Last updated 2026-08-21
TL;DR
Temporary construction power in Delaware is licensed electrical work. You need a Board of Electrical Examiners license (or work under one), a local electrical permit, and utility temporary service approval. Costs split across license paper, permits, gear, and the utility. Confirm fees and queues with the Board, the county or city, and Delmarva or the municipal utility. Nobody can promise a meter date.
Do you need a license for temp power in Delaware?
Yes. Temporary construction power is electrical work in Delaware. You hold a license from the Board of Electrical Examiners, or you work under a person who does. A county sticker and a utility meter do not replace that license. Unlicensed work is how complaint files start. [1]
There is no side door for just the temp pole. You are landing a service, bonding it, setting overcurrent devices, and leaving receptacles that wet, tired people will use. That is electrical services under 24 Del. C. Chapter 14. [2]
Delaware does not sell a separate temp power license. The same master, limited, special, journeyperson, or apprentice class that covers other wiring covers temporary work, if that class actually matches the voltage and the occupancy. A narrow special license can be legal for one kind of job and useless on the next. Read the class on the Board page before you bid a 480V yard.
Apprentices and journeypersons follow the supervision rules in the statute and in 24 DE Admin. Code 1400. [3] Do not advertise as a master if you are not one.
Out-of-state plastic does not automatically work. Reciprocity sits with the Board. File that paper first.
If I were starting tomorrow, I would not hire a fixer to handle the license. I would read the new-license page, the exam page, and Chapter 14, then ask the Board only the question those pages leave open. [1][4]
Who is the temp power board in Delaware?
The temp power board in Delaware is the Board of Electrical Examiners, inside the Division of Professional Regulation. There is not a second board with temporary power in its name. Search traffic uses that phrase because people want the body that can freeze a license, not a myth about a national temp card.
24 Del. C. Chapter 14 says the Board's primary objective is "to protect the general public, specifically those persons who are the direct recipients of services regulated by this chapter, from unsafe practices." [2] That sentence is why the Board exists. It is not a trade club.
The Board writes rules in 24 DE Admin. Code 1400, takes applications, sits over exams, and handles discipline. [3][4] It does not energize your pole. It does not replace the county inspector. It does not replace Delmarva Power or a city electric department.
If you came from a state that splits contractor and tradesman into two shops, reset your map. Delaware's professional license for this trade is the electrician license. The money side of the company is a different desk at Division of Revenue. [5]
I would bookmark three URLs and ignore the rest for week one. New license. Exams. The statute chapter. Everything else is downstream.
What license class do you actually need for temp power work?
You need the class that covers the work you will touch. For most construction temp services, that means a Master Electrician license, or employment under one. Limited and special classes exist. They are real, and they are narrower. Confirm the current class list and the experience affidavit on the Board's new-license page. [1]
I will not invent an hour count. Forums love a clean number. The Board's affidavit is the number that matters, and it lives in Chapter 14 and 24 DE Admin. Code 1400. [2][3] Read those, then fill the form. If your hours are a mix of residential service work and industrial maintenance, expect the Board to care about what you actually did, not the job title on an old W-2.
Journeyperson and apprentice licenses are how people get hours, not how a company holds itself out to a GC. If you are the person signing the permit, you need the license the AHJ will accept. That is almost always a master or a qualifying limited class.
Exams run through the Board's posted vendor process. [4] Budget time for the application review and a test date. Do not budget a fantasy pass date.
Special licenses can look cheaper. They are a waste if your first three bids are commercial 480V. Get the class that matches the work you want, not the class that looks fastest on a message board.
Compared with a temp power board in California path, Delaware is a smaller shop with fewer license brand names. That does not make it casual.
How much does temp power cost in Delaware?
It depends which stack you mean. The license stack is one bill. The jobsite stack is another. Nobody publishes a single temp power Delaware price.
License stack. Application fees, renewal fees, and exam vendor fees are set by the Board and the exam vendor. They change. Confirm them on the Board pages. I will not plant a stale dollar figure here. [1][4] State business license and gross receipts tax sit at Division of Revenue. Confirm the current contractor class and rate there. [5] If you form an LLC or a corporation, Division of Corporations publishes the filing fee and the franchise tax. Confirm those too. [12]
Jobsite stack. A simple 100A or 200A temporary service with a pole or pedestal, meter socket, panel, GFCI protection, and a few receptacles often lands in the low thousands installed in the Mid-Atlantic, plus whatever the utility charges to set or authorize the meter. I do not have a Delaware-only index for that. Larger 480V distribution, multiple spiders, and long copper runs move into five figures fast. Generator rental is a different product. Do not mix the two in a bid.
