Price comparision SWAG

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Open Neutral

Senior Member
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Inside the Beltway
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Engineer
A friend is looking at a future upgrade to 400A service. There's a 180 ft run from the existing PoCo xfmr to the meter.

He's had a hard time with the PoCo's responses to his queries; after 2+ months delay, he was told his existing 4/0 was OK for a 320A upgrade.
But he breached the wall and actually talked to an engineer there who was aghast at that. So he's worried he should be burying duct for ~350MCM as part of another project.

I'm curious how a run of three 350MCM compares costwise to the same length of HV coaxial cable.

Yes, there are other factors such as the xfmr cost, but I gotta start somewhere.
 
I upgraded a heavily-loaded 200a service to a 400/320 to add a panel just for a 4 x 40a-circuit tankless water heater.

Dominion here insisted the existing underground lateral was more than adequate for the existing and new load, too.
 
Open Neutral said:
A friend is looking at a future upgrade to 400A service. There's a 180 ft run from the existing PoCo xfmr to the meter.

He's had a hard time with the PoCo's responses to his queries; after 2+ months delay, he was told his existing 4/0 was OK for a 320A upgrade.
But he breached the wall and actually talked to an engineer there who was aghast at that. So he's worried he should be burying duct for ~350MCM as part of another project.

I'm curious how a run of three 350MCM compares costwise to the same length of HV coaxial cable.

Yes, there are other factors such as the xfmr cost, but I gotta start somewhere.
Click to expand...

Here we don't worry about the power company's feeds. Let them worry about that.
 
Open Neutral said:
.

I'm curious how a run of three 350MCM compares costwise to the same length of HV coaxial cable.

Yes, there are other factors such as the xfmr cost, but I gotta start somewhere.
Click to expand...
I'm not clear on where medium voltage cable fits into this, but ask and you shall receive. #2 15kv concentric neutral is about $3.75/ foot now. Probably 350 AL URD is about that or a little more. 1.5" conduit is fine for the CN, gunna need 2.5" for the URD
 
Thanks...

At 7.6kv I guess it is medium, not high, voltage coaxial that would feed a new xfmr.

So say $700 for the new xfmr approach; and $2K for long secondaries.
He plans to install 3" duct to make either option viable.
 
Open Neutral said:
Thanks...

At 7.6kv I guess it is medium, not high, voltage coaxial that would feed a new xfmr.

So say $700 for the new xfmr approach; and $2K for long secondaries.
He plans to install 3" duct to make either option viable.
Click to expand...
But I don't think you can make any reasonable price estimate by just the cost of the cable. For example one POCO here charges something like $20/foot for UG - and that's you dig the trench, provide sand, and they just toss the cable in. Another POCO does allow customers to buy and install the MV cable and they just terminate it. So unless you are real familiar with that utility's pricing structure, I would just consider it a WAG.
 
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