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Electrical Panel Upgrade · Maryland
A panel upgrade replaces your breaker panel, and often the service entrance, so the home can safely carry more load: an EV charger, heat pump, induction range or addition. It always needs a permit, and usually needs the utility to disconnect and reconnect power.
Baltimore rowhomes and older suburbs carry aging wiring, and summer storms bring surge and outage calls.
Across the Mid-Atlantic, homes deal with humid summers, coastal storms and occasional ice. Permit offices, utilities and housing stock differ by city, which affects how electrical panel upgrade is planned and scheduled. These local guides cover the Maryland cities where we have written specific notes.
Many Baltimore rowhomes have 60 or 100 amp services that cannot support central air, a modern kitchen and a basement apartment together. Service upgrades are coordinated with BGE, which handles the meter and service drop, and in rowhome blocks meter location and access can complicate the work.
Utility: BGE
Woodside Park, Indian Spring and Sligo Park Hills are full of 1930s to 1950s Colonials and Cape Cods with 60 or 100 amp services, and Montgomery County's push toward electrification has many owners adding heat pumps, heat pump water heaters, induction ranges and EV chargers. That combination usually needs a 200 amp service, though a load calculation and smart load management can sometimes avoid it.
Utility: Pepco
Annapolis homes in the historic district and in waterfront neighborhoods such as Eastport often have small services, and adding central air, a heat pump, an EV charger or a generator inlet usually requires an upgrade. In areas exposed to tidal flooding and storm surge, an upgrade is the right time to move the panel and meter higher.
Utility: BGE
1. Load calculation
The electrician sizes the service from your existing and planned loads.
2. Permit and utility coordination
The permit is pulled and the utility schedules disconnect and reconnect.
3. Install the panel and service parts
New panel, breakers, grounding and bonding, and service conductors or meter base if needed.
4. Inspection
The local inspector checks the work before or after power is restored, depending on the jurisdiction.
Electricians set their own prices; local permit fees and utility requirements add to these factors.
Permits come from the city or county where the home is. For example: Baltimore: Baltimore City and Baltimore County are separate jurisdictions. Silver Spring: Electrical permits come from Montgomery County's Department of Permitting Services. Annapolis: Electrical permits inside city limits come from the City of Annapolis' planning and zoning permits office; Anne Arundel County handles areas outside the city.
Baltimore: BGE. Silver Spring: Pepco. Annapolis: BGE.
If you have 100 amps or less and are adding an EV charger, heat pump or electric range, or your panel is a Federal Pacific, Zinsco or fuse box, ask an electrician for a load calculation.
Usually most of one working day, depending on the scope and how quickly the utility reconnects.
Yes, in essentially every US jurisdiction. The electrician pulls it and schedules the inspection.
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