Permit fees follow the county or city schedule. New Castle, Kent, and Sussex do not share one table. [9][10]
Gear. Used temp panels show up cheap and fail inspection. I would buy listed equipment and keep the spec sheets. If you want cable, fuel, and 480V notes in one packet, TempPowerPath sells a $179 one-time Cable + Fuel + 480V Kit. The Board still wins any fight between a kit and the statute.
Waste of money: a full shop build-out before you have a license number and a utility contact.
How long does temp power take in Delaware?
Longer than a Facebook comment claims, and there is no honest guarantee. Confirm current processing with the Board, the AHJ, and the utility. Times move with backlog, incomplete affidavits, and storm weeks.
License time is application plus exam plus the Board's decision. The exam calendar is not the Board's calendar. [4] I have seen people lose a month because they ordered the wrong exam or mailed an experience letter that did not describe electrical work. That is on the applicant.
Permit time is local. A clean residential temp pole in a slow week can move quickly. A commercial yard with incomplete load information sits. Wilmington is not Georgetown. Ask the AHJ how they want the temp service drawn. Then draw that.
Utility time is its own queue. Delmarva Power covers most of the state. Several cities, including Dover, run municipal electric and do not use Delmarva's process. [13] Address lookup first. Always.
Jobsite build time for a simple pole is often a day of construction after the paper is ready, then you wait on inspection and energization. The wait is the job.
I would never promise a GC a meter date. I would promise a complete application date. That is the only date you control.
If you are comparing states, the temp power board in Connecticut is a different shop with different clocks. Do not import their timeline.
What paper do you file before the first temp pole goes live?
Four layers. Miss one and the inspector or the utility sends you home.
First, the electrician license. The permit desk will ask who the licensee is. [1]
Second, the state business license if you are operating a company. Division of Revenue is that desk. Gross receipts tax follows the work. [5] First Steps Delaware is a decent map of the business-side filings if you have never opened a Delaware shop. [14]
Third, the local electrical permit. County or city. Some towns run their own licenses and inspections. Wilmington does. Unincorporated New Castle County goes through Land Use. [9] Sussex goes through its planning and zoning shop. [10] Kent has its own inspections desk. Confirm the right door by address, not by a guess that this is county.
Fourth, the utility temporary service request. Account, load, site contact, and sometimes a sketch. Municipal electric in Dover is not a Delmarva ticket. [13]
A table helps.
| Paper | Who issues it | What it lets you do |
|---|---|---|
| Electrician license | Board of Electrical Examiners | Perform or supervise the electrical work |
| State business license | Division of Revenue | Operate and report gross receipts |
| Electrical permit | County or city AHJ | Install the temp service on that site |
| Temporary service request | Delmarva Power or city electric | Get the meter and the energize |
I would put those four in a folder on every truck. Inspectors like people who can hand them the packet.
Who inspects a temporary service in Delaware?
The local authority having jurisdiction inspects the install. The Board of Electrical Examiners does not roll a truck for your pole. The Board disciplines licensees. The AHJ looks at the work.
Delaware has 3 counties. New Castle County Land Use covers a huge share of the state's construction. [9] Sussex County Planning and Zoning covers the southern county. [10] Kent County has its own inspections path. Cities can take the work inside their limits. Wilmington Licenses and Inspections is the example people forget when they drive south from Philly and assume county handles it. [15]
The utility looks at the point of connection and its own rules. Passing the electrical inspection and satisfying the utility are related, not identical. You can fail one and still think you passed the other.
Ask the AHJ which NEC edition they are on. Delaware shops do not all flip editions the same week. NFPA 70 is the code book. Article 590 is the temporary chapter. [8] Do not argue edition trivia on the dirt. Ask, then build to that book.
I would call the inspector's office before I set the first strut. Five minutes. Saves a rip-out.
Do you need a Delaware business license on top of the electrical license?
Yes, if you are operating a business. The professional license lets you do the trade. The Division of Revenue business license lets you operate and puts you on the gross receipts tax system. They are not the same card. [5]
If you form an LLC or a corporation, you also file with the Division of Corporations. That shop publishes how to form a new entity and what it charges. Confirm the current fee. [12] First Steps Delaware walks the sequence if you want a checklist that is not a blog. [14]
Payroll triggers more paper. Unemployment insurance and workers' compensation enter the chat when you have employees. [11] A solo master with no employees lives in a simpler world, and even then I would ask a Delaware insurance agent before I decided I was exempt from anything.
I would form the entity only after I knew I could get the electrical license. Paper companies with no qualifying licensee are a waste.
Out-of-state firms doing a single Delaware job still need to ask Revenue and the Board about temporary practice and business license triggers. I am not going to fake a one-job exemption. Ask them.
What insurance and OSHA rules apply on a Delaware temp power job?
On the insurance side, general liability is what GCs will ask for in the vendor packet. Limits are a contract fight, not a statute I will invent. Workers' compensation in Delaware runs through the Department of Labor's Industrial Affairs shop if you have employees. [11] Confirm coverage with a person who sells Delaware policies. Internet minimums lie.
