emergency disconnect of utility power

Status
Not open for further replies.
D

delta4u

Member
recently i had to disconnect an overhead lateral span of PG&E's power due to smoking riser and service conductors. a PG&E lineman driving by stopped while we were doing this and freaked out saying we have no authority to disconnect there power from our :mad: service attachment. i told him it was that or let the house burn. What as a licensed electrical contractor can i say to such a comment from a utility worker ? is there something in the code ?
 
W

wolfman56

Senior Member
Re: emergency disconnect of utility power

In Washington (PUD) and Oregon (PGE) It's the rule (I'm not sure who's) that NOBODY but the utility touches that connection! If there is a problem they must be called. As far as reconnect. It's a big pain! Whenever the service is disconnected for any reason, the AHJ must inspect, and has to be the one to tell the utility that it's ok to reconnect.
Rick
 
M

mc5w

Senior Member
Re: emergency disconnect of utility power

If the service is catching on fire then whoever gets there first has a moral obligation to do whatever it takes to stop the fire. Any prosecuter or power company who says that you have to allow the building to burn down while it takes 1/2 or 1 hour for a lineman to get there is out of their mind. That a limeman did show up just in time was dumb ( or damned ) luck(y).

I sure hope that you did call the fire department.
 
electrofelon

electrofelon

Senior Member
Location
Cherry Valley NY, Seattle, WA
Re: emergency disconnect of utility power

I was present at a job once where there was a short between a hot and grounded service conductor - pretty scary. You could hear the seu cable heating up, but luckily the transformer shut down after about 5 seconds. Dont even want to know what would have happened if the ocd on the xformer was set a bit higher, or the service drop was a bit longer.....
 
iwire

iwire

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Massachusetts
Re: emergency disconnect of utility power

No one sees a problem with opening a service conductor under the load of a fault? :)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top