Huh yeah I am not sure "Premises wiring" to me means anything I can access at any time and mess with, I as the utility customer might provide some conduit and wire that I own to connect to facilities of the serving utility and that is a 'service lateral' thats not covered under the NEC per 90.2(D)(5)(a) its covered by utility specs.
Somehow both the power company and CID are calling this a customer owned service lateral. As well as the 30’ riser to the transformer is under CID jurisdiction. I’ve hit a dead end. One thing is for certain, it a bunch of bullshit!
"Customer owned service lateral" makes no sense! I think they need to review the definitions.
I own my service lateral to my house, if it fails I have to replace it, but its before my meter so 'under exclusive control' of the utility, the NEC does not apply to it.
I’ll give a call to the power company engineer who I went through for the transformer upgrade. Also, I do lots of service changes and it never ceases to amaze me to see the power co. using the original lateral with wire rated for 100A.
How many overhead residential services have you installed in your career? How many f the meter? Who provided the riser and conductor material? Were the riser conductors selected per utility requirements or per the NEC.
Please do and plrease file a written appeal with CID, Stating that a service lateral is exampt form the requirements of the NEC and falls under the NESC. the NEC section is 90.2(5)(a) it may save you that 5k.
Yep, combination, not permutation!Same letters, must be the same thing right?
That is not correct. The meter has nothing to do with the conductors being "under the exclusive control" of the utility. That is determined only by the service point. Only your utility knows where the service point many be. In this area, the service point is always on the line side of any customer owned conductors. So for an underground service, that service point will be the terminals of a pad mount transformer, or the end of a riser if the transformer is on a pole.
For a residential overhead service, our utility specifies that the service point is the load end of their service drop conductors, but for a commercial service the service point is at the secondary terminals of the utility transformers on the utility pole. The conductors from the pole transformer to the building are "overhead service conductors" covered by the NEC, unlike service drop conductors that are not covered by the NEC.
I say something is amuck, you cannot own a service lateral. Sounds like "underground service conductors" to me. Sometimes I install and provide the conduit for a service lateral, but I have never installed service lateral conductors conductors in that pipe, the POCO does that if its a service lateral.
What's the POCO? I checked the PNM Service Guide, and on Page 19 for single family residences with an underground supply from a pole mounted transformer, it says:
We have some utilities here that make customer/contractor supply and install raceway from pole/transformer/etc. to the structure supplied as well as install the meter socket at the structure supplied. The POCO specifies what size raceway to use, and has their own rules on burial depth, warning tape installation requirements, radius of bends used, etc.. Owner/contractor pays for those materials and cost to install. POCO does pull conductors, and takes over future maintenance of the installation. This is all POCO side of service point, and NEC doesn't apply even though owner did pay for portions of it. That said the POCO install specs are more stringent than NEC is as a general rule anyway so it still should pass NEC inspection other than whatever size and type of conductor the POCO might happen to pull in there. 400 amp service- they commonly pull 350 aluminum (not parallel conductors either) However for non dwellings they generally do require a spare raceway, should there ever be need for more conductor they may just utilize that spare. That said there generally is no room for that spare raceway in the meter socket being used so to use that spare raceway at a later time might involve changing some things to be able to use it.
Service Point is defined here as "The point of connection between the facilities of
Where in the NEC does it say who can own a service lateral?
Wayne I dont know when the last time you worked on a utility pole was but they are under the exclusive control of an electric utility would you not consider the above Installation under the exclusive control of an electric utility ending at a point of service on the customers premises?
There is much history around the differences between a 'premises wiring' covered under the NEC and OSHA 1910 Subpart S and an 'electric transmission or distribution installation' under covered under §1910.269 and the NESC. Lawyers and legal experts have looked this over going back to the 90's one was the American Forest and Paper Association (AF&PA) had to get a OSHA clarification for its membership of large industrial paper-mills, where co-generation and all kinds of stuff blur the lines.
One might even have to pay some amount for primary side conductors, transformer, and associated items when you have service ran to your location. Generally all those items are still considered to be on utility side of the service point and are not subject to NEC. The utility company may or may not install this equipment either but is installed to their specifications and they normally do take over maintaining it after initial installation and customer doesn't technically own it. It is usually billed out as aid in construction costs or some similar wording and not so much billed out as a sale or service to the customer. In fact if the line in question is run along public right of way, nothing really prohibits some neighbor from being able to have their future service tapped from what you ended up laying down some cost for. sometimes there is arrangement that they may need to reimburse you some amount, sometimes that has a time frame attached to it and no longer needs reimbursement after that time period.
