The temp pole went in during week one. By month five, the GC is looking at the same line item on the same pay application and asking what he is still paying for.
Temporary power billing puts an electrical contractor in an odd spot: the work is real, recurring, and almost completely invisible. The pole gets set once. Everything after that is resets, relocations, relamping, fueling and quarterly cord testing that nobody watches happen.
So a flat monthly figure reads like a subscription with no service behind it.
It isn't. The charge was fair. The explanation was missing.
Here is the whole method — the contract question to settle first, what belongs on the schedule of values versus a T&M ticket, the four charges that actually get challenged, and the exact wording of the per-visit record that ends each argument. Nothing here needs software.
Why Temporary Power Gets Disputed More Than the Work Itself
Three structural reasons, and none of them are about your price.
It's recurring. Almost every other line on your pay app appears once, gets built, and stops. Temp power shows up again in month two, three, four, five, looking identical each time.
It's invisible. A customer can walk a floor and see your conduit. Nobody can walk a finished building and see the temp service — Article 590 required you to remove it.
And the hours arrive in fragments. Ninety minutes here, two hours there, across five months. Rolled into one number — say, "temp power — 214 hrs" — it looks like a guess even when every minute is real.
Search this topic and you get utility connection procedures and generator rental catalogs. Those pages tell the customer what temp power costs. None of them tell you how to bill it. That's the gap, and it's why the argument keeps happening. If you want to price out what the argument itself costs on a real job, run it through the invoice dispute calculator.
Who Pays for Temporary Power: Settle It Before You Energize
It depends entirely on the TEMPORARY POWER clause in your contract, and if you haven't read that clause on this job, you're already exposed.
The clause usually assigns four separate obligations, and they don't all land on the same party. Contractors get burned assuming that whoever pays for the install also pays for everything after it.
| Obligation | Who commonly takes it | What to get in writing before you energize |
| Install the temp service — pole, meter base, grounding, distribution | Electrical sub, in base bid or as its own SOV line | Whether it is in your base scope or a separate line, and at what value |
| Utility account and the monthly usage bill | GC or owner, but frequently defaults to the sub | Whose name the account is in, and who pays the usage bill each month |
| Maintenance over the life of the job — resets, relamping, relocations, cord testing | Almost never specified | That it is T&M, and at what rate |
| Removal, disconnect, and the final utility bill after teardown | Assumed by nobody until the end | That removal is a funded line, not a courtesy |
Two sentences by email from the PM is enough. Ask who is covering temp power service calls and at what rate, save the reply, and you've converted a future argument into a document.
The Five Trips a Temp Power Install Actually Takes — Plus the One at Job Close
A metered temporary service is not one visit. It is typically five separate trips spread over two to three weeks before anybody has power, and three parties you don't control set the pace.
| Trip | What happens | Who you're waiting on | Example hours |
| 1 | Stake the location, call in locates | One-call center — commonly about two business days | 1.0 |
| 2 | Trench, set post, meter base and ground rod, land conductors | Nobody | 6.0 |
| 3 | AHJ inspection — meet the inspector, correct anything flagged | AHJ scheduling | 1.5 |
| 4 | Utility connect and energize, verify rotation and GFCI | Utility | 1.5 |
| 5 | Return trip to complete backfill after the utility is clear | Utility | 2.0 |
The removal trip is not install labor and does not belong in that total. It happens months later, and it carries its own funded line on the schedule of values:
| At job close | What happens | Who you're waiting on | Example hours |
| Disconnect and removal — carried as a separate funded SOV line, see below | Pull meter base, spider boxes and conductors, backfill, release to the utility | AHJ and utility | 3.0 |
Every one of those gaps was a third party. That's worth documenting at the time, because nobody remembers in October that August's delay was a locate hold.
Your utility publishes its own temporary-service fee schedule and its connect timeline. That sheet is neutral third-party proof the wait wasn't yours. Pull it, confirm the current numbers, and attach it to the estimate.
What Goes on the Schedule of Values and What Goes on a T&M Ticket
The install belongs on the schedule of values as its own line. Everything after energization belongs on T&M tickets, invoiced weekly.
Bundling ongoing maintenance into a flat SOV line is what creates the invisible recurring charge in the first place. A fixed monthly number carries no evidence inside it. Broken out, the same money arrives with its own backup attached.
| Item | Where it belongs | Why |
| Temp service install — pole, meter base, grounding, distribution | Its own SOV line | One-time, verifiable, inspected by a third party |
| Rented equipment — generator, spider boxes, festoon, fuel tank | Separate line or passthrough, billed monthly | Cleanly separates equipment from labor when either is questioned |
| Utility usage bill | Passthrough, with the utility's own invoice attached | Third-party document, essentially unarguable |
| Service calls and maintenance | T&M ticket, invoiced weekly | Each visit carries its own dated record |
| Added circuits, relocations, extended duration | Change order, priced before the work | Scope creep absorbed silently is scope creep you eat |
| Disconnect and removal | Funded SOV line, held until performed | NEC 590 requires removal; fund it up front |
More on ticket structure and approval timing in the T&M billing best practices guide.
