Running power underground is one of those jobs where the planning matters more than the digging. I’ve seen homeowners and contractors alike skip steps that cost them serious money and time later — failed inspections, flooded conduit, nicked cables during landscaping work two years down the road. This guide covers the full process from trench depth to final connection, including service entrance work, new construction setups, splicing, and metal building installs. If you’re thinking about any of this work on your property in the Reno or Sparks area, read through before you pick up a shovel or call anyone.
How to Install Underground Electrical Service?
Underground electrical service means running your power supply from the utility transformer to your panel through buried cable or conduit, rather than overhead lines. The National Electrical Code (NEC) sets the baseline rules, and Nevada adds its own inspection requirements on top of that.
Here’s how the process actually works, step by step.
Pull a permit first. This is non-negotiable in Nevada. Work done without a permit can fail to pass inspection during a home sale, void your homeowner’s insurance, or create liability if something goes wrong. Your local licensed electrician handles permit applications regularly and knows what the local AHJ (Authority Having Jurisdiction) expects.
Contact your utility company. NV Energy handles most of the Reno-Sparks area. They need to approve the point of connection, confirm transformer capacity, and schedule their portion of the work. This conversation happens before any digging. Call 811 (Nevada’s dig-safe line) at least three business days before breaking ground to have existing utilities marked.
Choose your wiring method. The two main options are direct burial cable (like USE-2 or UF-B) and conduit-run wire (THWN-2 inside PVC or rigid metal conduit). Conduit is more expensive upfront but makes future wire pulls much easier. I almost always recommend PVC Schedule 40 or 80 for residential runs because it holds up to soil movement and is straightforward to inspect.
Determine your burial depth. Per NEC 2023 Table 300.5, which is current as of 2026:
– Direct burial cable: minimum 24 inches
– Rigid metal conduit or IMC: 6 inches
– PVC conduit: 18 inches
– Under a concrete slab: 12 inches for PVC
These are minimums. In freeze-thaw regions like northern Nevada, going deeper than minimum is smart.
Dig the trench. Keep the bottom of the trench flat and free of sharp rocks. Lay a layer of sand or screened soil under the cable if you’re going direct burial — this prevents abrasion. Mark the cable run with a continuous warning tape buried about 12 inches above the cable.
Pull the wire. For conduit runs, pull THWN-2 conductors sized for your load. A standard 200-amp residential service uses 2/0 aluminum or 4/0 copper for the hot conductors, with a proportional neutral. Aluminum is the industry standard for service entrance conductors — it’s what the utilities use, and it’s cost-effective at these large sizes.
Backfill carefully. Compact in lifts, not all at once. Avoid using rocky fill material directly over the conduit or cable.
Connect to the meter base and panel. The wires terminate at the meter base (utility side) and the main panel (your side). Both connections require torque specs — under-torqued connections on aluminum conductors are a leading cause of service failures and fires. Use an anti-oxidant compound on aluminum terminations.
Schedule inspection. Most jurisdictions require inspection before final backfill and again at final. Leave the trench open until the inspector signs off.
How to Install an Electrical Service Entrance?
The service entrance is the assembly that takes power from the utility’s conductors and delivers it to your main panel. It includes the meter socket, the service entrance conductors (the wires between the utility connection and the meter), and the main disconnect.
On an underground service, the service entrance conductors come up from the ground in conduit. This riser — typically a piece of rigid PVC or galvanized conduit — runs from the buried section up the exterior wall to the meter base. The conduit needs a weatherhead or a sealed fitting at the top to keep water out, and it must be secured to the structure at intervals per code (typically every 4-6 feet and within 12 inches of each box).
The meter base mounts on the exterior wall at a height that gives the meter reader clear line of sight, usually between 4 and 6 feet above grade. NV Energy has a specific meter socket approval list — not every socket on the home improvement store shelf qualifies. This trips up a lot of DIYers.
From the meter base, conductors run directly to the main panel, which must contain a main disconnect. In most modern installations, this is a main breaker panel. The main bonding jumper lives here, connecting the neutral bus to the enclosure and grounding electrode system. Ground rods (typically two, 8 feet each, spaced at least 6 feet apart) drive into the earth near the panel and connect to the grounding electrode conductor.
