What the?

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Earthshaker

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I know that the electric utility companies and the electrical contractors have been at odds for years, but this really bothers me.
Today at work I heard a contractor tell another that the electric company routinely cuts ground wires attached to the their ground wires that are tied to to other things like satellite dishes, cable tv and off the air antenna systems, saying that it is a separate utility and they need their own ground wires, and ground rods and "cannot attach anything to our ground systems".
Now it is my understanding that the electric utility's "property" ends at the load side of the meter, am I understanding this correctly? If I am understanding this correctly why do they cut "other utilities" ground wires after their "meter", when it is written in the NEC to use single point grounding and bonding to keep potentials at the same level.
Fact is now that this particular electric company requires the customers to buy their own meter bases, when the city was running things, they supplied the meter bases.
Ok I am done... for now.
Ryan
 
in my opinion, anyone that cuts ground wires leaving equipment ungrounded is liable if someone gets hurt or killed, if they have a problem with how the service is installed, they need to redtag the system and pull the meter giving someone a chance to discuss who owns what and or make repairs or changes....
 
I think I posted details about this before, but can't find it.

This A/C contractor buddy of mine ran a new circuit for a unit he was working on, which he in not allowed to do here - only ECs can. One horse town inspector caught him and hung him because the GEC was disconnected in the panel. (He was in there last, so he did it.) Pulled his license for one year. Said it was a life safety violation.
 
al hildenbrand said:
Ryan, have you seen this done on the poles, or buildings, or both?
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I have not seen it done, I have heard many stories about over the years, so I guess it is hearsay technically. I work with EC's every day and I tend to believe what they say. Mainly it has been done on houses, there are very few pole mounted meters here feeding residential customers.
 
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Earthshaker said:
. . . the electric company routinely cuts ground wires attached to the their ground wires that are tied to to other things like satellite dishes, cable TV and off the air antenna systems . . .
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From our Goldbook, page 37 (the URLs are different):
Devices, fittings, clamps, or equipment shall not be permitted to be installed or attached to any metering cabinet or meter fitting without written permission from the Meter Department unless it is for the installation of the metering cabinet or meter fitting in accordance with the Company?s standards.

Exception: Where a clamp or device is for intersystem bonding, is in compliance with the Indiana Electrical Code Section 250.94, and does not interfere with either the operation of the cover of a meter fitting or intrude into the interior of a meter fitting.​

We will warn the customer to remove a clamp but if we have to get into a meter fitting, we will remove the clamp. and tell the customer that it must be replaced with a proper clamp. :)​
 
From the GPC bluebook: http://www.georgiapower.com/aande/electricServiceMeteringBook.asp

D. External Ground Wires Attached to Meter Equipment
1.​
Company meter equipment shall not be used as a point of grounding by the Customer or
other utilities. Ground wires for cable TV, antennas, phone equipment, etc. shall not connect
to meter sockets, meter cabinets, Current Transformer cabinets or metal conduits housing
meter control cable.
2. Any ground wire as described in paragraph # 1 above that interferes with Company​

personnel accessing the meter or that in any way creates a hazard for​
Company personnel
will be subject to removal by Company personnel.​

 
Ok guys I can see that in at least Indiana and Georgia, the "other utility" cannot ground to the meter cabinet and its related fittings, but in both cases nothing was stated about, connecting a bonding "jumper" to the meter socket grounding conductor, that is 6 inches or less from the grounding electrode, which could be described as a a "meter" fitting I suppose. I can see why the power companies have issues with other stuff hanging from the meter sockets, I can definitely see a potential problem there.

Here is my particular situation and the reason I am here in the first place, finding a "proper" way to ground my antenna tower and associated items.
Since I don't have the tower erected yet, I will use a hypothetical scenario.
1) My house is served by overhead triplex, from the pole/transformer in the alley.
2) The tower will be within 3 feet of the meter and service drop (I am concerned about this), I want to go underground for the electrical service...eventually but before the tower goes up.
3) In Mike Holt's pdf, concerning article 810 from the 2005 code .here
it has a page that addresses in my pdf it appears on page 16, or more accurately page 1 of the section titled "Article 810 Radio and Television Equipment", describes my situation exactly, less the TV antenna the satellite dish, but I have no plans for a directional radio antenna.
I never thought it would be this complicated, to comply with the code and keep the utilities happy.
One of our electrician customers stated that you need 12 years of training classes to learn all that the NEC covers about grounding, I am starting to believe it.
 
mivey said:
From the GPC bluebook: http://www.georgiapower.com/aande/electricServiceMeteringBook.asp

D. External Ground Wires Attached to Meter Equipment
1.​
Company meter equipment shall not be used as a point of grounding by the Customer or
other utilities. Ground wires for cable TV, antennas, phone equipment, etc. shall not connect
to meter sockets, meter cabinets, Current Transformer cabinets or metal conduits housing
meter control cable.
2. Any ground wire as described in paragraph # 1 above that interferes with Company​

personnel accessing the meter or that in any way creates a hazard for​
Company personnel
will be subject to removal by Company personnel.​
Click to expand...

It was explained to me by a SOCO engineer about two months ago that this code you referenced was in place for those external ground clamps that cable/phone guys attach to the outside of the meter base. He said they had a big problem w/ them being installed on the cover of the meter base, so of course if the cover was removed for service that disconnected the ground. 99% of them failed to remove the nonconductive paint from the surface before installing the external clamp also. They will allow a ground wire coming out of the meter base for an intersystem bonding connection.
 
I live in an area where the EC provides all equipment, nothing is provided by the Utility. However, in Georgia and Indiana, these could be the areas driving the 2008 change requiring, a grounding bus external to the meter cabinet specifically for other utilities to bonding.
 
Ok that explains a lot, the practice of attaching anything to a cover of a meter socket is just plain stupid, then compounding that with the lack of paint removal, well you get my point.
 
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