Safety vs. an Easement

[Randy Plaunt]

When overhead clearences are to the point of presenting a safety hazard (along with a violation) to the homeowner and the homeowner refuses to let the utility place a pole on their property to resolve the issue; when do you enforce your position? Do you threaten to turn them off? Do you place the pole any way? Do you wait until the house burns down? What do you think?

 

[zbang]

Two parts-
Who: I suppose it depends on who 'you' are. If you are the PoCo and can disconnect an unsafe service drop, or the AHJ that can order the same, that's one thing. If you are "just the electrician", you don't have much standing to do anything. In the latter case, I would certainly tell the HO in writing of the problem.

When? If the violation is bad enough, the PoCo could disconnect the customer immediately. If the violation is just an extra 6" sag, spending some time to work out a solution is in order.

FWIW, as I understand it, most utility easements give the PoCo the right to place and replace poles as they see fit. From the sound of it, it's not an easement & PoCo problem as much as a customer-owned pole problem. (Or the service mast is too short...)

 

[cowboyjwc]

I agree in part.

Here the POCO is in control of the drop to the house. If it looked bad I could call them and report it, but they would have the final say in what happened after that.

The drop to the house is not really an easement, but as I said, here it is still utility controled.

 

[brantmacga]

The drop to the house is not really an easement,

I think that's right. One poco I work w/ requires a signed easement from the property owner when the service is ready to be connected. I'm not sure what the time limitation on it is because I've never really read through the whole thing. But as far as I know, the poco has a right to disconnect if they feel its a danger to their system.

 

[480sparky]

One local POCO here has two people whose job it is to go around and find unsafe conditions like this.

Let's say you live in a rural home well off the road, and their high-voltage lines come off the main road. They use, let's say, 4 poles to get to your transformer.

Then one day, you decide to put a swimming pool out by your driveway. Right under their high-voltage lines.

They will send out a line crew, set some new poles, reroute your feed, send you a bill of about $2700 per pole, and say "Thank you very much."

If you don't let them reroute the line, your pool pumps will suddenly stop working.

 

[charlie]

. . . when do you enforce your position?

You don't, this is in the purview of the serving electric utility.

Do you threaten to turn them off? Do you place the pole any way? Do you wait until the house burns down?

Assuming you are now the serving electric utility and not the electrical contractor, the answers are:

1. Yes, if they don't agree to rectify the problem.
2. No, you get an agreement with the owner first.
3. No, you address the problem.

What do you think?

I agree with the other comments that this a problem between the serving electric utility and the customer. This is something you could report to the serving electric utility if you feel strongly about the issue. Keep in mind that you will probably lose a customer if you do report this to the serving electric utility. If this is a gross violation, I would still report it because of the safety issues. If it is a low service drop and it doesn't present a real problem, I would let it go.