Everything from the weatherhead to the meter base belongs to the utility once it’s energized — you own the meter base and everything downstream. Keep that distinction in mind for maintenance conversations.
For anyone in northern Nevada, our electrical panel installation team handles this work regularly. The margin for error is small, and the consequences of a bad service entrance range from nuisance tripping to house fires.
How to Install Electrical Service for New Construction?
New construction gives you the advantage of planning everything before walls close up. It also comes with more moving parts — coordination between the builder, the electrical contractor, the utility, and the building department all happening at the same time.
The first thing we nail down on a new construction job is service size. In 2026, 200-amp service is standard for most single-family homes, but if the build includes an EV charging station, a hot tub, a large HVAC system, or electric cooking, 320-amp or 400-amp service is worth the conversation. Upgrading later is far more expensive than getting it right during rough-in. Our new construction electrical contractor services include load calculations at the planning stage so there are no surprises at final inspection.
The rough-in phase covers everything that goes inside walls before drywall: panel location, circuit layouts, box placement for outlets, lighting, and switches. In Nevada, rough-in inspection happens before drywall. Nothing gets covered until the inspector signs off. I can’t count how many times I’ve seen a framing crew hang drywall too early and create an expensive re-inspection situation.
For underground service in new construction, coordinate the utility trench with the foundation work. The conduit needs to enter the structure at a specific location — usually near the main panel wall. That penetration gets sealed with an approved compound to prevent moisture and pest intrusion.
Temporary power is a separate issue. Most job sites need a temporary service pole for construction power before the permanent service is energized. This is a meter base on a temporary pole, typically 100 amps, which the utility energizes early in the project. Plan for this in your construction timeline because NV Energy scheduling can add a week or more depending on the season.
The Independent Electrical Contractors association publishes good resources on new construction standards and training if you want to understand more about what goes into a code-compliant install.
How to Install an Electrical Service Entrance Splice?
A splice in the service entrance conductors is a situation I see more often on older properties — typically when the original service cable is too short to reach the new panel location after a meter move, or when an underground run needs to be extended during a service upgrade.
The NEC is strict here: service entrance conductors cannot have splices except in specific circumstances. NEC 230.46 (2023) permits splices using listed methods, but the general rule is that conductors run from the meter to the panel without interruption. Any splice in that run must use a listed splice kit rated for the application — typically a direct-burial-rated wire nut or a compression splice connector for the specific conductor size and material.
In practice, when a splice becomes necessary on an underground service, we use listed direct-burial splice kits that create a watertight, mechanically secure connection. These are not the twist-on wire nuts from a hardware store. They’re specifically rated products with gel sealing or heat-shrink applied over a mechanical connector. The splice location gets documented in the as-built drawings and disclosed to the inspector.
The safer and often more cost-effective approach is running a new continuous conductor rather than splicing. Wire is relatively cheap compared to labor, and a pull through a well-installed conduit system is straightforward. If the original installation used conduit, we can often pull new conductors without any trenching.
One mistake I see on older properties: someone spliced aluminum service conductors to copper branch circuit wiring using ordinary connectors. Aluminum-to-copper connections require listed AL/CU connectors and anti-oxidant compound. Without these, the connection corrodes, heats up, and eventually fails — sometimes dangerously. If you’re buying an older home or doing a renovation, have a qualified electrician inspect your service entrance for this issue.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration provides resources on safe electrical work practices that are relevant for anyone managing or performing this type of service work.
How to Install an Electrical Service in a Metal Building?
Metal buildings — shops, barns, warehouses, agricultural buildings — are common in the Reno-Sparks area and across northern Nevada. The electrical service installation differs from a wood-frame house in a few important ways.
Grounding is more complicated. The metal structure itself becomes part of the grounding path, which is actually an advantage, but it needs to be done intentionally. The equipment grounding conductor from the panel bonds to the building frame. Ground rods still drive into the earth near the panel. The whole metal skin of the building is essentially one big bonding point, so any metal conduit, junction boxes, or equipment mounting on the structure is inherently bonded when installed correctly.
