FPL Pulled Your Meter: What Happens Next in Florida

When the power company pulls your meter, the electricity stays off until three things happen in order: a licensed electrician repairs or replaces the service equipment, the local building department inspects it, and the utility comes back out to reconnect and re-seal the meter. The repair itself is usually a one-day job. The waiting is what stretches things, because permits and inspections run on the county calendar, not yours. Most of the jobs our crew handles land somewhere between two days and about a week from the first phone call to the lights coming back on.

Why a meter gets pulled

A lineman does not pull a meter to be difficult. It happens when the service equipment is unsafe to energize, and in Florida the reasons repeat themselves:

• The meter can has rusted through. Salt air does this quietly for years along the Indian River and the barrier island, and in coastal Palm Beach County neighborhoods like Lantana and Delray Beach.
• The mast or weatherhead got pulled away from the wall by a falling limb or a storm. Older Brevard streets with heavy tree cover see this every hurricane season.
• The lugs or the meter jaws burned. You will sometimes smell it or see scorching around the can before anything else goes wrong.
• Water or fire damage made the service unsafe.
• A lineman found unpermitted or improvised work behind the meter.

Retirement communities in south Brevard, Barefoot Bay among them, have a lot of service equipment installed decades ago on homes that have since added a bigger AC, a well pump, or a generator inlet. That combination of age and added load is the most common version of this we see.

The five steps from pulled meter to power back on

1. Assessment. We come out and look at what actually failed. Sometimes it is only the can and the mast. Often the panel behind it is the same age and in the same condition, and replacing one without the other means paying for the same permit and inspection twice.

2. Permit. Service equipment work is permitted and inspected in every jurisdiction we work in, Brevard County and Palm Beach County included. We pull it under our license, EC 13005020. Turnaround varies by office and by how busy the county is, and this is usually the longest single wait in the whole process.

3. The repair. Replacing a meter can, mast, weatherhead and service entrance conductors is typically a single working day. Adding a panel or changing the service size makes it longer.

4. Inspection. An inspector has to see and pass the work before the utility will touch it. Many Florida jurisdictions offer next-business-day inspection if the request goes in early enough, which is why we schedule it the moment the work is done.

5. Utility reconnect. Once the inspection passes, the county releases it to FPL or FPU electronically and the utility sets and seals the meter. That is often same day or next day, but it is the one step no contractor controls.

What stretches the timeline, and what shortens it

The repair is rarely the bottleneck. These are:

• Permit and inspection scheduling. Friday afternoon failures wait through the weekend. Storm weeks back everything up for everyone.
• Amperage changes. If you are also upgrading the service size, the utility may need to review the load calculation and confirm the transformer can carry it. That adds time a like-for-like replacement does not.
• Overhead versus underground. An underground service or a pedestal replacement can involve digging, locates, and restoring concrete or sod.
• Obsolete panel brands. Some older panels have no replacement parts in production, which turns a repair into a replacement.
• Access. Gated communities, HOA approval, and equipment behind a fence or under a screen enclosure all add steps.

Calling early matters more than anything else on that list. The same failure reported at 8 a.m. Monday and 4 p.m. Friday can differ by several days in restoration time purely because of when the permit and inspection land.

What a proper quote should include before you sign

Never accept a number over the phone for this work. What drives the price up or down is the condition of what is behind the meter, the length and routing of the service run, whether the panel goes too, whether the service is overhead or a buried pedestal, wall repair after the old can comes off, and the permit and inspection fees themselves. A written quote for meter can and pedestal replacement should spell out all of it, list the contractor's Florida license number, and say plainly who is pulling the permit and who is calling the utility for the reconnect. If a bid does not mention a permit at all, that is your signal to keep looking, because unpermitted service work will not get inspected and will not get reconnected.

If your meter has been pulled and you want a real number and a real timeline, call us at (844) 432-2262 or request a free, no-obligation quote. We respond within one business day, and we will tell you honestly whether you are looking at a can and mast or a full service replacement before anyone starts writing a proposal.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I put the meter back in myself?

No. The meter belongs to the utility and it is sealed for a reason. Reinstalling one yourself is dangerous, and tampering with the seal will delay your reconnect and can bring penalties from the power company.

Do I really need a permit just to replace a meter can?

Yes. Service equipment work is permitted and inspected in the Brevard and Palm Beach County jurisdictions we work in, and the utility will not reconnect until the inspection has passed and been released to them.

Can I run a generator while I wait for reconnection?

Only if you already have a properly installed inlet and interlock, or a transfer switch, and the damage did not affect that equipment. Never backfeed a house through a dryer outlet or an extension cord. It can kill a lineman working on your street.