Federal Pacific panel replacement in Washington DC and Northern Virginia

The letter named Stab-Lok on a Fairfax County house. PLUS still wants an electrical permit. Dominion still wants twenty-four hours of notice before anyone breaks a company seal.

File the Fairfax electrical permit in PLUS. Give Dominion twenty-four hours before anyone breaks a company seal. Those two systems do not match. A helper with a van cannot print that permit or open that Dominion ticket.

What Dominion and Pepco actually wrote

Start with Dominion’s Virginia start-and-stop page. Schedule a temporary service disconnection before working on the panel or fuse box, other than increasing service size.

Call 866-366-4357. There is no fee for temporary disconnections. Dominion wants notification several days before the disconnection.

Without documentation of a completed, passed electrical inspection, Dominion will not reconnect you.

The Blue Book is harder still. The Company seals all electric meters and will need at least 24 hours notice to remove a meter. No meter is to be removed or reset without direct, specific authorization from the Company. Where a Company seal must be broken, the Company shall be consulted twenty-four hours in advance. A Company representative will arrange to remove the seal. In special circumstances, such as service upgrades, the Company may give a licensed electrician authorization to remove the seal and meter. The electrician then notifies the Company. A Company employee replaces the seal. That exception is not a homeowner meter-pull path.

The District is Pepco. Pepco’s customer handbook says that if you plan to have an electrical contractor work on your main service, Pepco will disconnect and reconnect service if given adequate notice. There is a fee for that service. Call 202-833-7500.

Confirm the logo on the bill. Most Fairfax, Arlington, and Alexandria addresses are Dominion Energy. Some Prince William and Loudoun bills are NOVEC. District addresses are Pepco.

Neither utility publishes a guaranteed power-off hour count. SparkWise describes most replacements as one day. That is a contractor field note.

Permits in Fairfax County and in the District

In Fairfax County, start at Land Development Services. A residential electrical permit is required for replacement of electrical equipment. Apply in PLUS. Phone is 703-222-0801.

Who pulls the permit matters. Fairfax says property owners may obtain permits in their own name. The same page strongly recommends a properly licensed contractor pull the permit as the responsible party so the county can better assist in gaining compliance for defective work. A License Exemption Affidavit is required if a licensed contractor is not listed. Owning the home does not mean you should pull the permit and then hire someone under your name.

Arlington, Alexandria, Loudoun, and Prince William run their own portals. Clifton and Vienna need separate town approvals on a Fairfax record. A quote that only says “we handle the permit” should name the city or county on the address.

The District does not copy Fairfax. DOB’s Homeowner’s Center is blunt. Plumbing, mechanical, and electrical permits are trade permits issued only to licensed and bonded master trade professionals.

Homeowners cannot apply for trade permits.

The Instant Electrical Heavy-Up path can only be issued to licensed contractors. It upgrades one existing electrical system to a maximum of 200 amps. A Virginia card does not pull a DC trade permit.

Price, without inventing one

SparkWise’s Northern Virginia panel-replacement page publishes a like-for-like band and does not hide the upgrade split. Same-amperage replacement is printed at $1,800 to $3,000, including permit and inspection. A 100-amp to 200-amp job is sent to their upgrade page.

AJ Long’s 2026 cost guide prints $3,500 to $7,500 for a typical 200-amp upgrade. The same band is printed on their dedicated Federal Pacific page. Those two systems do not match. We will not average them. We are not inventing a third Beltway midpoint from either table.

Virginia license lookup is public. Ask for the DPOR number and check it before you sign. Two shops advertise this work on their own sites and print a license number. SparkWise’s panel page names Federal Pacific Electric Stab-Lok, Zinsco, and Challenger and prints 2710064102. AJ Long’s Federal Pacific page names Stab-Lok replacement, and the same shop’s cost guide prints 2705031092. They write Fairfax, Arlington, Alexandria, Loudoun, and Prince William. They are listed for the panel letter, not as a Prince William directory.

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

What to hand the carrier

The useful packet is the closed county or DOB electrical permit, the passed municipal 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 regional sticker form. Ask the agent what they will actually open.