On the federal side, construction electrical work sits in OSHA 29 CFR 1926 Subpart K. [7] Temporary wiring is in 1926.405. OSHA says, in the temporary wiring paragraph, "Temporary electrical power and lighting wiring methods may be of a class less than would be required for a permanent installation." [6] People quote that sentence to justify junk. Read the next sentence in the same paragraph. The rest of Subpart K still applies.
GFCI protection, strain relief, grounding, and wet-location covers are not optional flavor. They are how you keep a laborer alive and keep OSHA out of your week.
I would rather overspend on listed GFCI devices than on a vinyl wrap for the truck. One of those choices has a body attached to it.
The temp power board in Florida conversation often turns into hurricane generators. Delaware weather is ice, nor'easters, and wet clay. Build for that.
What does a legal temp power install look like on a Delaware jobsite?
It looks boring. Listed temp panel or pedestal. Meter socket the utility will accept. Grounding electrode system that matches the adopted NEC. Overcurrent that matches the conductors. GFCI where the code and OSHA want it. Cords that are not stapled through a puddle. Identification so the next person can kill the right breaker. [6][8]
NEC Article 590 is the temporary installations article in NFPA 70. [8] Time limits in that article are real in the book. Your AHJ decides how hard they work those limits. Ask.
480V yard power is not a residential temp pole with thicker wire. Different faults, different PPE, different connectors. If you have not done 480, do not learn it on a bid you already won.
Fuel on site (if you are also setting generators) is a fire and environmental problem, not an electrical flex. Keep it out of the panel, out of the spill path, and off the inspection photos.
I want to see a one-line, a grounding detail, and the permit card in a plastic sleeve. That is the whole show. Fancy labels nobody can read in the rain help no one.
If you want a side-by-side with a Deep South shop, the temp power board in Alabama and the temp power board in Georgia run different boards and different AHJ maps. Steal process ideas. Do not steal their forms.
What would I do first if I were entering temp power in Delaware?
I would pick the license class that matches the work I want in year one. Then I would print the Board's new-license page, the exam page, Chapter 14, and 24 DE Admin. Code 1400. [1][2][3][4] I would fill the experience affidavit with boring, specific tasks. Helped the boss is not an hour.
I would not buy a bucket truck. I would not lease a yard. I would get the license path moving, open the Revenue and Corporations tabs, and call one AHJ and one utility with a real sample address in the county I actually expect to work. [5][9][12]
I would write a one-page install standard for a 100A or 200A temp and a separate page for anything 480V. I would bid the first jobs from that standard so I do not invent a new design every Monday.
I would skip paid we-get-you-licensed outfits unless my file is a mess (felony questions, lost hours, a discipline history). Most clean applicants do not need them.
After the public pages, if I still wanted a single packet for cable, fuel, and 480V notes, I would look at /start. TempPowerPath is an independent publisher, not a law firm and not a service company. The Board, the AHJ, and the utility still own the outcome. No approval promise. No timing promise.
The temp power board in Illinois is a useful contrast if you like bigger systems. Delaware rewards people who can work a small map with care.
What trips people up on Delaware temp power jobs?
Wrong AHJ. They pull New Castle and the site is in a city that inspects itself. [9][15]
Wrong utility. They file Delmarva and the address is municipal. [13]
Wrong license class. A special that does not cover the service.
No business license. The trade card is on the wall and Revenue has never heard of them. [5]
Promising a meter date. Then a storm, a failed loop, or a missing ground rod burns the relationship.
Copying another state's temp spec. Article 590 is national. The adopted edition and the inspector are local. [8]
Leaving cords in water because it is only temporary. OSHA 1926.405 does not care about your schedule. [6]
I would rather lose a bid than take a job that needs a license I do not have. That is not virtue. That is how you keep the license you spent a year getting.
Confirm every variable number with the Board, the county or city, and the utility. This page will age. Their pages are the live ones.
Frequently asked questions
Do you need a license for temp power in Delaware?
Yes. Temporary power is electrical work. You need a Board of Electrical Examiners license or you work under someone who has one. County permits and utility meters do not replace the license. Delaware does not issue a separate temp power card. Confirm class and supervision rules on the Board's new-license page and in 24 Del. C. Chapter 14.
How much does temp power cost in Delaware?
There is no single price. License, exam, business license, and entity fees are posted by the Board, the exam vendor, Division of Revenue, and Division of Corporations. Confirm them. A simple installed temp service in the Mid-Atlantic often lands in the low thousands plus utility charges. Large 480V yards cost much more. Permit fees are local.
How long does temp power take in Delaware?
Nobody can promise a date. License time is application plus exam plus Board action. Permit time is the county or city. Utility time is Delmarva or a municipal electric department. A simple pole can be built in a day after the paper is ready. Confirm current queues. Do not bid a meter date you do not control.
