Some POCO's (just venting)

[goldstar]

I've been called out to repair a woman's underground electric service. Utilities are doing work on her street, ripping up the blacktop, installing gas, electric and water lines, etc. One of the POCO's reps happened to notice that the 2" gal conduit pulled away from the meter enclosure by 1" (I should add that this is a regular occurrence in this development). Even though the wires were not touching the edges of the KO the rep determined that it was a dangerous situation and disconnected the service. It's not exactly like this separation happened overnight, it's been going on for some time. Over the past 10 years why didn't the meter reader inform her of the problem ? I think a better approach would have been to inform her that it was dangerous and should have given her a week to get it repaired. Instead, she didn't find out she was disconnected until she got home at night and thus lost all the food in her refer. She is able to live at her mother's house in the next town for the time being and being a long weekend I cannot get an inspection until tuesday and the POCO will not re-connect until they get a "cut-in" card from the inspector.

Having said all that does anyone think I would be in my right to file a complaint with the NJ Public Utilities Commission on her behalf ?

 

[infinity]

I see your point, I've seen those meter issues that have existed for 10-20 years without an imminent danger of it blowing up. A better approach would have been to inform the homeowner that immediate repairs were needed and then give them some time to have their electrician repair it. I think that a complaint if probably futile but you might get some satisfaction in filing one.

 

[growler]

One of the POCO's reps happened to notice that the 2" gal conduit pulled away from the meter enclosure by 1" (I should add that this is a regular occurrence in this development). Even though the wires were not touching the edges of the KO the rep determined that it was a dangerous situation and disconnected the service. It's not exactly like this separation happened overnight, it's been going on for some time. Over the past 10 years why didn't the meter reader inform her of the problem ? I think a better approach would have been to inform her that it was dangerous and should have given her a week to get it repaired.

I can see why you would need to vent and the homeowner would really need to vent.

That's cold, cutting the power and letting the food spoil and leaving them in the dark.

I do sort of wonder if they could inform a customer that a "dangerous" situation exist and still leave the power connected. I guess it could make them liable if anything were to go wrong. Dangerous is kind of ambiguous in this case. I don't really see any immediate danger.

 

[Buck Parrish]

Large companies generally keep the complaint on record. If this person gets other complaints, he or she will likely be transferred to a position where they can not abuse their power.

Lots of jurisdictions still allow SER nailed to the side of the building.

 

[goldstar]

I think I’ll deal with the POCO inspector first. We have a pretty good relationship. However, if was he who made the decision to shut off her service that relationship may go down the drain.:lol:

 

[Cow]

The problem with some power companies is they act like monopolies. I swear if they had any competition, we'd get a lot better service.

We deal with one over here that is incredibly slow to get anything done, they only answer their main office number during business hours probably 40% of the time(leaving a message is SOP), and they require you to pull an electrical permit if you have them kill the power just to check the connections on a line side lug. However, two other power companies that are in the same area are the total opposite and a pleasure to work with.

The first power co. is part of PGE which is part of Berkshire Hathaway so it's not surprising....:roll:

The other two are coop's with common sense people running them.

Hopefully you don't mind, I guess I needed to vent a little too....

 

[goldstar]

The problem with some power companies is they act like monopolies. I swear if they had any competition, we'd get a lot better service.

We deal with one over here that is incredibly slow to get anything done, they only answer their main office number during business hours probably 40% of the time(leaving a message is SOP), and they require you to pull an electrical permit if you have them kill the power just to check the connections on a line side lug. However, two other power companies that are in the same area are the total opposite and a pleasure to work with.

The first power co. is part of PGE which is part of Berkshire Hathaway so it's not surprising....:roll:

The other two are coop's with common sense people running them.

Hopefully you don't mind, I guess I needed to vent a little too....

I feel your pain. At our contractors association meetings, the first 1/2 hr is griping about the three POCO’s our area.

 

[sameguy]

Our poco will let use do our own disc/recon on over heads, inspection later. The home owner owns the underground from the poco connection xfmr or handhole back to the house; why no expansion fitting on the riser? That's been code for a long time.

 

[goldstar]

Our poco will let use do our own disc/recon on over heads, inspection later. The home owner owns the underground from the poco connection xfmr or handhole back to the house; why no expansion fitting on the riser? That's been code for a long time.

I can’t answer you about the expansion fitting. In this case it’s 2” gal conduit and I’m sure those fittings are expensive. My supply house told me they would have to order one for me. According to this POCO’s installation instructions the conduit has to end about 1’ from the hand hole. Not sure if they completed the rest. As it is, I installed a new underground meter enclosure yesterday and I will have to crimp on a new piece of 4/0 inside the can as it is too short.

 

[kwired]

The problem with some power companies is they act like monopolies. I swear if they had any competition, we'd get a lot better service.

We deal with one over here that is incredibly slow to get anything done, they only answer their main office number during business hours probably 40% of the time(leaving a message is SOP), and they require you to pull an electrical permit if you have them kill the power just to check the connections on a line side lug. However, two other power companies that are in the same area are the total opposite and a pleasure to work with.

The first power co. is part of PGE which is part of Berkshire Hathaway so it's not surprising....:roll:

The other two are coop's with common sense people running them.

Hopefully you don't mind, I guess I needed to vent a little too....

As in they are not for profit their board of directors is elected by those they serve and are actually serving the customers as best as they can, trying to keep cost low, what profits are made are reinvested into the operation, preventive maintenance is an ongoing process rather than wait until something fails, even if they know there is a failure waiting to happen?