Normal time to reconnect after service upgrade?

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ActionDave said:
Request to kill power 24 hrs. prior to work, power restored within 24 hrs of completion. Never had to wait more than that. Five days is ridiculous. I'd make a temp connection on my own and have some doughnuts and a gift certificate to a steak house for the lineman when he comes to make the real connection so he would not tell on me.
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Jeez, for doughnuts and a steak house certificate a lineman in VA will put in the new service for you.:)
 
Look in your state statutes for public service companies requirements -- here the POCO, EC & AHJ have good communication in which service replacement is done the same day -- leaving customers without power could be a lawsuit if something goes wrong.
 
GerryB said:
This is an interesting post that maybe others around the country will chime in. In CT we are allowed to "cut and reconnect" with the two main POCO's. There is a smaller town that had there own utility that used to cut in the morning for you and then come back in the afternoon, but they now also allow cut and reconnect. I have never heard on anyone getting hurt, and of course only the electrician is supposed to do it. I had an incident myself once on a mast service, 2" ridgid, one leg slipped out of my hand and started welding to the conduit. I ripped it off and continued to connect it, much to the amazement of my helper:happyno:
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It's the same here in MA and RI under National Grid. I don't do much work in Eversource territory but as you said, they allow cut and reconnect.
 
flatlander said:
I guess that is why you are electrofelon:lol:
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When you have been charged with three felonies and four misdemeanors (most of them were dropped - teenage shenanigans with home made fireworks), I hesitate before cutting a meter seal for about as long as I have to think about whether throwing ice out my car window is littering :angel:

It doesnt mean I dont get it inspected and get a permit if its in an area that has permits.
 
electrofelon said:
When you have been charged with three felonies and four misdemeanors (most of them were dropped - teenage shenanigans with home made fireworks), I hesitate before cutting a meter seal for about as long as I have to think about whether throwing ice out my car window is littering :angel:

It doesnt mean I dont get it inspected and get a permit if its in an area that has permits.
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Meter seal, we do not cut unless the local lineman gives a go ahead, and that happens rarely nowadays. Cut and reconnect if we need to but usually it's POCO pulling the transformer fuses.
 
kwired said:
Though not so likely to happen anymore, many years ago a small municipal POCO supervisor gave my boss an extension pole and told us to pull and reinstall the primary fuses ourselves rather then get him out of bed in the middle of the night when we got done with our changes.
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We have a hot stick also, I've only had to use it once.

All of the utility companies out here are usually back for a reconnect within a couple hours usually. I've never had one that wasn't hooked up the same day if we needed it.
 
Not to intentionally take this down a new rabbit hole, but the various responses seems to me that cutting and reconnecting as the EC is one of these 'everybody does it even though nobody should really be doing it' things. Fair statement?

When we have a like-for-like replacement (e.g. replacing obsolete 100A with new 100A service equipment), and no replacement of service riser or such, we usually cut and reconnect. This was an amperage upgrade with a new mast, and my understanding was the utility wanted to upgrade the drop (which they didn't actually end up doing, yet), and I thought we should be doing it by the book. I'm inclined to believe (based on additional information I'll refrain from sharing) that the utility's local office may be intentionally trying to discourage involving their crews. And with this experience they may achieve that with us, except when absolutely necessary, like when the drop needs to change length or move more than a few feet. I feel like we should be able to expect a higher level of service but we don't have that much clout to negotiate.
 
jaggedben said:
Not to intentionally take this down a new rabbit hole, but the various responses seems to me that cutting and reconnecting as the EC is one of these 'everybody does it even though nobody should really be doing it' things. Fair statement?

When we have a like-for-like replacement (e.g. replacing obsolete 100A with new 100A service equipment), and no replacement of service riser or such, we usually cut and reconnect. This was an amperage upgrade with a new mast, and my understanding was the utility wanted to upgrade the drop (which they didn't actually end up doing, yet), and I thought we should be doing it by the book. I'm inclined to believe (based on additional information I'll refrain from sharing) that the utility's local office may be intentionally trying to discourage involving their crews. And with this experience they may achieve that with us, except when absolutely necessary, like when the drop needs to change length or move more than a few feet. I feel like we should be able to expect a higher level of service but we don't have that much clout to negotiate.
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We are allowed to cut and reconnect at the house, not the pole. It is in all the poco quide lines around here. If it is a service increase they decide whether or not the want to increase the service drop. Like you insinuated, they do as they please. I did have a HO call one time and ask/demand a new service drop and the POCO complied.
 
jaggedben said:
Not to intentionally take this down a new rabbit hole, but the various responses seems to me that cutting and reconnecting as the EC is one of these 'everybody does it even though nobody should really be doing it' things. Fair statement?
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Here in NY, one utility (national grid) specifically allows the electrician to disco and reco the service drop. In fact they encourage it and will send you connectors for free if you request. Others you are "not supposed to", but in 16 years, I have never once gotten yelled at for cutting a seal or service drop.
 
