Bonding Meter Base

[LarryFine]

Larry
Are you referring to the bonding connection between the Equipment Grounding Conductors (EGCs) and the Grounding Electrode Conductors (GECs) OR are you referring to the bonding of the EGCs to the Neutral?

The latter, of course.

And by "ground" I mean a conductive surface such as an equipment metallic enclosure or housing, etc.

 

[roger]

I think that the underlying reason is that they don't want anyone except their own employees to do anything inside the meter socket enclosure. The real motto of Public Utilities is "No billing, No service" Since the meter is how they get paid they don't want anyone outside the company messing with it.

I'm not sure how it works where you are Tom but everywhere I have worked we made the line and load connections inside the meter except for where they fed an underground meter, in that case we still made the load side

 

[hornetd]

I'm not sure how it works where you are Tom but everywhere I have worked we made the line and load connections inside the meter except for where they fed an underground meter, in that case we still made the load side

Same here but once they close lock and seal it they don't want anyone else in there. In the minds of there loss prevention staff we're not customers. We're all power thieves just waiting for our chance to bypass their meter.

 

[Hv&Lv]

Same here but once they close lock and seal it they don't want anyone else in there. In the minds of there loss prevention staff we're not customers. We're all power thieves just waiting for our chance to bypass their meter.

We do daily reads. We will know when you bypass and when the meter blinked…
I don’t care where the connection is made. And as far as accessibility, that’s bull. That seal we use does not make it inaccessible. Cut it and do what you need. Call us we will come back out and reseal.

I agree with you whole wholeheartedly. With the new requirement for an emergency disconnect outside of 1 & 2 family dwelling we will now have a place to put that connection which is not in the Meter Socket Enclosure and also not 20 to 30 feet above the ground. I know why many electrical coops still require driven rod electrodes to be connected to the neutral of the Service Entry Conductors at the service drop on the load side of the of the splice to the Service Entry neutral conductor. When I see it done by running the Grounding Electrode Conductor down through the service mast it cracks me up. The model service standard written by the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) for use by the new electric coops they were created to fund did not anticipate the use of conduit for service entry conductors. Their standard even allowed a cable goose neck as the service head.

That’s because the Meterbase in that picture didn’t have provisions for a GEC connection.

 

[Fred B]

We do daily reads. We will know when you bypass and when the meter blinked…
I don’t care where the connection is made. And as far as accessibility, that’s bull. That seal we use does not make it inaccessible. Cut it and do what you need. Call us we will come back out and reseal.

Been told that the POCO consider that as trespass without prior authorization and notification, and may not even approve it even if notified. Might even require re-inspection prior to resealing, and will pull meter without it.
Got enough experience with the POCO here that haven't had an issue, one will even give me tag to install after done, but wants prior notification.

@Hv&Lv I recently was told that the POCO has the ability to restict capacity for non payment when regulation prohibits shutting off if a family with young children during certain time of year. That allows only enough required for basic heating it will shut off if more than that is used and then it need to be manually reset. Never heard of such a thing and don't know how such a thing would be done. Sounds like an urban legend.

 

[Hv&Lv]

Been told that the POCO consider that as trespass without prior authorization and notification, and may not even approve it even if notified. Might even require re-inspection prior to resealing, and will pull meter without it.
Got enough experience with the POCO here that haven't had an issue, one will even give me tag to install after done, but wants prior notification.

@Hv&Lv I recently was told that the POCO has the ability to restict capacity for non payment when regulation prohibits shutting off if a family with young children during certain time of year. That allows only enough required for basic heating it will shut off if more than that is used and then it need to be manually reset. Never heard of such a thing and don't know how such a thing would be done. Sounds like an urban legend.

Not urban legend…

Service Limiter/Extender

Used as a collection tool, the service limiter provides limited electric service to delinquent customers that would otherwise have their service disconnected – in essence extending their service. With a proper program, increased collections can be achie

www.brooksutility.com

 

[hornetd]

We do daily reads. We will know when you bypass and when the meter blinked…
I don’t care where the connection is made. And as far as accessibility, that’s bull. That seal we use does not make it inaccessible. Cut it and do what you need. Call us we will come back out and reseal.

That’s because the Meterbase in that picture didn’t have provisions for a GEC connection.

The meter base in what picture? If you are referring to the one in the Milbank PDF I see a single lug near the center of the horizontal busbar. I s that not a grounding terminal?

Tomas Horne

 

[hornetd]

We do daily reads. We will know when you bypass and when the meter blinked…
I don’t care where the connection is made. And as far as accessibility, that’s bull. That seal we use does not make it inaccessible. Cut it and do what you need. Call us we will come back out and reseal.

I take it that the utility you work for does not lock it's meter socket enclosures. I've worked in the service areas of several that do. When I was still actively serving in Fire & Rescue we used a Whizzer Saw to cut the lock rings if the utility service truck was not on seen when the interior search was to begin unless the utility control firefighter had "made" (it to) the main disconnect.

Those lock rings are pretty robust and it took a long angular cut to get through them without cutting into the front cover of the meter enclosure or breaking the glass shell of the meter. The Whizzer saw is powered by compressed air from a breathing apparatus air cylinder with a regulator meant for compressed air driven tools. Kind of a kluge but it worked fairly well.

Tom Horne

 

[Hv&Lv]

I take it that the utility you work for does not lock it's meter socket enclosures. I've worked in the service areas of several that do. When I was still actively serving in Fire & Rescue we used a Whizzer Saw to cut the lock rings if the utility service truck was not on seen when the interior search was to begin unless the utility control firefighter had "made" (it to) the main disconnect.

Those lock rings are pretty robust and it took a long angular cut to get through them without cutting into the front cover of the meter enclosure or breaking the glass shell of the meter. The Whizzer saw is powered by compressed air from a breathing apparatus air cylinder with a regulator meant for compressed air driven tools. Kind of a kluge but it worked fairly well.

Tom Horne

We seal all ours. Those rings are held on by a simple cheap seal through a screw. If your using a saw your wasting time.

 

[Hv&Lv]

The meter base in what picture? If you are referring to the one in the Milbank PDF I see a single lug near the center of the horizontal busbar. I s that not a grounding terminal?

Tomas Horne

 

[hornetd]

We seal all ours. Those rings are held on by a simple cheap seal through a screw. If your using a saw your wasting time.

Do you really think that the way your employer does it is the only way it gets done. Surely you can imagine that not being true.

The ones that some of the Exelon subsidiaries around here are using are stronger than this one but I wasn't able to quickly find a photograph of them. I no longer crawl down long snotty hallways looking for other people's relatives but I never wasted time removing a meter. We carried insulated cable cutters and our truck companies carry high angle rescue gear that allows a firefighter to climb a pole fairly quickly. Because they are aluminum we don't use our ladders to access utility poles. If we couldn't reach or unlock the meter for any reason we weren't above cutting both of the energized conductors at the pole or the service head. The companies to our north in the newer parts of our county would cut across the bottom of the front door of the ringless underground meter base enclosures using the 16 inch aluminum oxide metal cutting disc on one of the 2 gasoline powered roof ventilating saws carried by each truck company. The light weight rings you are describing only take a couple of cuts with a pair of straight tin snips if there is any kind of padlock on the closure screw, let along the prying force of twisting the blade of the flat head ax or the hook of a Halligan tool.


These new locking style rings will not yield to those techniques. So out of the utility control firefighters bag comes the right angle air powered grinder fitted with the 4" version of the Aluminum oxide metal cutting blade installed. One continuous spiral cut across the center line of the ring and it is readily removed.