Bob
I sent an email to a good friend of mine at the utility company, with a copy of the two photos in this thread. I will let you know how they respond.
Originally posted by david: The inspector is well with-in the scope of the NEC to reject installation that to not conform to the required building clearances.
I do not see a conflict between 90.2 and meeting the NEC required clearance of 230.24.
230.26 Point of Attachment.
The point of attachment of the service-drop conductors to a building or other structure shall provide the minimum clearances as specified in 230.24. In no case shall this point of attachment be less than 3.0 m (10 ft) above finished grade.
It`s amazing that the POCO`S do as they please but we are nit picked if we bundle 1 extra wire to a switch box.Last year I called and the homeowners called and the builders called the poco about a pad mounted trans. that was set in the begining of the 3rd phase of a project.
The problem being was that somewhere between lay out and finish there was a 28 in gap in height of this trans.It sat 28 in above grade laterals were exposed.As the rains came it tilted to about 45 degrees and was sliding.It took an act of congress to get it straightened out.The homeowners assn. had to hire a lawyer and all of a suddenly there were enough utility trucks to fill a parking lot
What makes the utility companies think they are exempt from public safety.Last week i saw a guy nail a 1X6 with a vee cut in it to get the overhead off his tin mobile homes roof.That`s ok but dont have a receptacle 6 ft. 1/2 in. from the door.Poco`s should be goverened by the NEC as we are.Underground services strapped,don`t hold your breath.Snap a line side of a meter don`t say a word,they tack weld torque wrenches to a setting if it breaks oh well leave the lead hang out the meter can.
230.24(A) exception number 4 allows zero horizontal and vertical clearance for a service mast which is at the edge of a flat roof and the service mast projects above the roof. In the first printing of 2005 NEC there is a typographic error in this that is the subject of an errata sheet that you can download from NFPA.
A common service configuration around here for 1 story buildings is that the power company will install a pole right next to the service entrance because a service mast that is tall enough to clear a commercial parking lot or driveway would not work. Same for when a residence is downhill of the power company's poles.
"Exception No. 4: The requirement for maintaining the vertical clearance 900 mm (3 ft) from the edge of the roof shall not apply to the final conductor span where the service drop is attached to the side of a building."
The exception is for vertical clearance and does not give exception to horizontal clearance requirements.
I emailed the local POCO here on Sunday. 7:43 am on Monday, I had my response back from them.... that is pretty impressive. I saw the gentleman from the POCO last night at a meeting and thanked him for his quick response.
I cannot remember what he said, so I will have to ask him again...
His comment is, they would not permit any of their conductors to go over the flat roof of a building such as in the pictures shown, without the proper clearances. He said the clearances are very similar to the NEC. He also said that if the pole was a utility pole, they most likely would have set another pole, so as not to have to try to raise those conductors.
So what you're saying is, while the POCO would not allow the installation according to their standard, they do not observe or answer to the NEC.
In my unfounded opinion, here is my hypothesis: The NEC has to have something written to address service conductors, because there may be an entity out there that will adopt the NEC that doesn't conform to traditional demarcation points.
For example, in Casper WY, they require a small junction box under the metermain, above the lateral. The reason is so they can interrupt service there before pulling the meter, or some such nonsense. For some reason, the customer owns the two feet of service conductors between their silly j-box and the meter, or so the story goes.
