Service Entrance Conductor Sizing

[mooreaaryan]

I am working on some projects with SoCal Edison (POCO) and their instructions for building out he meter can to the first disconnect are not clear. Unlike PGE (POCO) whose construction drawing are in a "handbook" and very easily available. My question is coming out of the meter can to the first disconnect do i have to size these conductor for OCPD at the first disconnect or can i size them with a different rule format since the are service conductors? Exact situation is 2-4" conductors with 750 KCMIL Aluminum, going to the meter from the POCO . And my scope of work is 2 runs conduit with 750KCMIL CU. Why is there a conductor size difference?

 

[Dennis Alwon]

If I understand you correctly then the power company can size their conductors by their own rules as they don't have to follow the NEC. In some case their wires are in free air so the ampacity of the wires is higher but they never really use the size that the nec requires. If you were allowed to install smaller conductors then if there were an issue you would have to deal with it. The power company appears to know what will work in a home. If it doesn't then they must fix it.

We don't have that flexibility

 

[augie47]

The 'next size up' rule could be applied so long as the conductors are sized to carry the calculated load. You can ignore the NEC as far as POCO conductors as Dennis notes. They play by different rules.