Rockland Elec

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Oakey

Oakey

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New Jersey
I have been told by the utility Co that we are no longer allowed to disconnect and reconnect the main service while doing a service upgrade and that they must do it. How does one have them cut the service, complete a service, get it inspected and card the utility co all in one day?
These were the words from the rep from utility as to the method I should use.If it was a relocation maybe.. Any ideas or methods would be great!​
 
The phone is your friend here.

After getting the cut-out scheduled, on the day determined a line crew will show up to cut out...the lineman will ask you "What time do you think you'll be ready for us to cut-in?"....at THIS point - give the man the time "you think" and ask if he will give you his cell number(..or vice versa.)

Covers his butt if he naps too long/loses track of time shopping at the mall and covers yours if things (for some bizarre reason) go extremely well and you'd like him there sooner (which might give him some extra mall time).


I did a change over up in Bergen County and this was the "format" I used...on a Saturday....the lineman was MORE than happy to do it "my way" :D
 
Thanks for the reply Cel. Wait they did this on a Sat? My biggest problem is the field rep from Rockland said he would not reconnect unless he had a cut in card from the Elec inspector no matter what..therein lays my dilemma.
 
You have to have a tight schedule and an inspector whop will work with you. Plan it in advance so the podco gets there first thing in the morning and have the inspector planned for midday.

All the inspector needs do is call at midday and podco should respond. Unfortunately they (the Podco) are not as reliable as one would hope.
 
Im my story the EI did not show until Monday...of the following week!

No way I would consider leaving a HO w/o power that long.....
....which brings up an interesting thought...

The POCO's cannot disconnect service to deadbeat(DB) customers in the winter (think tenants). WHY would they be allowed to let a GOOD customer go w/o power any longer than is neccessary?

You may want to give the man at O/R a call and get some scheduling tips from him....as well as the AHJ.

If the process is too complicated, the ECs will do as they must/please.
 
This is the norm for where I'm at.

We will be doing a 9 gang meter change out on Thursday of this week.

I set up the POCO to disconnect the service for 7:30 - 8:00 AM. The inspector is called a couple of days in advance to let him know we will be needing an inspection for late in the afternoon on the particular day.

When we get the inspection the inspector calls in the reconnect and in a couple of hours the power will be back on.

These normally take us about 8 hours to do and power is off between 9 and 10 hours total

Roger
 
Inspectors around here are part time and generally work only a few hours a week. Trying to coordinate the job finishing up, the inspection and the reconnect would be impossible. I believe that Rockland Electric is now part of ConEd so I can see where the new regs are coming from. For what it's worth we still disconnect and reconnect on an upgrade. Haven't done one with RE in a while. PSE&G no problem.
 
Oakey said:
So I must arrange for the service to be hooked up by the utility without a cut in card ...Great plan Con-ed
Click to expand...

Been doing it here for as long as I have been in the trade without a 'cut in card' don't even know what that is. :)
 
How does one have them cut the service, complete a service, get it inspected and card the utility co all in one day?
Click to expand...



It's like that in AZ and it can be stressful to get it back on line the same day.

Start early, haul ass, bring your lunch and be well stocked.

POCO crew won't disconnect before 8AM.

City inspector has to OK completed work. They WON'T give a time and often show up before NOON. Once in a while they refuse to come back....too busy.

Then POCO inspector has to OK it, They also show up whenever.

THEN the line crew will re- energize......IF the get the dispatch. Crews change at 3PM so if it's after that we have a 50% chance that it will get hooked back up.

One of the 2 POCO's only do this on Tue and Thur.

It's getting more difficult every day.
 
What a pain!

What a pain!

I'm sorry to hear all that.

Here in Colorado Springs, I cut the meter tag, rip out the meter, change out the service, put the meter back, make sure I did all the right things, and call the inspector... whenever.

(By the way... all newer utility lines are rated for 200A now. Newer being mid 1970s. And 200A is 1/0 Aluminum if you can believe that!... But we need 4/0 on the other side of the meter (or 2/0 Copper) Go figure!)

I know guys that used to call the inspector, and he'd show up at 11:30... They wouldn't get done. They'd fail the inspection, and have to call for a reinspection (with a trip fee ... of course!)

No more. I call it after I'm done. Inspector doesn't mind... AND it keeps his hands out of my LIVE panel!

Then he hands me a meter tag and it's done.
(Then I can get paid!)
 
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Greg Swartz said:
I'm sorry to hear all that.

Here in Colorado Springs, I cut the meter tag, rip out the meter, change out the service, put the meter back, make sure I did all the right things, and call the inspector... whenever.

I know guys that used to call the inspector, and he'd show up at 11:30... They wouldn't get done. They'd fail the inspection, and have to call for a reinspection (with a trip fee ... of course!)

No more. I call it after I'm done. Inspector doesn't mind... AND it keeps his hands out of my LIVE panel!

Then he hands me a meter tag and it's done.
(Then I can get paid!)
Click to expand...

I pretty much do the same here...but I get paid BEFORE the inspection minus a 5% payment (State says we can't be paid in full until after final inspections ~ but not how much :wink: )
 
Since RECO became part of Con Ed they've become somewhat difficult to deal with. New rules, new regs, people you're used to dealing with are retiring, etc. It seems like everytime you speak to someone there it's like they just came out of a sales pep rally and want you to do something you've never done before because some empty suit decided that's the way it should be done. This is the first I've heard about this new rule but I wouldn't doubt that it's true. You now have to fill out forms and fax them in before you start, then you have to fill out a form after you're done and fax that in, now you have to coordinate a shut-down/re-connect. That, in and of itself, is a minimum 1 - 2 week endeavor (if you're lucky). The only time I've done this is when I've had to repair an underground service and lately I've been lucky. I had to repair an underground service about 2 years ago and it took almost 6 weeks to get a shut-down date because they had to shut down 4 houses in a development.

Co-ordination is the big thing here. Your availability, your customer, the POCO, the inspector, the weather, etc. I guarantee you'll spend as much if not more time administrating and orchestrating the shutdown as you will actually doing the upgrade.

If they start enforcing this rule it will really put a damper on my service upgrades. I'm right, smack in the middle of RECO territory and in a mountain lake community where electric services were installed years ago by homeowners. Many of the older homes up here are log cabins and hunting lodges that were converted over to year-round residential homes. The electrical services are atrocious not to mention the internal wiring. I can't wait to see how this plays out !!!
 
I went to the utility Co today to find out whats up. Turns out that if you ask the field rep thats the policy as I have stated. However the friendly and soon to retire receptionist said its not enforcable, but they are trying to phase it into practice, so everyones still doing it the traditional way and in a month it will fade to black .I doubt a contractor cares if the utility does the cut in/out, however linesman cutting in uninspected work around here seems odd, but change usually is.
 
Maybe the AHJ will have to send cut-in cards before the linemen arrive....typical in PSE&G world.
 
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