Why are meters mounted on the customer's premises?

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mbrooke

Batteries Included
Location
United States
Occupation
Technician
Sure they could. But what would the typical service delivery point be and where would it be (I'm thinking residential here) if their meter base goes away or whatever the metering is is moved to the street? I'm sure the POCO's wouldn't mind saying the service delivery point is a box at the street and the cable from there to your building is on you to provide. The meter base does provide some conveniences -- in most areas it defines the service delivery point which is the boundary for wire size jurisdiction, and it is a convenient utility disconnect for an electrician to use without having to get the utility involved (just pull the meter, but let utility know so they can reseal the box when you're done).

At the weather head bugs. Or the splice box/disco mounted on the side of the home.
 

Hv&Lv

Senior Member
Location
-
Occupation
Engineer/Technician
Since deregulation, some places you own everything from the transformer all the way to the building. Have seen metering on the primary side at the street in Arkansas just for a Wal-mart.

Many large commercial loads are done this way and have been for 40-50 years.
We install the transformer, meter it there, and the customer owns everything from the second at pry side of the transformer.

Deregulation had little to do with it..
 

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
some places customer doesn't exactly own all the equipment supplying their premises, but they still paid for it or a significant amount of it upfront when it was installed though the utility company does still maintain it when necessary. In those cases utility company usually maintains up to and including metering on CT metered applications, anything beyond there is entirely customers responsibility to maintain.

Here in the boonies, if you need 2 miles of three phase primary distribution built to supply what you are wanting, you may not pay 100% of the construction cost, but you will be paying for quite a bit of it, and nothing there to prevent you neighbor from deciding to add a service sometime later to the distribution you helped pay a major cost for. If that distribution line is crossing your private property you have leverage as they would need easements to tap off it on your property to go to another property, but if you had a few miles built along side roadway, they can extend off that line without easement if they don't cross your property with it.
 
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