Mike Holt's Rating of the Electrical Industry - 2021

As part of my ongoing focus on electrical safety, we annually update our report that assigns a grade to U.S. states for electrical standards that are mandated state-wide. I recognize that there are a lot of individuals that are passionate about electrical safety, and they do everything that they can to introduce laws and measures in their communities to achieve those goals. I salute them and their efforts. I have had feedback from industry leaders to say that in spite of this report showing a state has a "good grade" that state is renown for the worst electrical wiring! There are states that, while they require electrical inspectors to be certified, have rural areas to which no inspectors are assigned! All we can do here, is standardize the measusrable criteria that we can apply across the board to compare the efforts that each state is making. How does your state rank?

As part of my ongoing focus on electrical safety, we annually update our report that assigns a grade to U.S. states for electrical standards that are mandated state-wide. I recognize that there are a lot of individuals that are passionate about electrical safety, and they do everything that they can to introduce laws and measures in their communities to achieve those goals. I salute them and their efforts.

I have had feedback from industry leaders to say that in spite of this report showing a state has a "good grade" that state is renowned for the worst electrical wiring! There are states that, while they require electrical inspectors to be certified, have rural areas to which no inspectors are assigned! All we can do here is standardize the measurable criteria that we can apply across the board to compare the efforts that each state is making. How does your state rank?

Congratulations!
As of this time, the 2020 NEC is in effect in eleven states. It was issued by the NFPA Standards Council on August 5, 2019, when it officially became available for federal, state, county, and municipal entities to update their electrical installation regulations. The following are the states on the 2020 NEC:

Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming.

Criteria Used for Grading The following criteria are all required at the state level for points to be assigned for this report: (Note: all 12 points are required for an A+ grade) The NEC edition adopted (range -2 for local to +3 points for current, 2020 NEC); the NEC must be adopted and required by the state as the minimum standard in all counties and municipalities Licensing and/or certification is required for Apprentice, Journeyman, Master/Contractor, Inspector, and Engineer licenses (5 points max.) Continuing Education (CEU, CPC or PDH) is required for license renewal (4 points max.)

 

CEU Grading With hundreds of changes happening in the Code, and changes in materials available, continuing education is more important than ever. This is why we have broken down state requirements to a standard unit of average hours required annually. While the requirement for CEUs for license renewal is already taken into account in the safety grading system, we thought it would be important to also take a more in-depth look at the number of hours required by each state for their electrical license renewal. For that reason, we created a stand-alone rating system for CEUs. Click here to see the Continuing Education chart.

 

What we can't consider Local Adoptions. We recognize that many counties and municipalities adopt the most recent building and electrical codes ahead of their state. We commend them for continuing to set high standards in electrical safety! For this State Report, however, they are too numerous to include. Enforcement or effectiveness. We are unaware of a way to track or correlate enforcement as it relates to rates of incidents, electrical fires or accidents. We're always looking for ways, so if you have a criteria which we could apply evenly across all states, please reach out to us.

 

How does your state rank?

For history and details of how grades are calculated, click here.
Note: All 12 points are required for an A+ grade.

We'd appreciate your feedback.
If you have any updated information that you feel would change our rankings on this year's report, please post your comment - we appreciate your input to help keep this analysis accurate and current.

 

Click here for history and details of how the points are assigned.