Completely free
No account walls, no upsell
Free exam prep for every test — 20,000+ exam pages and 2.4M+ practice questions.
Open free PE Electrical: Power prep resources ↗Exam facts & prep options
Principles and Practice of Engineering (PE) Electrical and Computer: Power Exam
The PE Electrical and Computer: Power exam is the NCEES discipline-specific Principles and Practice of Engineering examination for electrical engineers in power practice seeking licensure: a single 80-question computer-based exam taken in one 9-hour appointment (8 hours of exam time), closed book with the NCEES PE Electrical and Computer: Power Reference Handbook and supplied codes and standards (NFPA 70 NEC, NFPA 70E, NESC, and others), covering nine power knowledge areas from measurement and electrical safety to circuit analysis, rotating machines, transmission and distribution, and protection.
Official exam siteJump to prep options ↓
Questions80 questions (all questions are worked; no breadth/depth split in the current CBT format)
Testing time9-hour appointment: 8 hours of exam time, plus 2-minute nondisclosure agreement, 8-minute tutorial, and 50-minute scheduled break
ScoringPass/fail only — no numeric score published; failing examinees receive a diagnostic report showing performance by topic
Exam feeUSD 400 payable directly to NCEES (U.S. administrations); some licensing boards require a separate application and fee before registering with NCEES, and the PE exam page lists different amounts for some international administration sites (e.g., USD 425 for the Alberta PE site)
Prep options
Study resources for PE Electrical: Power
Independent prep
Courses and study resources
Exam overview
What to know before choosing your prep
- Who runs it
- NCEES
- Category
- Engineering Licensure
- Current version
- Electrical and Computer—Power CBT exam specifications, effective beginning with the October 2025 examination (introduced an updated knowledge-area list, e.g. adding Protection as a standalone area)
- Where it applies
- United States — national
- Exam languages
- English
- Testing provider
- Pearson VUE (NCEES-approved Pearson test centers)
- Format
- Computer-based (CBT), closed book with electronic references — the NCEES PE Electrical and Computer: Power Reference Handbook and listed codes and standards (NFPA 70-2020 NEC, NFPA 70E-2021, NFPA 30B-2023, NFPA 497-2021, NFPA 499-2021, ANSI C2-2017 NESC) are supplied in the exam; SI and US Customary units; multiple-choice questions plus alternative item types (AITs)
- Availability
- Administered year-round by appointment at NCEES-approved Pearson test centers; registration is open and appointments are available year-round
- Results
- Results typically available within 7–10 business days, notified by email and viewable in MyNCEES
- Remote testing
- Not available
Exam structure
80 questions across 9 knowledge areas with published ranges: Measurement and Instrumentation (6–9), General Applications (8–12), Electrical Safety (10–15), Circuit Analysis (10–15), Power Electronic Circuits and Control Devices (5–8), Rotating Machines (5–8), Electric Power Devices (8–12), Transmission and Distribution Analysis — High, Medium, and Low Voltage (8–12), and Protection (10–15).
Where rules vary
The PE exam is the uniform nationwide second step in U.S. professional engineer licensure, administered by NCEES for U.S. state and territorial licensing boards (the PE exam page advises checking each board's registration procedures because some boards require board approval or a separate application/fee before registering with NCEES); the exam itself is identical nationwide.
Eligibility
Designed for engineers with a minimum of four years of post-college work experience in the discipline; state and territorial licensing boards set final eligibility, and some boards require board approval or a separate application before registering with NCEES
Retake policy
One attempt per testing window and no more than three attempts in a 12-month period