The Four Temp Power Charges That Get Challenged
Four lines account for nearly every temp power argument. Each one is settled by a single dated sentence, written the day it happened.
| The charge | What the customer says | The line that ends it |
| Continued monthly maintenance | "Nobody was even out there" | "Aug 19, 1.5 hrs — reset tripped GFCI at north spider box, relamped (3) festoon strings, 2nd floor east" |
| Standby or idle generator time | "It just sat there all week" | "Aug 12 to 16 — generator on site and energized for weekend pours, fueled 8/14, 45 gal" |
| Added circuits and relocations | "That should have been in your bid" | "Aug 4 — relocated temp panel to east elevation, added (2) 20A circuits for tile crew, per PM request 8/1" |
| Disconnect and removal | "The job is done, why is there another bill?" | "Sep 8, 3.0 hrs — disconnected temp service, pulled meter base and (6) spider boxes, backfilled, released to utility" |
The Recurring Monthly Charge: "Nobody Was Even on Site"
This is the most challenged line in temp power billing, and it's challenged because a flat monthly figure has no evidence inside it. Replace the figure with the visits it paid for.
Some of those monthly hours aren't optional, either. For construction receptacles that aren't part of the permanent wiring, OSHA's 29 CFR 1926.404(b)(1) gives you two paths: GFCI protection, or a written assured equipment grounding conductor program.
Take the AEGCP path and it obligates continuity and terminal tests on every cord set and receptacle before first use, after any repair, after suspected damage, and at intervals not exceeding three months — six months for cord sets and receptacles that are fixed and not exposed to damage — with the test record kept available at the site.
That's a recurring, code-driven, billable task that OSHA already requires you to write down. Photograph that log at each required test and you have billing backup for the hardest-to-defend hours on the job at zero extra effort.
NEC Article 590 covers the other end. Temporary wiring is permitted for the duration of construction and has to come out when the work it served is complete. The removal trip is code compliance, not an optional extra you can be talked out of billing.
Two Ways to Bill the Same Month
Same hours, same rate, same month. One version starts an argument and one ends it.
Billed the way most temp power gets billed:
Temporary power — monthly maintenance, August ......... $855.00
Billed as the visits it actually paid for:
| Date | Who | What was done | Hours | Bill rate | Amount |
| Aug 4 | J. Ruiz | Relocated temp panel to east elevation, added (2) 20A circuits for tile crew | 3.5 | $95.00 | $332.50 |
| Aug 11 | J. Ruiz | Quarterly AEGCP continuity test, (14) cord sets and (6) spider boxes, tagged and pulled (2) damaged cords | 2.0 | $95.00 | $190.00 |
| Aug 19 | D. Cole | Reset tripped GFCI at north spider box, relamped (3) festoon strings, 2nd floor east | 1.5 | $95.00 | $142.50 |
| Aug 26 | D. Cole | Moved spider box from 3rd to 4th floor ahead of drywall, re-hung 60 ft festoon | 2.0 | $95.00 | $190.00 |
| Total | 9.0 | $855.00 |
Nothing was added. The dollar figure is identical. The difference is that the second version can be checked, and a line that can be checked usually isn't.
Note what the second version does not show: what those hours cost you, or what you made on them. Backup that goes to a customer carries the bill rate and nothing else. There's a marked-up example of that separation in this sample billing packet.
The Temp Power Trip Log: What to Write Down, and the Exact Wording
One record per trip, six fields, filled in before the truck leaves the site. That's the entire system.
- Date and clock times, not a rounded total
- Who was on site
- What was serviced, added, or removed, with a quantity
- Where on the job — floor, wing, elevation, or system
- Who or what you were waiting on, if anybody
- Materials consumed: lamps, cord sets, GFCI devices, fuel
| Written like this | Rewritten like this |
| Temp power maintenance, 2 hrs | Wed 8/19, 7:10a to 8:40a — reset tripped GFCI at north spider box, relamped (3) festoon strings, 2nd floor east; box tripping since 8/18 |
| Moved boxes, 2 hrs | Wed 8/26, 1:15p to 3:15p — moved spider box 3rd to 4th floor ahead of drywall, re-hung 60 ft festoon |
| Waited on utility, 1.5 hrs | Fri 8/7, 8:00a to 9:30a — met utility crew for connect, verified rotation and GFCI at all six receptacles, released to GC |
If it isn't, you can't reconstruct it. Nobody remembers in October which wing they were on in April.
