utilityengr
Member
- Location
- California
Hi all. First time poster, long time visitor.
I'm scratching my head on a particular issue that has caused some debate in the office. I work for a utility company in California. I'm a project engineer leading the entire effort of a 66kV station re-build. This involves installing a new MEER (Mechanical Electrical Equipment Room) which houses all the microprocessor relays on 19" relay racks protecting the station and lines, etc. This MEER is essentially a small (call it 50'x 20') "building" with lights, AC, DC, outlets, control cable less than 600V, etc. We submitted our plans to the city for review, including electrical schematics of the aforementioned items.
They shot back at us requiring us to do a bunch of electrical and green energy requirements. We replied citing section 90.2B of the NEC in a nice letter, which grants utility companies and exemption. They came back and said they do not accept that response and still require us to perform the laundry list of changes they are asking for.
I'm pretty close to hiring a lawyer or a professional green building engineering team (of which we never use) to modify our building which is currently being fabricated. It will cost a lot in changeorders to the building fabricator, my engineering and design contractor, and a new PO to a professional used to dealing with the city. At the end of the day, I see this no less than an extra $100k cost at minimum. The worst part is a huge delay in the project, we can't start construction now, which is eating into our 66kV outage window before summertime loading. Is there another way to convince the city, another section, or anything else, that will prevent us from jumping through the hoops? Any general advice for dealing with the city?
Thanks for reading.
I'm scratching my head on a particular issue that has caused some debate in the office. I work for a utility company in California. I'm a project engineer leading the entire effort of a 66kV station re-build. This involves installing a new MEER (Mechanical Electrical Equipment Room) which houses all the microprocessor relays on 19" relay racks protecting the station and lines, etc. This MEER is essentially a small (call it 50'x 20') "building" with lights, AC, DC, outlets, control cable less than 600V, etc. We submitted our plans to the city for review, including electrical schematics of the aforementioned items.
They shot back at us requiring us to do a bunch of electrical and green energy requirements. We replied citing section 90.2B of the NEC in a nice letter, which grants utility companies and exemption. They came back and said they do not accept that response and still require us to perform the laundry list of changes they are asking for.
I'm pretty close to hiring a lawyer or a professional green building engineering team (of which we never use) to modify our building which is currently being fabricated. It will cost a lot in changeorders to the building fabricator, my engineering and design contractor, and a new PO to a professional used to dealing with the city. At the end of the day, I see this no less than an extra $100k cost at minimum. The worst part is a huge delay in the project, we can't start construction now, which is eating into our 66kV outage window before summertime loading. Is there another way to convince the city, another section, or anything else, that will prevent us from jumping through the hoops? Any general advice for dealing with the city?
Thanks for reading.