Panel & service upgrades in Fort Worth

A 100-amp service was generous in 1958: a range, a dryer, lights, and a television. It cannot carry 2026. Add a heat pump and a Level 2 EV charger to that ranch and the load calculation goes over the service rating before you plug in a toaster — not marginally, structurally. This is arithmetic, not sales pressure, and the configurator on this site runs the same numbers we do so you can see for yourself.

The upgrade replaces the panel, the meter socket where needed, and often the service entrance conductors. $3,400 covers a straightforward overhead service with a sound mast; $4,800 is the far end — underground service, stucco repair, or a relocated panel. We tell you which end you are on before anything is scheduled, in writing.

Here is what nobody in this trade tells you: the slow part of a Fort Worth panel upgrade is not the electrician and it is not the city. It is coordinating the service disconnect and reconnect with Oncor, and it sets the schedule for everything else — and in storm season the same Oncor crews are rebuilding feeders, so the queue stretches exactly when panel damage peaks. The permit timeline on our homepage puts real day ranges on every step, including that one.

What we do about it: the Oncor request goes in the same day as the permit application, not after it clears — running the two clocks in parallel instead of in series is worth a week on most jobs. Your panel is dead for one working day; the wait either side of that day belongs to the utility, and pretending otherwise is how this trade earns its reputation.

A panel change without a permit is cheaper, faster — and it resurfaces at resale, when your buyer’s inspector asks for the record and there is none. Every Meridian panel job is permitted under TECL 990417 with Simone Aduba the master of record, rough-inspected, and finaled. The inspection record is yours to keep; it is a document worth real money the day you sell.