Conduit penetrations need weatherproofing. Metal buildings flex slightly with temperature changes, and the penetration point where conduit enters the building needs a fitting that accommodates this movement without cracking. Myers hubs or similar fittings work well here.
Panel location matters more than in a wood building. In a wood-frame house, panel location is somewhat flexible. In a metal building, the panel typically mounts on a framed interior wall section or a dedicated plywood backer panel. The service entrance conduit runs up the exterior of the building, and the meter base mounts on the exterior metal panel — but you need a solid backer behind the sheet metal for this, usually a 2×4 framed section or a steel post.
Wiring methods inside metal buildings. Metal conduit (EMT or rigid) is standard inside commercial and agricultural metal buildings. It’s physically tough and the metal structure won’t burn. In agricultural applications, the wiring method also needs to account for moisture and corrosive environments — fiberglass conduit or PVC-coated rigid metal conduit in wet or corrosive areas.
For a typical metal shop with a 200-amp underground service, the installation sequence is: install meter base on exterior with solid backing, run underground conduit from utility transformer or pedometer, bring conductors up through the building exterior into the main panel, establish grounding electrode system, then run branch circuits in EMT throughout the structure. For shops with welders, air compressors, or other heavy equipment, the circuit breaker installation plan needs to account for high starting currents and dedicated circuits for each major piece of equipment.
If you’re adding an EV charging station to a shop build, plan the conduit route and circuit capacity now. Our EV charging station installation team can spec the right circuit size for Level 2 charging in a commercial shop environment.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Deep Does Underground Electrical Conduit Need to Be?
The minimum depth in 2026 under the NEC is 18 inches for PVC conduit and 6 inches for rigid metal conduit. Direct burial cable requires 24 inches. In Nevada, most inspectors want to see at least 18 inches for PVC because frost depth and ground disturbance are real concerns. Going 24 inches for PVC is good practice anywhere you might do future landscaping or fence work.
Can I Do Underground Service Work Myself?
Nevada law allows licensed homeowners to perform electrical work on their own primary residence in some circumstances, but underground service work — especially the connection to the utility — requires coordination with NV Energy and a permit. The utility-side work is always done by NV Energy or their approved contractors. The homeowner-side work requires inspection. Most homeowners who attempt this without electrical background run into trouble at inspection and end up hiring an electrician anyway. For wiring installation at this level, professional help usually saves money in the long run.
What Wire Size Do I Need for 200-Amp Underground Service?
For a 200-amp residential service using aluminum conductors, you need 2/0 AWG for the two hot legs and 2/0 AWG for the neutral, minimum. Many electricians use 4/0 for the full set to allow for future upgrades or long runs with voltage drop concerns. Copper would be 2/0 for 200 amps, but copper service entrance conductors are rarely cost-effective at these sizes.
How Long Does Underground Service Installation Take?
A straightforward underground service upgrade on an existing residential property — new meter base, underground run to 200-amp panel — typically takes one full day for the electrical contractor’s work, plus separate scheduling with the utility for their connection. New construction timelines depend heavily on project phase coordination. Budget 2-4 weeks total from permit application to energized service in most Nevada jurisdictions.
Does Underground Service Need GFCI Protection?
The service entrance conductors themselves don’t require GFCI protection, but branch circuits fed from the panel that serve outdoor locations, garages, bathrooms, kitchens, and other NEC-specified areas do. The 2023 NEC, current in 2026, expanded GFCI requirements — if you’re upgrading an older panel, expect to add GFCI protection to more circuits than the original installation required.
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Underground electrical service is the kind of job where shortcuts cost more than they save. Wrong burial depths, undersized conductors, unsealed conduit entries, and skipped inspections all create problems that surface later — sometimes years later, and sometimes dangerously.
Ohms Electric Reno & Sparks handles underground service installations across northern Nevada, from straightforward residential upgrades to metal building commercial service work. Our team pulls permits, coordinates with NV Energy, and stays on-site through inspection. You can see our full range of electrical installation services on our site. If you have a project in mind or want a second opinion on a quote you’ve already received, contact us and we’ll give you a straight answer on what it takes and what it costs.
The Electrical Association and NECA both maintain updated resources on electrical standards if you want to dig further into the code side of this work.
