How to Renew an Alaska Electrical License or Certificate

In Alaska, there are a bunch of different electrical license and certificate types. But whether you’re doing the type of work that requires a certificate of fitness from the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development’s Mechanical Inspection section or you hold an electrical administrator license, the main thing to know is that you need to renew every two years.

Unfortunately, figuring out what’s required for your renewal can be a little complicated because different license types require different things. But don’t worry. We’ve built this quick overview of what you need to do to renew the seven different electrical license types in Alaska.

Electrical journeyman, residential, trainee, and lineman renewals

Most skilled electrical professionals in Alaska get licensed through the state’s Mechanical Inspection section. Rather than a license, you technically get a certificate of fitness.

You should already be familiar with that certificate because it’s what you had to secure to get certified in the first place. For your renewal, you’ll fill out the same form, but you’ll check the renewal box on the first page.

This is true if you have any of the following certificate types:

Electrical journeyman
Electrical residential
Electrical trainee
Journeyman power lineman
Power lineman
Reciprocal electrical journeyman

As with your initial application, you’ll need to get the form notarized.

Beyond filling out the application itself, you also need to include the $200 renewal fee. Make your check payable to the State of Alaska.

Finally, you need to send in a 2” by 2” photo as part of the renewal process.

Your certificate is good for two years from the date it was initially issued. That means you need to mark your calendar to be sure you get your certificate of fitness renewal in biennially.

If any certificate of fitness holders have questions about the renewal process, they can contact the Mechanical Inspection section at (907) 269-4925 or mi@alaska.gov.

But wait, there’s more. If you’re a journeyman electrician, you have one extra step to complete every two years, too.

Continuing education for journeyman electricians

If you have an electrical journeyman license, state code requires that you take 16 hours of continuing education (like the classes you can get here) during each two-year renewal cycle. You can take eight per year or all 16 at once. Either way, though, you need to make sure that at least eight of your 16 hours focus on the National Electrical Code (NEC).

Here’s the good news: you can find state-approved electrical journeyman CE hours online and on-demand.

Electrical administrator renewal

While most electrical professionals go through the Mechanical Inspection section, you’ll go through the Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development if you have an electrical administrator license.

Unlike other electrical pros, your license doesn’t expire two years after the issue date, but every two years on a date the Department of Commerce sets (right now, the next expiration date is December 31, 2023).

You use this form to renew. Make sure you include the $170 renewal fee, too.

Before you send in that form, though, make sure you’ve met Alaska’s CE requirement for electrical administrators. Specifically, you need eight NEC-focused hours during each two-year renewal cycle. Luckily, you can knock out those hours online whenever you have time.

If you have any questions about the electrical administrator renewal process, contact the state at (907) 465-2050 or electricaladministrators@alaska.gov.