I think in the case of the poco's I am familiar with, it's a matter of not having to send someone out, which means saving money on manpower. Hence, this is why they have such an unrestricted "cut and reconnect" policy. They do send a meter technician out to reseal the meter, and if the drop is really bad, they will replace it. This stands in stark contrast to many utilities in other states when it's forbidden to cut and reconnect and to pull meters.
 
jaggedben said:
Not to intentionally take this down a new rabbit hole, but the various responses seems to me that cutting and reconnecting as the EC is one of these 'everybody does it even though nobody should really be doing it' things. Fair statement?
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As far as the power companies they are all different. For instance a forum member working under FPL was sure they allowed ECs to do cut and reconnect on any service. However when we really looked at the written policy it was very limited. Overhead services, under 200 amps to dwelling units if I recall correctly. But I am sure he was correct that in real life ECs where going well beyond that. It seems to me that it is advantageous to power companies to turn a blind eye to this. As Peter D says it saves them money, but if their policy said you can do it yourself they might be more liable if an accident or property damage happened.


Then there is the live work side of things, and I know electrofelon takes issue with this, but in most cases ECs employees can't do the live work of tying in a service without potential OSHA violations.

OSHA has different rules for people doing line work (linemen) vs people doing building wiring (electricians). In my opinion in order for a typical ECs employees to fall under the rules for line work those employees would need that specific kind of training.


For the record, I understand there is often a huge gap between the rules and the reality. I have cut meter seals and tied hot services in that was what was expected of me with smaller companies. Since about 1997 I have worked for companies that discourage that sort of thing.
 
iwire said:
For the record, I understand there is often a huge gap between the rules and the reality. I have cut meter seals and tied hot services in that was what was expected of me with smaller companies. Since about 1997 I have worked for companies that discourage that sort of thing.
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In the residential world, it is pretty much expected that we will be pulling meters and connecting services live.
 
iwire said:
As far as the power companies they are all different. For instance a forum member working under FPL was sure they allowed ECs to do cut and reconnect on any service. However when we really looked at the written policy it was very limited. Overhead services, under 200 amps to dwelling units if I recall correctly. But I am sure he was correct that in real life ECs where going well beyond that. It seems to me that it is advantageous to power companies to turn a blind eye to this. As Peter D says it saves them money, but if their policy said you can do it yourself they might be more liable if an accident or property damage happened.


Then there is the live work side of things, and I know electrofelon takes issue with this, but in most cases ECs employees can't do the live work of tying in a service without potential OSHA violations.

OSHA has different rules for people doing line work (linemen) vs people doing building wiring (electricians). In my opinion in order for a typical ECs employees to fall under the rules for line work those employees would need that specific kind of training.


For the record, I understand there is often a huge gap between the rules and the reality. I have cut meter seals and tied hot services in that was what was expected of me with smaller companies. Since about 1997 I have worked for companies that discourage that sort of thing.
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I've never known of FPL to allow cut & reconnect. I've never read their rules on it either.

25 years ago we used to have a few meter can blanks and seals in the trunks of our city cars to make something safe if we found a hazard we could fix without calling them (thug steals a meter for example) but even the Fire Dept won't pull a meter around here. There are enough utility trouble trucks running around at times you can get one of them faster than the fire engine, especially if you have the right phone number.
 
iwire said:
This was a while ago, pretty sure the member (no longer active) was a Tampa guy. But I could be mistaken.
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Good time for me to chime in, I was in Florida not that long ago and talked to an electrician. He said that FPL does not allow cut and reconnect. However, Tampa has a different utility (TECO) and they may very well allow it.
 
We do work in both FPL and Lee County Electric Co-op (LCEC) area.
We can not do cut and reconnects.

Last week we had an FPL job that took until the next day to reconnect. It was an unusual job in an old and rural part of town, trees on the customers property needed trimming as well as FPL needed to do tree trimming before the line could be reconnected.

It wasn't a huge problem at this location as we set them up with a generator and they had already been living with just 120v for a week before calling us.

Occasionally during hurricane / rainy season it will take into the early evening to get a reconnect but almost always the same day. We understand during the rough weather there may be other priorities for the line crews and always warn our customers that they could possibly be without power until the next day, so they can take appropriate precautions. I really can't recall it ever happening though, other than last week.
 
Does any of the customers ever demand a one day credit on their electric bill if they won't reconnect them when ready for reconnection?

You can't ask for credit on energy you didn't use but there is usually a minimum fee you pay every month whether you used any energy or not. This may not be that much, but if enough people would make such request it may at least get some attention.
 
OK FPL guys, stand down. :)

I had to go searching, it was late member who lived in Long Island so it was 'LIPA'

Here is the section I was trying to remember


LIPA CONNECTS Procedure for Electrical Contractors
LIPA CONNECTS

Applies only to change of service that qualifies fo
r all of the following conditions:
1. Residential Accounts
2. Single family house with a single meter
3. Single phase electric power
4. Existing 3 wire service entrance
5. Service entrance equipment NOT exceeding 200 amp
eres

6. Electrical Inspection Certificate (attached)
LIPA CONNECTS Does not
apply to the following:
1. Commercial accounts
2. Multi-metered facilities
3. Three-phase electric power
4. Underground (existing or changing to) service ca
bles
5. Service entrance equipment exceeding 200 amperes
6. New service or addition of meter(s)
The Electrical Contractor provides LIPA, with the f
ollowing completed forms:
a)
The Electrical Inspection Agency Certificate
b)
LIPA CONNECTS forms
LIPA will provide the following items to the Electr
ical Contractor in advance:
a)
Permanent connectors
b)
LIPA CONNECTS forms
Replenishment of initial stock will be issued to th
e contractors based on demonstrated prior usage.
Proceed as follows, depending on method of contact:
a)
Fax or mail the required paperwork to LIPA
b)
Proceed with the installation
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https://www.psegliny.com/files.cfm/redbook.pdf
 
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