Electrical Newark

From PG&E's release to a charger permit: electrical work in Newark homes

Newark lets a service upgrade or minor wiring job go in without drawings, but the power stays off until its Building Inspection Division passes the work and tells PG&E it may reconnect; the owner then makes that call. Chargers have their own expedited lane, Chapter 15.55, which treats a charger as a continuous load. More than half the city's homes date from 1960 to 1979, and Ava Community Energy has supplied their electricity since 2021.

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  • Rules on this page checked against 19 public sources, October 2026
Code in force
2025 California Electrical Code, Ordinance 555 of October 2025
Charger permits
Expedited under Chapter 15.55, adopted September 2020
Rooftop solar permits
Instant through SolarAPP+; other systems emailed with plans
Solar on Ava service
3,300 of about 17,700 Newark accounts, October 2026

The work

Where a Newark electrical job starts on paper

  • Upgrading the service

    Electrical service upgrades are on Newark's short list of residential applications that need no plans, so the request is emailed to the Building Inspection Division rather than sent through plan check. The load math runs on one of two city worksheets. The dwelling form under Article 220.82 asks for the requested service size and the PG&E application number; the form for an existing service under Article 220.83 ends by setting the required minimum against what the house already has.

  • A Level 2 charger on an older service

    Both Newark worksheets give the charger a line of its own, added after the demand factor is taken off the general household loads, so its full rating counts. Chapter 15.55 says the same in plain terms: charging equipment is a continuous load in every new or existing service calculation, and wall- or floor-mounted units must be anchored to code and the maker's instructions. Issuing the permit does not let anyone switch the charger on; that waits for the city's inspection and, where needed, the utility.

  • Solar and a battery on the roof

    Newark has adopted SolarAPP+, the automated portal that issues a permit at once for new rooftop solar and storage systems passing its eligibility checklist. A system outside the checklist needs plans, which the city accepts by email because the review is short. Interconnection is a separate application to PG&E; Ava says a solar customer need not contact it, since PG&E reports the new system, and that a system approved after April 14, 2023 is probably on the Solar Billing Plan. Ava's SmartHome Battery program pays owners who share battery capacity with its virtual power plant.

  • Rewiring a kitchen or bathroom

    The city's remodel handouts list what the inspector expects. In a kitchen: ground-fault protection on every countertop receptacle, on receptacles within 6 feet of the sink and on the dishwasher outlet; arc-fault protection and tamper-resistant devices on every outlet; at least two 20-amp countertop circuits; a 40- or 50-amp circuit for an electric range or oven. A bathroom needs its own 20-amp circuit and a vacancy-sensor light, with no fixture within 3 feet sideways or 8 feet up from the tub rim. If the panel cannot take the new circuits, the kitchen handout warns, an upgrade or a subpanel may follow.

Free, no obligation. Next, add your details in the request form.

The Silliman Activity and Family Aquatic Center in Newark
The Silliman Activity and Family Aquatic Center in Newark. Photo: LPS.1, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The houses here

Tract-era services, and newer subdivisions with buried lines

Newark's Housing Element counts 10,385 single-family houses in 2020, 70 percent of all homes, and dates 53 percent of the city's housing to the twenty years from 1960, so many of the houses now asking for a bigger service are more than forty-five years old. The same document quotes the rule for newer tracts: overhead electric, phone and cable lines inside a new subdivision, and along its streets out to the centerline, go underground, leaving only surface transformers, pedestal terminal boxes and meter cabinets above grade. It adds that new development is generally expected to replace or upgrade its electrical service under PG&E's guidance, decided case by case, because no two lots start from the same equipment.

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Free to request, and you agree the scope and price with the person you hire before work starts. In California, a job over $1,000 in labor and materials, or one that needs a building permit, must be done by a contractor licensed by the CSLB in the right class. Ask for the license number and check it at cslb.ca.gov.

Permits and local rules

Newark code sections behind an electrical permit

  • Utility Services handout and Chapter 15.12

    PG&E has jurisdiction over the lines up to each house meter, and the division's utility handout says PG&E will not energize a new, replaced or upgraded service panel, or a reinstalled meter socket, until the city has permitted and inspected the work. Newark then tells PG&E that power may be restored, and asking PG&E for it falls to the owner. The municipal code backs this up: Section 15.12.190 makes it unlawful to connect power to permit work without the building official's approval, and Section 15.12.120 lets the official order service cut off to unpermitted or hazardous wiring.

    Newark Municipal Code, Chapter 15.12 (opens in a new tab)

  • Building Permit Requirements brochure

    Newark's brochure exempts replacing existing flush or snap switches, fuses, lamp sockets and surface-mounted light fixtures, along with other minor maintenance and repair. It names, among jobs that do need a permit, non-portable equipment hard-wired into a building's electrical system. A permit can be issued to an appropriately licensed contractor, to the owner, or to a tenant holding the owner's written authorization, and it lapses if work has not started within 180 days or stalls for 180 days after the last approved inspection.

