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Is that barbed wire wrapped around the ug feeder?


No, it's just the outer covering of the cable disintegrating:

[Linked Image]

The steel cover on the lower part of the pole is also pulling away, revealing more deterioration there as well:

[Linked Image]

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Who owns the feeder, the utility or is it a private line?


The utility. The PoCo here owns everything right up to the meter. The underground cable on this pole is the main feeder (240/415V wye) to most of my road from this transformer, which is just a few yards away on the next block.

The three cables you can see coming off the top of the first picture bring two phases plus neutral back about 100 ft. to another pole which feeds four houses, one of which is mine.

I found part of the cause of the failure lying in the grass outside:

[Linked Image]

EDF was pretty quick at getting somebody out here. I called in the problem around 2 p.m., the "first response" guy showed up around 5 p.m. to assess, and the guys with the bucket truck arrived a couple of hours later to do a temporary "lash up" until it can be repaired properly. They've just tied the head back to the pole and added some extra support straps to the cable for now:

[Linked Image]