Philadelphia, PA Building Safety: Electrical Permits (2026)

3 of the Philadelphia Code requires an electrical permit for any installation, alteration, replacement or repair of electrical and communication wiring and equipment in or on a structure or premises, and for altering an existing installation. The city administers the rule through Subcode E, the Philadelphia Electrical Code, which incorporates NFPA 70, the National Electrical Code, in its 2017 edition, as referenced through Chapter 27 of the adopted Building Code, Subcode B. 3 lists nine activities that do not need a separate electrical permit: minor repair and maintenance such as replacing lamps, circuit breakers, fuses, switches, lamp sockets, ballasts, drop cords, receptacles and light fixtures on existing connections; plugging approved portable equipment into approved permanent receptacles; utility-owned generation, transmission, distribution or metering equipment; temporary testing systems; wiring removal during total demolition; and low-voltage wiring in one- and two-family homes and Group U occupancies.

1 must show, in sufficient detail, the location and capacity of lighting facilities, electrically operated equipment and circuits covered by the scope of work. 2: twenty-five dollars for every one thousand dollars, or fraction, of estimated electrical construction cost, with a fifty-dollar minimum and a fifteen-thousand-dollar maximum; for solar or photovoltaic installations, the cost of arrays and inverters is excluded from that calculation. Related licenses carry their own fees: a two-thousand-dollar annual electrical inspection agency license plus a two-hundred-dollar application fee, a sixty-dollar electrical inspector application with a one-hundred-dollar initial and renewal fee, and a sixty-dollar electrical contractor application with a one-hundred-sixty-dollar initial and renewal fee.