Blank sheets for the labor backup, the daily field report and the change-order log are in the free T&M billing backup kit — print the labor backup sheet, add a "waiting on" column, and it's a temp power trip log.
Getting the Note Out of the Crew
The log only works if it gets filled in, and the reason it doesn't is almost never laziness. It's that nobody told the crew what the note is for.
"Write down where you were" gets a shrug. "Write what you did so the GC can't chisel us in month five" gets a sentence, because now it's protecting work the crew actually performed.
Make it one sentence at the end of the shift, on the phone or on paper in the truck. Same five parts every time.
Give them last week's note to edit instead of a blank box. Editing "relamped (3) festoon strings, 2nd floor east" into "(4), 3rd floor west" takes ten seconds; starting from nothing takes a conversation.
Collection method matters far less than the habit. A paper sheet photographed and texted to the office works. A shared spreadsheet works. FieldTimesheet asks "what did you work on?" at clock-out and puts that answer on a printable customer billing packet — same idea, fewer steps — though the QuickBooks push is a button an admin clicks rather than something that runs on its own, and it sends the note as the description without attaching the customer record. The method above is the part that matters; the tool is optional.
The Whole Method in Six Lines
- Read the TEMPORARY POWER clause and get maintenance and removal assigned in writing before you energize.
- Put the install on the schedule of values as its own line; keep everything after energization on T&M.
- Invoice T&M weekly, separate from the monthly pay application.
- One dated record per trip: verb, equipment, quantity, location, and the reason when there is one — who asked, what failed, or who you were waiting on.
- Photograph the AEGCP test log at each required test — OSHA already requires you to keep it.
- Bill each month as the visits it paid for, never as a flat figure.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who pays for temporary power on a construction job — the GC, the owner, or the electrical sub?
Whoever the TEMPORARY POWER clause in the contract says, and it is frequently split. The install may be in the electrical sub's base bid while the utility account sits with the GC and maintenance is assigned to nobody. Get all four obligations — install, utility account, maintenance, removal — named in writing before you energize.
Can I bill the monthly temporary power maintenance charge if nobody was on site that month?
If nobody was on site and nothing was serviced, there are no labor hours to bill that month — only equipment rental or standby, if your contract provides for it. That's exactly why the labor should be billed as visits rather than as a flat monthly figure: in a month with four service calls you can show all four, and in a month with none you aren't defending a charge you can't support.
Should temporary power be a schedule-of-values line or a T&M ticket?
Both, split at energization. The install is a one-time, inspectable event that belongs on its own SOV line; every service call, relocation, relamp and cord test after that belongs on a T&M ticket invoiced weekly. Mixing them is what produces the flat monthly line that gets challenged.
Can I bill for time my crew spends waiting on locates, the inspection, or the utility connect?
If the contract makes those trips your scope, the hours are billable — but only if the reason for the trip is written down at the time. A line reading "Fri 8/7, 1.5 hrs — met utility crew for connect, verified rotation and GFCI" is defensible. A line reading "waited on utility, 1.5 hrs" invites the question of why that was your problem.
Do I mark up the temporary power rental and the utility bill, or pass them through at cost?
That's a contract question, not a best practice — some agreements specify cost plus a stated percentage, others require straight passthrough with the vendor invoice attached. Whichever applies, attach the third-party document. A utility bill or rental invoice in the customer's own hands is essentially unarguable, and it stops the conversation faster than any explanation you write.
What documentation actually settles a temporary power billing dispute?
A dated, per-visit record naming what was serviced, how many, and where. Hours alone never settle it, because an hours total asks the customer to take your word for it. "Aug 26, 2.0 hrs — moved spider box 3rd to 4th floor ahead of drywall, re-hung 60 ft festoon" answers the question before it gets asked.
What happens if the temporary service fails its electrical inspection?
If the correction is your workmanship, the re-inspection and the return trip are typically yours to absorb. If the failure came from a design conflict, a changed condition, or another trade's work, it's a change order — but only if the inspector's specific correction notice is recorded that day and referenced on the ticket. Undocumented corrections all get read as your mistake later.
How do I bill for removing the temporary service at the end of the job?
Carry removal as its own funded line on the schedule of values from day one, and hold that value until the work is performed. NEC Article 590 requires the temporary installation to come out when the construction it served is complete, so it's code compliance rather than an optional add-on — but a removal trip nobody funded at bid time is a removal trip you'll be arguing about at closeout.