Got really screwed by utility.

[electrofelon]

So biggest service fiasco ever...Y'all may recall me ranting about it in some previous threads. So I was told originally it would be ~$700 for a new 200A 277/480 overhead service. We just got the bill for construction charges: $16,000. My first time dealing with Puget Sound Energy. Anyone else had a hell of a time with them or did I just get unlucky? By some miracle, I have so far dodged a really big, fast, 50 cal bullet and the client doesnt seem to care or remember that I said it would be about ~$700 from the utility, but there is one other person that could still hear about it.

 

[Dzboyce]

I’m installing a 150 hp irrigation pump. Just got home from setting the soft start panel on it’s stand on the Pump pad. Will set the CT can and meter and run80 ft of 3” pvc conduit underground tomorrow. we’re on the south side of a county road. PUD power line is on the other side of the road. Had them come across the road overhead, set a pole with transformers. They brought power down the hole in 2 three inch pvc conduits, went underground ten feet and stubbed the pvc conduit up for the CT can. They bill the property owner directly, not the contractor. My understanding was that it cost the farmer between five and seven thousand for the PUD to extend the power. Would have been close to double that if we had gone underground completely.

I’m Friends with the directional driller that has the contract with Grant county PUD. He’s told me that it basically costs about three thousand to do a road boring like that, unless you’re doing a number of them the same day.

 

[electrofelon]

I’m installing a 150 hp irrigation pump. Just got home from setting the soft start panel on it’s stand on the Pump pad. Will set the CT can and meter and run80 ft of 3” pvc conduit underground tomorrow. we’re on the south side of a county road. PUD power line is on the other side of the road. Had them come across the road overhead, set a pole with transformers. They brought power down the hole in 2 three inch pvc conduits, went underground ten feet and stubbed the pvc conduit up for the CT can. They bill the property owner directly, not the contractor. My understanding was that it cost the farmer between five and seven thousand for the PUD to extend the power. Would have been close to double that if we had gone underground completely.

I’m Friends with the directional driller that has the contract with Grant county PUD. He’s told me that it basically costs about three thousand to do a road boring like that, unless you’re doing a number of them the same day.

I thought the $700 was kinda cheap, but some utilities have a tariff that subsidize installs but charge more for energy/delivery. So i didnt think a lot of it. I have done some 800 and 1000 amp commercial service upgrades back east that were free.

 

[Dzboyce]

The PUD’s here in eastern Washington used to have nominal fees for new services. That has all gone away. Now they charge what they call “Actual Costs”. At least our rates are still reasonable. I just looked at the Grant county PUD’s rate schedule 3, for Irrigation. There are three parts to the monthly (actually the 7 month irrigation season).

1. Basic charge of $42.92 per month for the 7 months
2. capacity charge of $2.45 per horsepower per month for the 7 months
3. energy charge of $0.02985 per KWH per month for the 7 months

 

[Cow]

Over here in NE Oregon, we deal with PP&L a lot. Talking to their estimator, the cost to the customer for a new service is based on how much power is expected to be used in a given year minus the cost of the power company install. The customer pays the difference.

For example, we're working with a customer in the design stages of a 3000+ amp 480v service that will be heavily loaded 24/7. The power company estimator said there most likely won't be any costs for the customer to pay for the service install.

I'm sure other areas and power co's do the same.

 

[kwired]

So biggest service fiasco ever...Y'all may recall me ranting about it in some previous threads. So I was told originally it would be ~$700 for a new 200A 277/480 overhead service. We just got the bill for construction charges: $16,000. My first time dealing with Puget Sound Energy. Anyone else had a hell of a time with them or did I just get unlucky? By some miracle, I have so far dodged a really big, fast, 50 cal bullet and the client doesnt seem to care or remember that I said it would be about ~$700 from the utility, but there is one other person that could still hear about it.

POCO that serves most of the areas I work typically has customer sign contracts for what they will be doing and generally will not do any work until any payments in that contract is paid.

 

[cdslotz]

Exclusion #1 in my proposal........Utility Company construct fees

 

[electrofelon]

Exclusion #1 in my proposal........Utility Company construct fees

Yeah, I do the same. But usually the customer wants to have an idea of what it will cost and it's nice when it doesn't come out to 23 times what they said it would be. Makes me look bad. In this particular case, we could have run the 480 equipment off the existing 208 service, but the new 480 service was cheaper with the $700 construction cost.