Lost Leg on Service

[crispysonofa]

Curious if anyone has encountered a scenario like this before. POCO came and determined that it was not their problem, wished customer good luck. I am waiting for a generator so I can keep this house from freezing tonight but thought I would throw this out here for insight. Customer lost one leg of 120/240v residential service. POCO left the system energized with only one leg coming in. The break is between the meter and the pole transformer. The meter is about 20 feet from the pole. I feel that the conduit might be filled with ice and would make it difficult to pull new conductors into existing conduit as it is below freezing here. What are my options other than getting a machine out here and replacing the conduit/service drop? Any insight is greatly appreciated.

 

[ActionDave]

Jumpering the live phase to the dead phase to get through the night, but you've already got a generator coming.

 

[LarryFine]

Here, the meter is the division between the POCO and the customer, and they're responsible for everything on their side of it.

It's rare that wire goes bad. The problem is usually the crimped splices at the top of the mast, or the jaws in the meter base.

To answer the question directly, a hair dryer powered from the remaining phase could melt the ice to replace the conductors.

 

[LarryFine]

Jumpering the live phase to the dead phase to get through the night . . .

Unless the heat requires 240v, of course.

 

[ptonsparky]

So the break is on the line side of the meter?

and

It is the homeowners problem?

 

[RLyons]

POCO did you a favor, they could have easily disconnected the service for safety reasons. I've seen cases where POCO will run a temp wire above ground before leaving a compromised UG wire in use. If heating is 120v I'd put swap that breaker to the good leg along with a couple light circuits and disconnect the rest, probably only a matter of time before the other leg drops.

 

[crispysonofa]

Yes with an underground service in our area the homeowner is responsible for everything after the transformer. We make up all the meter sockets and are responsible for the conductors. In an overhead scenario the POCO will supply the service lateral but not for undergrounds. While I was there I did observe what looked to be some kind of rodent nest coming out of the gutter that the POCO sleeves over the pipe we leave coming up the pole. The conductors are sleeved in this gutter up to the transformer. I think that skippy got a little overzealous and might have bit off more than he could chew. Surprising that a 4/0 alum URD cable would go bad, the service isn't even 10 years old. The homeowner mentioned that the POCO replaced that pole last year so I am hoping that they did not break the 90 or conduit going to the meter. Tomorrow I will know more as I investigate, all the heat is 240v unfortunately so jumping the phase would not have done me any good in this scenario but it is a good suggestion if that were not the case. I left all 120v loads on the grid power and just pulled off the 240V heating circuits that I needed to keep the heat on. I know the neighbors are loving the generator. I appreciate all the insight thank you everyone.

 

[LarryFine]

Sorry for not catching that it's an underground service.

 

[AKElectrician]

Yes with an underground service in our area the homeowner is responsible for everything after the transformer. We make up all the meter sockets and are responsible for the conductors. In an overhead scenario the POCO will supply the service lateral but not for undergrounds. While I was there I did observe what looked to be some kind of rodent nest coming out of the gutter that the POCO sleeves over the pipe we leave coming up the pole. The conductors are sleeved in this gutter up to the transformer. I think that skippy got a little overzealous and might have bit off more than he could chew. Surprising that a 4/0 alum URD cable would go bad, the service isn't even 10 years old. The homeowner mentioned that the POCO replaced that pole last year so I am hoping that they did not break the 90 or conduit going to the meter. Tomorrow I will know more as I investigate, all the heat is 240v unfortunately so jumping the phase would not have done me any good in this scenario but it is a good suggestion if that were not the case. I left all 120v loads on the grid power and just pulled off the 240V heating circuits that I needed to keep the heat on. I know the neighbors are loving the generator. I appreciate all the insight thank you everyone.

Get a steam on wheels company to blow out the ice. If it is conduit. If not same steam can thaw ground quick.

 

[growler]

I feel that the conduit might be filled with ice and would make it difficult to pull new conductors into existing conduit as it is below freezing here.

Check to see what the frost line is in your area. Below freezing means that everything above ground will freeze but it need to get colder to freeze the deeper you go. Here if the conduit only has a little water in the lowest point it probably wouldn't freeze if the conduit is over 24" deep in the soil.

 

[Jraef]

Wow, I didn't know there were areas where the customer owns the connections ahead of the meter. Yuck... :thumbsdown:

 

[crispysonofa]

I went there and was prepared to do a temporary setup, met the inspector there who suggested going overhead. While I was there figuring for materials the other leg of the service magically came back. I was scratching my head. The lineman showed up and we wanted to see if we could budge the wire so we asked him to disconnect and take the gutter off that was going up the pole. He did that and found that when the pole was replaced they had spliced a piece of 4/0 under the gutter and never crimped one side, so it had slowly come disconnected over time. Long story short, he re spliced and everything was back up and running. The wire did have some rodent damage so we are still going to replace the conductors come spring. I am glad that I was there to learn and gain the experience hope that sharing this will help someone in the future.

 

[crispysonofa]

Check to see what the frost line is in your area. Below freezing means that everything above ground will freeze but it need to get colder to freeze the deeper you go. Here if the conduit only has a little water in the lowest point it probably wouldn't freeze if the conduit is over 24" deep in the soil.

I'm not exactly sure what it is, but I do know that all water lines are buried at least 48'' below the surface. Happy things worked out differently. Thank you for the suggestion.