Is there a separate Delaware temp power license?
No. The Board of Electrical Examiners licenses electricians. Temporary work uses the same classes as other electrical work, if the class covers that voltage and occupancy. A narrow special license can be the wrong tool for commercial temp service. Read the class list on the new-license page before you apply or bid.
Can a handyman set a temp pole in Delaware?
Not if it is electrical services under Chapter 14 and you do not have the license. Unlicensed installers get stopped at permit, inspection, or the utility. I would not hire a handyman for a service. The liability sits with whoever claimed they could land power.
Does Delmarva Power require a licensed electrician?
Treat the utility as if they will ask who the licensee is and whether the AHJ has released the job. Municipal utilities in places like Dover run a different desk. Confirm the serving utility by address and ask that utility what they need before you set hardware.
What NEC article covers temporary power?
Article 590 of NFPA 70, the National Electrical Code, covers temporary installations. OSHA 29 CFR 1926.405 covers temporary wiring on construction sites. Your AHJ tells you which NEC edition is in force. Ask that question in the permit office, not on a forum.
Do I need workers' comp as a solo master electrician?
If you have employees, plan on Delaware workers' compensation and talk to the Department of Labor shop and an agent. A true solo with no employees is a different fact pattern. I will not call you exempt. Ask a Delaware agent and confirm. Guessing here is how people get surprised.
Can I use an out-of-state electrician license in Delaware?
Not automatically. Reciprocity and endorsement are Board decisions. File that paper before you take Delaware work. Working on an out-of-state card while you wait on the mail is how discipline starts. Confirm current reciprocity rules with the Board of Electrical Examiners.
Who do I call for a Wilmington job versus a Sussex County build?
Wilmington has its own Licenses and Inspections desk. Unincorporated New Castle County goes through Land Use. Sussex County goes through Planning and Zoning. Kent County has its own inspections path. Pull the address first. Then call that AHJ. The Board does not inspect poles.
Are generator-only jobs treated the same as utility temp service?
No. A portable generator still has to be installed and used in a way that meets OSHA and the adopted NEC, and some sites still need a permit. A utility temp service adds the meter, the utility rules, and a different inspection path. Do not copy one spec onto the other.
Where do I confirm current application fees?
The Board of Electrical Examiners and the exam vendor post fees. Division of Revenue posts business license information. Division of Corporations posts entity filing fees. If a blog (including this one) states a dollar amount, ignore it and open those pages. Fees move.
Does an apprentice need to be registered?
Delaware issues an apprentice electrician path through the Board. If you are using apprentice hours toward a later license, follow the Board's apprentice rules and any Department of Labor apprenticeship rules that apply to your program. Confirm current registration steps before you log hours you cannot later prove.
What happens if I energize without a permit?
You risk a failed or stop-work inspection, a utility disconnect, and a Board complaint against the licensee. The cheap save on a permit fee is not cheap if it burns the license. Pull the permit. Wait for the release. Then energize.
Sources
- Delaware Division of Professional Regulation, Board of Electrical Examiners New License: Delaware electrician licenses are issued by the Board of Electrical Examiners and the application path and classes are posted on the new-license page
- Delaware Code, Title 24 Chapter 14 Electricians: 24 Del. C. Chapter 14 is the statute for electrician licensing and states the Board's public-protection objective
- 24 DE Admin. Code 1400 Board of Electrical Examiners: Board rules for applications, practice, and supervision are in 24 DE Admin. Code 1400
- Delaware DPR Board of Electrical Examiners Exams: Electrician exams follow the Board's posted exam process and vendor path
- OSHA 29 CFR 1926.405 Wiring methods, components, and equipment for general use: OSHA temporary wiring rule states temporary electrical power and lighting wiring methods may be of a class less than permanent installation
- OSHA 29 CFR 1926 Subpart K Electrical: Construction electrical safety, including temporary power, is regulated under OSHA 1926 Subpart K
- NFPA 70 National Electrical Code: NFPA 70 is the National Electrical Code and includes Article 590 Temporary Installations
- New Castle County Department of Land Use: New Castle County Land Use is the county desk for building and related permits and inspections
- Sussex County Planning and Zoning: Sussex County Planning and Zoning is the county path for planning, zoning, and related permit work
- Delaware Department of Labor, Workers' Compensation: Delaware workers' compensation is administered through the Department of Labor Industrial Affairs shop
- Delaware Division of Corporations, How to Form a New Business Entity: Delaware LLCs and corporations are formed through the Division of Corporations, which publishes formation steps and fees
- First Steps Delaware: First Steps Delaware is the state's official guide to starting a business and related filings
- City of Wilmington Licenses and Inspections: Wilmington runs its own Licenses and Inspections department for work inside the city