Texas Electrical Code PrepWhat changed in the 2026 edition

Checked against primary sources 2026-08-24

Everything over 1000 volts now has its own parallel set of articles

The over-1000-volt requirements used to sit as parts and exceptions inside the general articles. Five of them came out in 2026, on top of four that came out in 2023.

On this page
  1. What the 2026 edition added
  2. Four more that a 2023 book already carries
  3. The pattern is deliberate and it is learnable
  4. What this actually changes for a low-voltage job
  5. Two listing requirements that do not start yet
  6. What this page cites

What the 2026 edition added

Five articles, each one a medium-voltage twin of a general article you already use. Four came out of Article 235 and the fifth came out of Article 250. The threshold throughout is over 1000 volts ac or 1500 volts dc, nominal.

SubjectGeneral voltageOver 1000 voltsBuilt from
Branch circuitsArticle 210Article 265Article 235 Part II
FeedersArticle 215Article 266Article 235 Part III
Outside branch circuits and feedersArticle 225Article 267Article 235 Part IV
ServicesArticle 230Article 268Article 235 Part V
Grounding and bondingArticle 250Article 270The over-1000-volt part of Article 250

Read the second column as the article you already know and the third as its medium-voltage twin. The first four arrive in the same order as the four you already use. That is deliberate, and it is the part worth remembering.

Article 235 held all of that in one place through the 2023 edition. The 2026 edition deletes it, and its parts come back as four separate articles.

Four more that a 2023 book already carries

This is where lists like this go wrong, and where this page went wrong. The split did not start in 2026. Four of the medium-voltage articles were added one cycle earlier, so a 2023 book is not missing them.

SubjectGeneral voltageOver 1000 voltsAdded in
Overcurrent protectionArticle 240Article 2452023
Wiring methods and materialsArticle 300Article 3052023
Conductors and cablesArticle 310Article 3152023
Equipmentspread across severalArticle 4952023

Article 245 covers overcurrent protection for systems over 1000 volts ac, 1500 volts dc, and it covered exactly that in the 2023 book. Citing it for a 2026 job is right. Counting it as a 2026 addition is the error.

The same reasoning cuts the other way inside these four. An article that arrived in 2023 can still have sections that arrived in 2026, and both 245.2 and 495.2 did.

The pattern is deliberate and it is learnable

The new numbers are not arbitrary. The four circuit and service articles shadow the four you already use, in the same order. Grounding and bonding keeps its own shape too: the general article is 250 and its twin is 270.

In places the twinning reaches down to the section number. Article 270 has a 270.30 for grounding separately derived alternating-current systems, which is the job 250.30 does below the threshold, and 250.20(D) now sends an impedance grounded system to 250.36 or 270.36 depending on which side of the threshold it sits.

The mirroring is not complete, so do not lean on it. 250.20(C) points a medium-voltage supply to mobile or portable equipment at 270.115, which is not a number that pairs with anything. Look for the twin article first and read the section number when you get there.

So there is nothing here to memorize as a list of nine numbers. There is one rule: for medium voltage, look for the twin.

What this actually changes for a low-voltage job

For most work, nothing. If everything you touch is under 1000 volts, the general articles are still the general articles and they got shorter, not different.

Shorter is the point. The parts and exceptions that used to interrupt Article 250 to deal with medium voltage are gone from it, so Article 250 reads more cleanly than it did.

Where it bites is a citation you memorized that pointed into one of those removed parts.

Two listing requirements that do not start yet

There are two of these in the over-1000-volt material, not one, and they carry the same pair of dates. Article 245 does it for overcurrent protection and Article 495 does it for equipment. Neither article is new this cycle. Both of the .2 sections are.

Overcurrent protection for systems rated not over 15,000 volts ac or dc, nominal, shall be listed. The listing requirements shall be effective January 1, 2029.

NEC 245.2(A), 2026 edition

NEC 245.2(B) does the same thing one tier up, for systems over 15,000 volts but not over 52,000 volts, and its date is January 1, 2032. Both subsections carry the same exception: overcurrent protection integral to a listed assembly does not have to be listed on its own.

Under NEC 495.2(A), switchgear and industrial control assemblies rated not over 15,000 volts ac or dc shall be listed, effective January 1, 2029. NEC 495.2(B) takes the tier above that, up to 52,000 volts, with January 1, 2032.

Get the 495 number right. The 2032 date is at 495.2(B). NEC 495.3 is a different section, Reconditioned Equipment, and the two get transposed constantly because the 2026 edition puts Listing Requirements at .2 and Reconditioned Equipment at .3 in article after article.

All four of those dates are printed in the book Texas adopts on September 1 and none of them applies yet. There is a separate page here on every delayed date we have found.

What this page cites

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Every rule here is cited to the section it comes from, and corrections are logged in public with the date. This is study material rather than electrical advice, and it does not replace your own code book or your inspector.