Tacoma flips the usual script: the utility issues the permit

In most of Washington you ask whether the city or the state issues the electrical permit. Tacoma reroutes the question entirely: for Tacoma Power-served properties, the utility itself runs permitting, and Washington L&I says it does not issue permits or perform inspections within Tacoma Power's service area. Tacoma Power calls Accela its one-stop shop for permitting and inspection management, so the first three facts of any Tacoma project are the address, the service size, and the kind of work proposed.

Priority Electric works inside that system as part of the job. Request an Estimate for a non-emergency project, or call (206) 718-3047 to go over service size, drawings, and application status before the next submission.

Guidance: the 600-amp fork

Tacoma Power says drawings must be submitted for plan review for service work over 600 amps. That sentence sorts projects: it does not claim your service is any particular size, but it makes service size and drawings status first-brief material rather than late surprises. A light-commercial operator should bring the property use, proposed equipment, existing service information, drawings status, and construction stage; a homeowner brings the panel question, the equipment being added, and whether a shared building is involved. Guessing service size from the outside of a building, or from a previous tenant's equipment, is how the fork gets taken blind.

Guidance: what the portal actually does

Registered Accela users can manage, view, and print permits; apply for permits and new electrical-service applications; check status; add a contractor license; and create delegates, with application, payment, and inspection management supported. Follow the actual record there instead of forwarded screenshots or a verbal memory of a past project. One adjacent timing fact: the City of Tacoma's broader permit page says inspection requests must be received by 3 p.m. for next-day scheduling, a published detail to recheck for the relevant inspection rather than a promised arrival window.

A hundred thousand households, two kinds of buildings

Tacoma's 2026 estimate counts 99,900 housing units, 58% one-unit and 42% two-or-more-unit. So the intake always asks: one residence, a common area, a tenant space, or a larger property? For shared buildings, say whether the work touches a common system or only a defined space, because that difference decides access, documentation, and who joins the planning. The frequent routes are panel work, light commercial electrical, and new construction electrical; the statistics themselves decide none of it.

The brief that fits this city

Address, property use, service size if known, drawings available or not, current permit or Accela status, and, for a shared building, the access and decision contact. With that brief we discuss the work, provide a written scope with its own number, and call before adding anything outside it. The scope claims no approval and no inspection result; it makes the Accela workflow and the electrical work coordinate instead of collide.

The dashboard never handles emergencies

Smoke, visible sparks, a hot panel, or a shock: get to safety and call 911, without waiting for an application or a business-hours reply. A wider outage goes to the serving utility. For a stable-but-concerning condition, write down the equipment, the areas affected, and what changed beforehand, and leave the covers on and the breaker alone.

Start with the address and the amps

Request an Estimate with the address, the service facts you have, and the project idea, or call (206) 718-3047. In Tacoma, those two details are the whole opening move.