Ami smart meter installers

[qwe123]

Poco upgrading to ami smart meters and has their contractors installing them.

Im guessing they are not electricians or linesman.

Is there any reason for them to touch the conductors or loosen the lugs during a smart meter install?

Im assuming they are just trained to pull them out and push them in and anything else inside the meter can is left alone.

Is that a fair assesment?

 

[Elect117]

They are probably sending lineman or meter technicians. Depends on the utility but those might be the same classifications. Or hot apprentice.

The socket is energized so from a workers perspective they need to be trained.

They may or may not need to make adjustments. Depends on the voltage, service size, and metering styles. Sometimes you have a bypass which can be used to deenergize the socket. Sometimes you don't. Just kind of depends. They might need to change some of the wiring to the meter or add wiring if the new meter requires an antenna.

They are also initializing them. Making sure the multipliers are right and the settings match up to the billing. I would be a little wary of utility contractors doing the swap out if they aren't their normal contractors. Like if they only bid on this one contract. They could mess up initializing them or mess up the multipliers.

Meter sockets are mostly plug and play but not always.

 

[Hv&Lv]

They are probably sending lineman or meter technicians. Depends on the utility but those might be the same classifications. Or hot apprentice.

The socket is energized so from a workers perspective they need to be trained.

They may or may not need to make adjustments. Depends on the voltage, service size, and metering styles. Sometimes you have a bypass which can be used to deenergize the socket. Sometimes you don't. Just kind of depends. They might need to change some of the wiring to the meter or add wiring if the new meter requires an antenna.

They are also initializing them. Making sure the multipliers are right and the settings match up to the billing. I would be a little wary of utility contractors doing the swap out if they aren't their normal contractors. Like if they only bid on this one contract. They could mess up initializing them or mess up the multipliers.

Meter sockets are mostly plug and play but not always.

We always had the initializing and testing done at the meter room. Our meter reading contractors changed them. Generally speaking the single phase 2S are multiplier 1, until you get into instrument rated metering. Then our engineering maint crew changed that and collected phasers.

 

[LarryFine]