electricity, and SCE's delivery rate covers bringing it to the house. For electrical work the supplier changes nothing. SCE lists a panel upgrade or meter spot on an existing service connection among the requests on its Building, Renovation, and Project Planning page, and that request is coordinated with the city's inspection.

The dam on the north side. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers rated the Whittier Narrows Dam “very high urgency,” its highest-risk category, in 2016, and the city's project page says Pico Rivera sits at the base of the dam. The Corps' safety modification project is expected to finish by 2031, according to the city, which also lists traffic changes on Lincoln Avenue and Rosemead Boulevard among the effects of major construction planned for 2025–2029. Scheduling for jobs in the north part of town takes those changes into account.

Houses with existing solar. Pico Rivera takes eligible residential rooftop solar permits through SolarAPP+, an automated online review. Infinity Electrical works on the electrical side only and does not put in solar systems. When a house already has a system, the panel, charger or circuit work is planned around it under a separate electrical permit.

The permits and utilities guide explains the whole picture for the three counties we serve.

Around Pico Rivera

Cross Pico Rivera's city limits and the energy supplier, the permit office or both can change. Whittier, to the east, and Downey, to the south, both belong to Clean Power Alliance rather than PRIME, and each has its own Building & Safety staff. Montebello, to the west, issues electrical permits through its own Building & Safety Division and is not on CPA's member list. Santa Fe Springs and Commerce are separate cities as well. Unincorporated West Whittier-Los Nietos takes its building permits from Los Angeles County Public Works. A little farther out, our East Los Angeles, El Monte and Norwalk pages cover nearby areas with different rules again.

• Whittier
• Downey
• Montebello
• Santa Fe Springs
• Commerce
• West Whittier-Los Nietos
• Norwalk

See the full list of areas we cover across Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties.