poco not taking responsibility?

[charlietuna]

"DOCUMENTATION" !!! The power company makes mistakes just like electrcal contractors! If you care to do the job,(?) I would photograph everything. Part of your job is to protect your customer. I would educate him/her of your professional concerns and let them decide to go to war with the power company and if they do you will have the photos and testimony to help them. In the meantime they need power and to get it you (they) will be required to follow the authority's rules-right or wrong ! It has been my experience that with proper documentation-and by not exposing them publically--the power company will pay for their mistakes....

Consider a million+ dollar mistake in a power company vault where they terminated the customer's(a college) neutrals on the vault's ground bus and terminated the customer's grounds on the vault's neutral bus. A phase to phase short by an Electrical Contractor started a major meltdown of a college's service switchgear. The chain of events cause extream damage since the vault's miswiring prevented the safety equipment to protect to customer's wiring. Luckily-- i was called and took photos of the entire damage including the vault(miswiring) wiring. Within the following 12 hour period--the power company changed their vault wiring -- then denied any wrong doing the following morning ! Two years later, after all repairs were made and insurance claims payed - I was contacted by an attorney who was interested in suing the gear manufacturer(sq-d). Basically the insurance company was trying to find others to pay their claim. They got copies of my photos--sat down with the power company and were payed in full by the power company.

 

[charlie]

. . . I have never heard of a utility not being subject to the PSC. . .

The REMCs are a result of a federal act (Rural Electric Administration) and the state normally has no control over them. They qualify for almost free money (low int. loans) and all of the customers are quasi-owners. :smile:

 

[ptonsparky]

Sure makes me glad to deal with our REAs.

 

[Minuteman]

The PoCo answers to somebody. Here we have the Corporation Commissioners. The C.C. regulates our public utilities and handle disputes. There has to be some entity that the PoCo is accountable to.

 

[charlie]

. . . There has to be some entity that the PoCo is accountable to.

Yep, it is their elected board of directors and they are elected from the membership. Pick any REMC, go to their website, dig into the structure, and see how they are put together. :smile:

 

[Minuteman]

Had something similar happen.

This meter was pulled at an apartment for non payment. The PoCo guy slipped these little plastic "booties" over the load side spades and stuck the meter back in and put a red seal on. Sometime later, lady pays the bill and PoCo guy comes out at dusk, pulls the booties, and seals the meter green.

Next day, lady tells maintenance man half her power is off and none of her 240V stuff works. He calls PoCo. They remove the meter and tell him the meter base (pan) has to be replaced, as a prong was bent on the line side.

Maintenace called me.

I got there and called PoCo and asked if the guy to meet me there. He shut down all 4 units power and I swaped out the left side prongs (line and load) with a set from a brand new meter base. All the power was off for maybe 30 minutes, but I had like 2 hours in it. Sent the bill to PoCo's claim office and they paid in 30 days.

 

[charlietuna]

Had a commercial customer call me early in the morning before i left for work who asked me to come by his house since they had a house fire ?? I arrived to find he had a 400 amp meter socket fed by the power company underground with 200 amp primary cable. Power Company's feed caught fire and burnt up as his wife backed out of the garage on her way to work --the meter was located between the garage doors-- burnt the meter socket up big time--was fed from a pad mount transformer in his front yard. Replaced the meter and the damaged service wire - power company replaced the service lateral with 400 amp primary cable. Customer forwarded my bill to the power company and they payed me. And yes, his wife admitted she had to change her underpants before leaving the house!

 

[brantmacga]

i ended up having to pass on the job because my schedule was full the first day the poco was available to come out for the cut-out; i knew they needed that fixed right away and just couldn't get to it.

they asked if i thought it was the power company's fault; i told them i couldn't prove anything, but yes there's a good chance they screwed up. i backed off after that.


one thing i don't understand though;

i've replaced damaged metering equipment before on georgia power's system, and they paid for it since it belongs to them. i'm wondering why REA didn't offer to pay for the repair. i didn't mention anything about this to the customer though.

 

[ohm]

Had a commercial customer call me early in the morning before i left for work who asked me to come by his house since they had a house fire ?? I arrived to find he had a 400 amp meter socket fed by the power company underground with 200 amp primary cable. Power Company's feed caught fire and burnt up as his wife backed out of the garage on her way to work --the meter was located between the garage doors-- burnt the meter socket up big time--was fed from a pad mount transformer in his front yard. Replaced the meter and the damaged service wire - power company replaced the service lateral with 400 amp primary cable. Customer forwarded my bill to the power company and they payed me. And yes, his wife admitted she had to change her underpants before leaving the house!

What gets me is we have to use 4/0 4/0 2/0 AL up to the service point for a 200A and the POCO connects w/ #4 AL (or less).

 

[GUNNING]

Im a professional. I get paid for this.

Im a professional. I get paid for this.

Electrical Utilities use there own standards. Its called the NSC National Safety Code. That way they don't have to run a separate ground and neutral. Like the mobile home manufacturers have there own building (manufacturing) code. Thats why we have the exception of 4 inches of wire hanging outside of the box in a mobile home. Don't like the rules? Make up your own governing body and become your own expert. Its the American way.

 

[brantmacga]

nEsc; national electrical safety code.

why would they need to run separate grounded and grounding conductors on the laterals & drops?