Federal Pacific panel replacement in West Palm Beach

Your carrier refused the Stab-Lok. The city or the county still wants an electrical permit on that address. FPL still wants its own disconnect ticket before anyone opens the meter enclosure.

Pull the electrical permit at the city or the county. Book the FPL disconnect after that. Those two systems do not match. A helper with a van cannot print that permit or book that FPL appointment.

What FPL actually wrote

Start with the Project Portal job aid. Only FPL is authorized to disconnect service conductors going to the home.

Customers can self-schedule a residential disconnect and reconnect for single-phase services at or under 320 amps.

All electrical work involving a meter enclosure requires an electrical inspection by the inspecting authority before FPL re-energizes the service.

Inspections must be submitted to FPL by 1 p.m. Eastern so same-day reconnect is possible.

The Electric Service Standards add a second path. FPL normally performs both the disconnect and the reconnect. A licensed and qualified electrical contractor may disconnect an overhead single-phase service of 300 amps or less only when FPL approves it, the attachment point stays intact, no FPL locking device is on the socket, and a reconnect appointment is already scheduled. That exception is not a homeowner meter-pull path.

Confirm the logo on the bill. Most West Palm Beach, Lake Worth Beach, Boca Raton, and Jupiter addresses are FPL.

FPL does not publish a guaranteed power-off hour count. Gator’s homepage FAQ describes four to eight hours for the installation itself and one to two weeks for the county permit. Those are contractor field notes.

Permits inside West Palm Beach and in Palm Beach County

Inside the city, start at Development Services, Building Division, City Hall, 401 Clematis Street. Electrical permits go through the EPL Civic Access portal. The Electrical Chief is 561-805-6742. Portal questions go to ds@wpb.org.

Who pulls the permit matters. Florida Statute 489.103(7) lets an owner act as contractor on a one-family or two-family residence. The city’s Permits FAQ adds the local steps. You must appear in person at 401 Clematis Street to sign the application and the Owner-Builder affidavit. If you are not going to perform the work yourself you must hire appropriately licensed contractors. Owning the home does not mean you should pull the permit and then hire someone under your name.

Unincorporated Palm Beach County files at the county. The Permit Center is 2300 N. Jog Road. Applications run through ePZB. The county’s owner-builder guidelines list Electric Service Change as a permit type. The same guidelines say you must perform or supervise the construction yourself.

Lake Worth Beach, Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, and Wellington file at their own counters. A quote that only says “we handle the permit” should name the city on the address.

Price, without inventing one

Gator’s homepage FAQ publishes one Palm Beach County 200-amp band and does not hide the spread. A 200-amp panel upgrade is printed at $3,500 to $10,500. The same sentence says that number moves with the scope of work, permit fees, and whether the meter base needs replacement.

Trophy’s June 2026 FPE and Zinsco page prints a tighter South Florida band. A typical 200-amp panel replacement including permits is printed at $2,500 to $5,000. Trophy is a cost source on this page. That shop did not print a Florida EC number on the fetched pages.

Those two systems do not match. We will not average them. We are not inventing a West Palm Beach midpoint from either table.

Florida license lookup is public. Ask for the EC number and check it on DBPR before you sign. Two shops advertise this work on their own sites and print a license number. Gator’s homepage names Federal Pacific and Zinsco replacement and prints EC0002289. Simon’s West Palm Beach panel-repair page names FPE and Federal Pacific and prints EC13008646. They write daily work across West Palm Beach, Lake Worth Beach, and Palm Beach County. They are listed for the panel letter, not as a county directory.

Directory-only shops are omitted. A page that names these brands and does not print a Florida electrical 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 city or county electrical permit, the passed Service Change or final 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.