Colorado State Electrical Board (Division of Professions and Occupations, Department of Regulatory Agencies) administers electrician licensing in Colorado. Every figure below is verified against the board’s own official pages and dated. Who must personally hold a credential — the contractor, the business, or the individual worker — is set out under Requirements.
What it’s called
Colorado licenses individual electricians — the state electrician license is issued by the Colorado State Electrical Board and held by the electrician personally (not only by the contractor, as in some states). “Electrician license,” “journeyman electrician license,” “master electrician license” and “electrician certification” are common informal names for the individual credential. The exact license tiers, fees, and any separate electrical-contractor license are set out in the license types and requirements below.
License types & fees
| Type | Experience | Exam | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Residential Wireman | 4,000 hours of residential-only experience earned in no less than 2 years | Residential Wireman exam administered by PSI (based on qualifying experience level) | $100 initial application fee (non-refundable, non-transferable); $126 to reactivate an inactive license |
| Journeyman Electrician | 8,000 hours of experience earned in no less than 4 years, 2,000 hours of which must be in commercial/industrial work; plus 288 hours of classroom education (required for ALL applicants, no grandfathering of apprentice registration) | Journeyman exam administered by PSI (based on qualifying experience level) | $120 initial application fee (non-refundable, non-transferable); $147 to reactivate an inactive license |
| Master Electrician | Must meet one: (a) 10,000 hours of experience earned in no less than 5 years; (b) Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from an accredited college/university AND 2,000 hours of construction experience earned in no less than 1 year; (c) graduate of an electrical trade school or community college AND 8,000 hours of experience earned in no less than 4 years; or (d) 2,000 hours earned in no less than 1 year in addition to the Journeyman requirements (some in planning/layout, some in supervision while holding a Journeyman license). Cannot go from Apprentice or Residential Wireman directly to Master using experience to qualify. | Master exam administered by PSI (based on qualifying experience level) | $140 initial application fee (non-refundable, non-transferable); $169 to reactivate an inactive license |
Who does NOT need this license — exemptions
Colorado’s exemption section, C.R.S. § 12-115-116, is one of the longest in the country and applies to the whole Electricians’ Practice Act — that is, to all three individual licenses this page covers (residential wireman, journeyman electrician, master electrician) as well as to electrical contractor registration. Who is exempt: (1) employees of public service corporations, rural electrification associations, or municipal utilities generating, distributing, or selling electrical energy (including street railway and telephone/telegraph systems), their corporate affiliates’ employees, railroad corporation employees, and employees of lawfully franchised cable television companies, while doing electrical work for those purposes (§ 12-115-116(1)); (2) any individual doing electrical work on his or her own property or residence, provided all such work — except maintenance or repair of existing facilities — is inspected as the article provides; this owner exemption does NOT apply if the property is intended for sale or resale by a person in the construction or remodeling business, is rental property occupied or to be occupied by tenants, or is generally open to the public (§ 12-115-116(2)); (3) regular employees of a firm or corporation doing electrical work on the firm’s own, leased, or rented property, if the work conforms to the article’s minimum standards, is subject to inspection on written request, and the property is not generally open to the public (§ 12-115-116(3)); maintenance or repair of existing facilities — defined as preserving or keeping in good repair lawfully installed facilities by repairing or replacing components with new components that serve the same purpose — requires no license, inspection, or fee, whether done by an individual on his or her own property or residence or by a firm’s regular employees on the firm’s property even when open to the public (§ 12-115-116(6)); and federal government employees performing electrical work on federal property (§ 12-115-116(15)(f)). Whole categories of work are also placed outside the act: vertical transportation (elevators, escalators, moving walks, dumbwaiters, stage and man lifts) beyond the terminals of the controllers, including the elevator contractors performing it (§ 12-115-116(5)); mines inspected under the federal Mine Safety and Health Act, except permanent state highway tunnels (§ 12-115-116(13)); security systems of fifty volts or less, lawn sprinkler systems, environmental controls, and remote radio-controlled systems beyond the controllers’ terminals (§ 12-115-116(15)(a)); electronic computer data processing equipment and systems beyond the controllers’ terminals (§ 12-115-116(15)(b)); communications systems — non-utility telephone and telegraph, radio and TV equipment, antenna systems — except where a communication system’s power-conveying cables are hard-wired into the building’s electrical system (§ 12-115-116(15)(c)); electric signs, cranes, hoists, electroplating, industrial machinery, and irrigation machinery beyond the terminals of the controllers (§ 12-115-116(15)(d)); sound recording and reproduction, public address, and speech-input systems and electronic organs beyond the controllers’ terminals (§ 12-115-116(15)(e)); fire alarm systems operating at fifty volts or less — though these remain subject to the article’s inspection and permitting provisions (§ 12-115-116(15)(g)); NEC class 2 and class 3 remote-control, signaling, and power-limited circuits, and the contractors and employees who install them (§ 12-115-116(16)(a)); and traffic signal work (§ 12-115-116(16)(b)). Additional narrow provisions: plugging an appliance into an existing approved outlet does not make a person an installer (§ 12-115-116(8)); appliance vendors may sell, deliver, and connect appliances where no structural wiring installation is needed (§ 12-115-116(9)); laying electrical conduits to specification in bridge or highway projects is outside the article (§ 12-115-116(10)); and utility-controlled installations for generation, transformation, transmission, distribution, communication, or metering — including everything inside the security fence of a generating station, substation, control center, or communication facility — are exempt from the article’s permit and inspection provisions, though this does not extend to a utility’s ordinary premises wiring such as office buildings, garages, and warehouses (§ 12-115-116(14)). Finally, a business may operate as an electrical contractor without its principals holding an electrician’s license if all electrical work is performed under the direction and control of a licensed master electrician (§ 12-115-116(7)) — the master’s license, not each owner’s, is what the law requires. Registered apprentices working under the direct supervision of a licensed master, journeyman, or residential wireman are handled by registration (§ 12-115-103(1), § 12-115-115), not by exemption.
Fees
Initial license application fee (non-refundable, non-transferable), per the official DPO Electrician application forms: Residential Wireman $100; Journeyman $120; Master $140. The same application-fee schedule applies to the Endorsement/Reciprocity application. Reactivation of an inactive license: Residential Wireman $126; Journeyman $147; Master $169. Exam application and reinstatement (from expired) fees are collected by credit card inside the DORA online portal; a late-renewal delinquency fee applies during the 60-day grace period. (Fines for unlicensed practice, set separately by the Board under 3 CCR 710-1, run $225-$300 first offense up to $2,000/day for continuing violations and are penalties, not licensing fees.)
Exam
Exams are administered by PSI Testing (accessed via ‘State/Government Licensing Agencies’ on the PSI website). Applicants take and pass the exam for which they qualify based on experience level (Residential Wireman, Journeyman, or Master) and upload passing results. Endorsement/reciprocity applicants who already passed a qualifying state exam are not re-examined.
Renewal & continuing education
Every 3 years (triennial license period, tied to the Board’s adoption of the National Electrical Code). A 60-day grace period follows expiration (a delinquency fee applies for late renewal); after the grace period the license is expired and the holder is ineligible to practice until reinstated. (3 CCR 710-1, Rule 1.13) 24 hours of continuing education per 3-year license period for all Residential Wireman, Journeyman, and Master Electrician licensees with an active Colorado license (must include a minimum of 4 hours of Code Changes and a maximum of 4 hours of safety training). Electricians who received their initial license by examination during the current license period are not required to complete CE until after the first renewal.
How to apply
Applications are handled by Colorado State Electrical Board (Division of Professions and Occupations, Department of Regulatory Agencies). Start at the official application page .