Funny ... around here, the PoCo just opens the seal for a service change. The EC gets to cut, and re-attach the PoCo feeds. Good thing, too .... the PoCo needs a couple days to send their guy out, and the city needs at least a day's notice to inspect. When was the last service change you did that left the customer 'dead' for a week?
Still ... where does NFPA 70E distinguish between the linesman and the electrician as to 'working hot?' I can't accept that this forum is ONLY for employees of electrical contractors.
Face reality ... it is the nature of the trade to work in the presence of electricity. It's even necessary to work with 'live' power. As absurd as this may sound ... I ask all to examine the absurdity of the 'don't work live ever' extremists. For example, ratcheting a 'bucket' into switchgear is 'working hot,' though everything is guarded in the extreme. The equipment is designed to be worked that way.
Likewise, you can kill the main breaker in a panel- but if you try hard enough, you can still find something 'live.' How far are we going to carry this silliness?
I can hardly wait for the next service call, where the customer has a bad breaker, or requires an additional circuit to be run. Just wait until I tell the customer that folks here think it's necessary for me to have the PoCo disconnect the whole building, shut the whole place down, so I can connect the pipe, pull the wire, and snap in the breaker. That will go over even better than my killing all the lights to change a bulb.
It is integral to the trade to work in the presence of electricity. It is basic to the trade that one learn how to do this. The recent silliness for 'documented safety training' totally disrespects the training represented by a journeymans' card.
Maybe the next step will be to ban me from the forum unless I can produce 'keyboard certification.'
In the remodel I described, each circuit will be tested, repaired, maybe even replaced. So that the job may progress, this is done one circuit at a time. Some would have the PoCo called to break the seal each time a breaker is pulled or replaced? Yea, that'll make the folks at the PoCo happy.