Federal Pacific panel replacement in Salem

PGE will let a licensed electrician pull a single-phase residential meter after notice. The city still wants the Church Street file first. Wire Smart, a Salem shop, writes up Federal Pacific Stab-Lok and Zinsco swaps on its own page and prints both its BCD and CCB numbers there.

The Permit Application Center can issue the electrical permit. It cannot place PGE’s seal. The contractor doing the work signs PAC’s authorization form and is the one who calls Service Coordination before the power comes back. Those two systems do not match.

What the utilities actually wrote

Check whether the bill says Portland General Electric. Confirm the logo on the bill before anyone prices the job.

Start with the January 2026 Electric Service Requirements. Customers are not authorized to relocate any meter belonging to PGE or interfere in any way with the meter or its connection.

Licensed electricians are authorized to remove single-phase 120/240 V residential meters.

The person responsible for electrical work must notify PGE’s Service Coordination team before re-energization. After the approval sticker, the PGE call goes to 503-323-6700.

PGE places seals on meter rings and associated service equipment to prevent injury and tampering. That is not a homeowner meter-pull path.

The remodeling checklist adds a second rule. Once the city or county has approved the meter base with a sticker attached, you call PGE. The city or county does not notify PGE.

PGE does not publish a guaranteed power-off hour count. The listed shop writes a 4 to 6 hour planned outage. That is a contractor field note.

Permits in Salem

Inside the city, start at the Permit Application Center, 440 Church Street SE, 5th Floor. The phone is 503-588-6256.

Who pulls the permit matters. Salem’s trade-permit page wants the contractor’s license numbers on the application. If the applicant is not the contractor, a contractor authorization form must be signed by the actual contractor doing the work before the permit can be issued. A permit in your name does not take the hired shop off the paperwork, since Salem wants its license numbers on the application.

This page is the Church Street file and PGE’s Salem rules. It does not cover Portland or Washington County counters. A quote that only says “we handle the permit” should name the city on the address.

Price, without inventing one

One band below is from Salem. The other comes from Florida and is here only for contrast.

Wire Smart’s Salem page prints most Federal Pacific or Zinsco replacements at $2,800 to $4,500. For an out-of-state check, Stevenson’s in Palm Coast, Florida, lists FPE, Zinsco, or Challenger replacement at $2,200 to $3,000. Only Wire Smart’s figure was written for Salem houses and says fully permitted. Those two systems do not match. We will not average them. We are not inventing a Church Street midpoint from either system.

Oregon gives you two numbers to check, the BCD electrical license and the CCB registration. Both should match what goes on the Church Street application. Wire Smart’s replacement page names Federal Pacific and Zinsco. The shop’s own site prints Oregon BCD Electrical License #C1787 and Oregon CCB #215974. The same page says the shop hands over insurance paperwork after the inspection. They are listed for the panel letter, not as a Marion County directory.

Directory-only shops are omitted. A page that names these brands and does not print an Oregon license number is not a listing. The listed shop is not affiliated with Panel Letter.

What to hand the carrier

The useful packet is the closed City of Salem electrical permit, the passed electrical inspection, an invoice with the license number that was on the permit, and photos if the letter asks. If your electrician produces a load calculation or panel schedule, send that too. We did not find a carrier page that publishes a single statewide sticker form. Ask the agent what they will actually open.