The location is commercial, with separate meters for two stores. Below the mast is a gutter, with taps to four meters (each business has separate meters for the hot water), so this service has been there a while.
Despite there actually being two services, the practice here is to use a gutter to tap off of one set of wires. That is what was done here.
Future expansion? The PoCo would upsize the transformer, and run larger wires.
Parallel feed? The PoCo would run wires of the same size. Different sizes run in parallel are, well, a really stupid thing to do. (If someone out there doesn't understand 'why," speak up and we'll explain it!)
The method of connection is concealed by the tape over the splices. The usual connector here is a "parallel groove" type, with grooves for two wires, not three. PoCo rules do not allow the use of split bolts.
The PoCo itself is a little confused as to how this happened. When they fix it, I'll have a Sunday service change to do.
