Still no power!!! More of a rant….

[jeremy13]

Well I haven't given up yet. Still no power to the plastic injection machine. The city inspector wants me to move the drop from the existing power (100amp). It crosses over the next lot and the new owner wants it moved. I checked with the power company and it is within their guide lines for the drop (three feet from a house or building). And is not in the right of way. So that means that if I want more power. I have to pay to have it moved. And the city inspector will give me the permit for up graded power. I was thinking of waiting him out or go over his head. There is no law or city ordinance that says it can’t go over someone else’s property to get to my place. The new owner just wants it moved. The power pole is smack in the middle of his new driveway and he doesn’t want to pay to have the pole moved. So by me moving my power drop. He is hoping they move the pole to, since it has the transformer on it. I even tried telling the city inspector that I wanted to bring the 200amp power in on the opposite side of the building. And leave the old drop for the office. Still a no go He said I have to have one meter on the building otherwise it gets confusing. Go figger he is mentally challenged to.

[Cheeseking]

Might be easier to just rent a proper facility

[J Tiers]

"One structure one service" is pretty much a rule, with certain exceptions. It originates in the NEC.

Power lines commonly go over adjacent property. However, a municipality may have a law against it, and can require that grandfathered installations be "corrected" if power is upgraded, which seems to be your situation. Are you SURE there is no such city or county rule?

BTW, the "Authority Having Jurisdiction" (AHJ), as represented by the local inspector, can require darn near anything, NEC be hanged. Your best move is to get your power moved and upgraded and get on with life.

[wierdscience]

I feel your pain.If the power company says you can and the code says you can,then the inspector can be overruled by the city council.At least that's the way it works here.

Only drawback is you risk pissing off the inspector and his/her BIL if nepotism is in effect in your locale.

What's it cost to run the service underground?

[rdfeil]

I would POLITELY ask the inspector to cite "rule, section and cause" for his request. Be warned... You WILL piss him off for asking him to put everything in writing and justify his actions. Your choice, pay for the move and be happy, or poke the inspector and maybe win or maybe loose

[Black_Moons]

Yea, realises inspectors can be vengeful too.. If you piss him off, He might find 20 other minor 'violations' that must be fixed.. NOW.

[CCWKen]

If someone strung wire over my property, they'd be having power problems all the time.

[Arcane]

Well I haven't given up yet. Still no power to the plastic injection machine. The city inspector wants me to move the drop from the existing power (100amp). It crosses over the next lot and the new owner wants it moved. I checked with the power company and it is within their guide lines for the drop (three feet from a house or building). And is not in the right of way. So that means that if I want more power. I have to pay to have it moved. And the city inspector will give me the permit for up graded power. I was thinking of waiting him out or go over his head. There is no law or city ordinance that says it can’t go over someone else’s property to get to my place. The new owner just wants it moved. The power pole is smack in the middle of his new driveway and he doesn’t want to pay to have the pole moved. So by me moving my power drop. He is hoping they move the pole to, since it has the transformer on it. I even tried telling the city inspector that I wanted to bring the 200amp power in on the opposite side of the building. And leave the old drop for the office. Still a no go He said I have to have one meter on the building otherwise it gets confusing. Go figger he is mentally challenged to.

Well, for what it's worth, if that were the situation here, the power company would eat the costs to move the pole. We would simply do a "pole test" for rot and find it needed to be replaced. Cheaper to move it than put it back in exactly the same hole. If that wasn't possible, an underground service might have to be installed. Over a certain amperage, we have to go underground but there would be charges for that...the company would absorb two years anticipated revenue only on the increase in usage. We also would go for two services IF they were different voltages. If the same voltages were wanted on two different services, the customer has to have firewalls in the building so each service remains separated in the building exactly as if they were feeding individual bays, otherwise the customer HAS to have just one service. It is all too easy to get same voltages interconnected in the building and you can easily end up with one leg off one service and one leg off the other service.

