Tenant = building?

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hmspe

hmspe

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Temple, TX
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PE
I ran across something I consider a bit unusual and wanted to pass it along and get your thoughts.

An electrical utility just rejected an installation that had 3 meters on a tire warehouse/office. The building owner wanted the space designed so that it could be split for two tenants, but at this point it's single tenant.

The house meter wasn't an issue, but they said that NEC 230.3 allows only one meter per tenant, and my design had two meters for the tenant space, each supplying a 200A, 120/208 panel. The electrical design is done so that the space can be split for two tenants by adding a wall, with no re-work of the electrical required. The back story is that if there were enough small meters it would be possible to avoid demand penalties when total demand reaches specific trip points. This service is too small to ever reach the trip points. I asked if that meant that if a restaurant took 3 bays of a strip mall we'd have to replace the service for the strip and got different answers on different days -- 'no, it doesn't apply to strip malls', and 'yes'. I asked for a written copy of the policy but apparently it's unwritten.

First time in 23 years as a PE and 12 years in private practice that I've run across this interpretation. I obviously disagree with their reading of 230.2, but I'm not sure there's much I can do about it.

Martin
 
I don't see this as being any different from any core and shell construction project. You don't know at the beginning how many tenants the building will have. But you need to design it to support future tenants.
 
Utilities usually do not allow as second service to a tenant unless its a different voltage or due to capacity limits of the first service. [edit]That said, I recently worked on a tenant space with 5 panels with 5 meters...
 
Remember that a meter is not a service. The service is the point of connection with the utility, which is usually (with many exceptions) limited to one per "building" (See definition of building). You are then allowed to install multiple meters on this service. If all that you are asking for is multiple meters, I can't understand why the utility is objecting. We must be missing something here....
 
haskindm said:
Remember that a meter is not a service. The service is the point of connection with the utility, which is usually (with many exceptions) limited to one per "building" (See definition of building). You are then allowed to install multiple meters on this service. If all that you are asking for is multiple meters, I can't understand why the utility is objecting. We must be missing something here....
Click to expand...

I don't think you're missing anything. I agree completely with what you posted, and I've designed multi-meter services literally hundreds of times. I think the utility is completely wrong. I think this is probably an attempt by the utility to interpret the NEC in a way that prevents them from losing revenue. I wouldn't have a problem if the utility had a published rule that essentially said, "Designs which use multi-metering for a single tenant which would avoid excess demand charges which would be applicable in an equivalent single meter installation will not be allowed." That, or set up a policy for totalizing demand across multiple meters.

I've never understood why utilities can't be straight forward and open about the reasons behind their policies. An issue with another utility is that they don't allow a main for multi-meter unless you have over 6 meters. It's very hard to explain to my clients that "the utility won't allow it", especially when the other major utility in the area doesn't have this requirement. It's a lot easier to explain, "The utility doesn't allow this because they've had cases where their meters lost all their billing data when someone turned the main off. They allow mains only when the NEC requires a main."
 
We have customers that have multiple meters at 480/277 VAC for a single warehouse. This use to be a multiple tennant warehouse, they have been no utility problems.
 
I have done several strip mall shell building projects with multiple meters without any problem from utility company. But your case may be different. If the building is already ocupied by one tanent even your design is for two tenants, you have to modify your design to one service and one meter if you are the engineer for tanent fit-out project. If the building is just a shell building without any tenant, your design is fine and you got my support to argue against the utility company.
 
Utility compnaies don't go by the NEC and don't care about it. But, if you want multiple services, you have to get prior approval from the AHJ. If the AHJ will allow it, the utility has no reason not to connect it.
 
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