    Source: City of Newark Building Inspection Division (newarkca.gov)

  • Chapter 15.55, expedited charging station permits

    Adopted in September 2020 to carry out the state's AB 1236, the chapter requires a published checklist and accepts electronic submittals and signatures. An application meeting the checklist is deemed complete and approved; an incomplete one gets a written correction notice listing every deficiency. The building official may not make approval depend on a homeowners association, and only a finding, backed by substantial evidence, of a specific adverse impact on health or safety can send a charger to a use permit.

    Newark Municipal Code, Chapter 15.55 (opens in a new tab)

State license for this work: C-10 Electrical. Look up a contractor's license on the CSLB website (cslb.ca.gov).

Part by part

Newark addresses that change an electrical plan

  • Old Town/Central Newark and Mirabeau Park

    The Housing Element finds some of the city's oldest houses here, with a concentration of substandard conditions, and Program H1.1 aims repair outreach at these streets: Alameda County's rehabilitation and minor home repair programs, Renew Alameda County and Rebuilding Together Oakland East Bay, with about 13 households helped a year. A lower-income owner facing a failed panel or wiring repair can ask city housing staff whether one applies.

  • Southern Newark's mapped flood zone

    The Building Inspection Division keeps detailed flood maps, and the Housing Element puts much of the city's south inside the 100-year zone. There, Chapter 15.40 counts work reaching 50 percent of a building's market value as a substantial improvement, and a detached garage allowed below the base flood elevation must have its electrical system at or above that line, which shapes where a garage subpanel or charger circuit can go.

Before you hire

Settle these before a Newark electrician emails the application

  • Which city worksheet will you fill in, Article 220.82 with our PG&E application number or 220.83 for the existing service?
  • Once the city passes the new panel, will you ask PG&E to reconnect, or is that request left to us as owners?
  • Does our rooftop system pass the SolarAPP+ eligibility checklist, or will you send Newark plans by email?
  • Will the charger sit on its own line of the load calculation as a continuous load, as Chapter 15.55 requires?
  • Is your C-10 Electrical license active on cslb.ca.gov, and is it the license written on the permit application?

Free, no obligation. Next, add your details in the request form.

Questions

Newark wiring questions with answers from city documents

Can I swap a ceiling light in my Newark house without a permit?

Usually. Newark's permit requirements brochure exempts replacing existing switches, fuses, lamp sockets and surface-mounted light fixtures, along with other minor maintenance and repair. A new circuit, a moved box or any equipment hard-wired into the house's electrical system is permit work, and the brochure names hard-wired equipment specifically.

Our HOA has not answered about the charger. Can Newark still issue the permit?

Yes. Chapter 15.55 bars the building official from conditioning a charging-station permit on approval from an association as the Civil Code defines it. The association's own review stays a matter between you and it. The city can send a charger to a use permit only on a finding, based on substantial evidence, of a specific adverse impact on health or safety.

Who turns the power back on after a Newark panel replacement?

PG&E, once the city lets it. The utility handout says PG&E will not energize a replaced or upgraded panel until Newark has permitted and inspected it. After the inspection the city notifies PG&E, and the owner then calls PG&E to request service. Results of each inspection arrive by email to the onsite contact rather than on a posted card.

Does Newark require EV charging or all-electric wiring beyond the state codes?

Not today. Newark's code adopts the state energy and green building codes with no local amendments listed. Climate Action Newark, adopted on January 22, 2026, only asks staff to consider an EV charging reach code for new homes and businesses, and its action EN-1-A calls for a retrofit plan with incentives that would help cover electrical panel upgrades.

Is Ava or PG&E my electricity company in Newark?

Both. The City Council voted in 2019 to join Ava Community Energy, which began serving Newark in 2021 and buys the electricity, with accounts placed on its Bright Choice service unless the customer picks Renewable 100 or returns to PG&E. PG&E keeps jurisdiction over the lines up to each meter, which is why a panel job waits for PG&E.

Where these facts come from

Checked against these public sources in October 2026. Rules and programs change: confirm permit requirements with the city before work starts, and a contractor's license on the CSLB website.

  • newarkca.gov: building inspection division (newarkca.gov)
  • newarkca.gov: applying for a permit (newarkca.gov)
  • newarkca.gov: 636504160867100000 (newarkca.gov)
  • newarkca.gov: 636504125213900000 (newarkca.gov)
  • newarkca.gov: 639130513297370000 (newarkca.gov)
  • newarkca.gov: 639130513001570000 (newarkca.gov)
  • newarkca.gov: 638973470963570000 (newarkca.gov)
  • newarkca.gov: 638973471184700000 (newarkca.gov)
  • newarkca.gov: 636504160415370000 (newarkca.gov)
  • newarkca.gov: 639070892814900000 (newarkca.gov)
  • library.municode.com: code of ordinances
  • library.municode.com: code of ordinances

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