[jeremy13]

I have thought about going under ground it wont be far 30ft. The power company was going to send out an engineer and look at the problem. I haven't heard any thing back from them. That was 4 weeks ago. The last conversation was that my line was not in violation of their code. And I was going to have to pay to move it. No more than one meter on a building doesn't fly with me. There are all kinds of duplex and apartments with 2 threw 10 meters on a building. I might just have to bight the bullet and move the service and change power companies at the same time.

[squirrel]

Well, it could be worse. Several years ago we were close to buying a real nice place in the country for living and the business, it lacked 3 Phase. Duke energy qouted us $260,000 US dollars to run it to that property. Your next battle will the neighbors complaining about the smell!!

[GKman]

Sounds like the municipality owns the utility. Otherwise if the municipality has adopted the NEC the inspectors jurisdiction stops at the meter. Typically an inspector knows the utilities' requirements and will assist in locating the drop so that it meets utility requirements and they will hook it up. Best way an inspector to be a jerk is to let somebody do whatever they want and find out that Light and Power won't hook it up unless they do it all over.

If utility wants to save a buck and string a line over my property they can go to court for it and pay compensation. Not important what structures in what configuration owner has now, they have no business stringing wire which would hamper future legal use. Maybe your neighbor needs a runway for his plane. How's that for a clearance issue?

Inspector does the same to/for your competition. Doing it right is the cost of doing business. Get over it.

[recoilless]

In my experience, a lot of inspectors are somewhat versed in residential but are lacking in commercial code. Around here, more than a few municipalities have a full blown practicing journeyman do their commercial inspections. A good friend of mine is in this position. Some of the other inspectors are a different breed that seem to delight in causing problems.

[J Tiers]

No more than one meter on a building doesn't fly with me. There are all kinds of duplex and apartments with 2 threw 10 meters on a building. I might just have to bight the bullet and move the service and change power companies at the same time.

Well, it may not fly with you, but your opinion is of no consequence whatsoever, actually nobody among the "authorities" cares what you think.

The rules are the rules, and if you don't like it, quite bluntly you are welcome to lump it and have no power. There are reasons why the rules are set up, and why they don't just do whatever you want.

However, you are barking at a streetlight and not the moon here. It is not the number of meters, that was the inspector's words for having only one "SERVICE", there is no real issue with meters.

The apartment buildings you mention have one SERVICE, i.e. one line coming from the pole, not a dozen. That is what he meant, even if he does not know it.

Sounds like the municipality owns the utility. Otherwise if the municipality has adopted the NEC the inspectors jurisdiction stops at the meter.

Not so....

The city can require the utility to put lines underground, for instance. The city can require many things of that nature. What they don't typically do is get involved with detail wiring before the service point, but they can require it to be clear of adjoining property, be underground, whatever.

[GKman]

Not so....

The city can require the utility to put lines underground, for instance. The city can require many things of that nature. What they don't typically do is get involved with detail wiring before the service point, but they can require it to be clear of adjoining property, be underground, whatever.

I stand corrected. Our planning and zoning departments handled subdivision development including placement of utilities. I worked in building regs and didn't deal with development end. Electric inspector had jurisdiction from the service in per article 90 of my old NEC.

[rdfeil]

There are several issues being mixed up here. I am not trying to stir anything, just clarify what I know about out local codes and policies... These in your area may be different.

1) single service to a building. This basically means that the power to any building has to enter the building from a single feed from the utility. There are exceptions for very large buildings and very large power users. Multiple meters on a building (apartments, duplexes etc.) are a special case. These normally are all grouped in one place and fed from a single utility feed. The separate meters feed "separate and defined units" for individual billing accounts. IE: each apartment Tennant gets their own power bill.
In your case an office area in a shop does not qualify.

2) Feeder lines crossing properties. In our area the local power company will only cross properties not owned by the customer if there is no other way to get the service there and then only with a signed easement agreement in hand. They will not even cross over the customers building, house, shop etc.

3) Local development codes etc. City codes can and do dictate where utilities can be located. Our current development codes require all new developments to provide underground utilities, nothing overhead. Older installations are grandfathered and allowed. If you upgrade a service either you or the utility is responsible to meet the current requirements, who is responsible I don't know.

Hope this helps to clarify things a little.