Spread panel's power from the centre to freshen things up (5)
I believe the answer is:
renew
'spread panel's power' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are verbs in their base form, I cannot see how one could define the other.
'centre to freshen things up' is the wordplay.
'centre' means to look at the middle letters.
'to freshen' becomes 'refresh' ('refresh' can be a synonym of 'freshen').
'things up' becomes 'enew' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
The central letter of 'refresh' is 'r'.
'r'+'enew'='RENEW'
'from the' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for renew that I've seen before include "Start afresh" , "what regeneration will do" , "Restore to original state" , "Extend eg library loan" , "modernise" .)