ADU Electrical Service with San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E)

Who SDG&E serves

Investor-owned utility serving San Diego County and southern Orange County. Of the California places we cover, 37 are served mainly by San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), and together they issued 14,598 ADU building permits from 2021 through 2025.

How SDG&E handles new and upgraded service

San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) handles new service, service upgrades and meter changes through its My Project Center portal. This is separate from the building permit, so start it as soon as the electrical load calculation shows what the ADU needs. The steps SDG&E describes:

1. Customer intake: gather project details and documentation, register or log in to My Project Center, and apply online (key contacts, project dates and details, desired meter location, permit requirements, documents); SDG&E reviews and assigns a project planner.
2. Engineering and design: provide any additional details requested; SDG&E may visit the site and works with the customer on a design.
3. Customer dependencies: review and approve the preliminary design, make required payments, and obtain permits from the local authority.
4. SDG&E dependencies: field surveys, easement documents, permits for SDG&E crews, traffic control.
5. Customer site readiness: prepare the site per the approved design, set up the billing account, and obtain required AHJ (local building department) inspections.
6. SDG&E site readiness: crews scheduled, materials staged, planned outages coordinated.
7. Construction: SDG&E installs equipment, pulls wire, makes connections and prepares the meter.
8. Energization: SDG&E completes final inspection and testing and sets the meter.

What SDG&E asks for

• Detailed project scope
• Site plans and elevation plans (architectural: site, elevation, exterior, landscaping)
• Civil plans (grading, street improvement) where applicable
• Electrical and/or plumbing plans
• Assessor's parcel map
• Electric and gas appliance load calculations for existing and new loads, prepared with an electrician or plumber (SDG&E provides Electric and Gas Load Calculators)
• SDG&E ADU checklist (asks ADU type, main home service address, whether the ADU has a separate address from the city/county, and added loads such as A/C or EV charging), plus an itemized list of electric and gas appliances being added with load estimates

Our ADU electrical plans include the NEC Article 220 load calculation, panel schedule and single-line diagram, which cover the load and equipment information on this list. Site-plan and service-location details come from your architectural set.

A separate meter for the ADU

SDG&E's Electric Service Standards & Guides (SG012.2, single residential dwelling unit lot with other electric uses) state that each residential dwelling unit must be individually metered by the utility per Rule 19 B.1.a with meters grouped at the approved service point, with an exception: a new dwelling unit within an existing or proposed single dwelling unit, or an attached garage on a residential single-dwelling-unit lot, 'will be requested, but not required, to be individually metered.' For existing customers (SG013.2), one service per premises is granted; a second service may be approved for uses such as an ADU when the location is more than 150 feet from the existing service and meter and the AHJ approves a second service and meter. The ADU checklist says that regardless of ADU type you must apply to SDG&E for approval of new gas and electric services, and that for an attached ADU utilities may be separate or connected to the main residence. For an ADU, the address must be established through the municipality before applying.

Whether a separate meter makes sense depends on the load calculation, the existing service size and the cost of the utility work. See when a separate service is required instead of a subpanel.

Service requirements

Meter location, clearances and service equipment must follow SDG&E Electric Service Standards & Guides (Service Standards and Guide Manual). We show the meter and service equipment on the electrical plan so the location can be confirmed with SDG&E early.

Places SDG&E serves that we cover

Place	County	Climate zone	ADU permits 2021–25
San Diego	San Diego	CZ 7, 10	7,891
Chula Vista	San Diego	CZ 7, 10	968
Oceanside	San Diego	CZ 7	689
Encinitas	San Diego	CZ 7	556
Vista	San Diego	CZ 7	475
Escondido	San Diego	CZ 10	446
La Mesa	San Diego	CZ 7	420
Carlsbad	San Diego	CZ 7	371
El Cajon	San Diego	CZ 10	311
Spring Valley (unincorp.)	San Diego	CZ 10, 7	262
National City	San Diego	CZ 7	167
La Jolla (San Diego)	San Diego	CZ 7	166
Lemon Grove	San Diego	CZ 7	163
Poway	San Diego	CZ 10	154
Imperial Beach	San Diego	CZ 7	154
San Marcos	San Diego	CZ 10	153
Fallbrook (unincorp.)	San Diego	CZ 10	146
San Clemente	Orange	CZ 6	143
Lakeside (unincorp.)	San Diego	CZ 10	120
Ramona (unincorp.)	San Diego	CZ 10	112
San Juan Capistrano	Orange	CZ 6	109
Del Mar	San Diego	CZ 7	108
Cardiff by the Sea (Encinitas)	San Diego	CZ 7	104
Santee	San Diego	CZ 10	97
Solana Beach	San Diego	CZ 7	97
Bonita (unincorp.)	San Diego	CZ 7	76
Valley Center (unincorp.)	San Diego	CZ 10	74
Coronado	San Diego	CZ 7	60
Alpine (unincorp.)	San Diego	CZ 10	60
San Ysidro (San Diego)	San Diego	CZ 7	57
Laguna Niguel	Orange	CZ 6	50
Rancho Santa Fe (unincorp.)	San Diego	CZ 7	47
Dana Point	Orange	CZ 6	42
Bonsall (unincorp.)	San Diego	CZ 10, 7	32
Capistrano Beach (Dana Point)	Orange	CZ 6	28
Jamul (unincorp.)	San Diego	CZ 10	23
Laguna Hills	Orange	CZ 6	22

Sources

• sdge.com/myprojectcenter
• sdge.com/sites/default/files/documents/2026-10/Service%20Standards%20and%20Guide_External_09-25-2026.pdf
• sdge.com/more-information/our-company
• sdge.com/apply-service
• sdge.com/project-resources
• sdge.com/sites/default/files/BSP%20Fact%20Sheet%20for%20ADUs%20August%202022_0_0.pdf

Summarized from San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E)'s published pages. Utility processes, forms and rules change, so confirm the current requirements with SDG&E (contact) before you apply.