What is the big hooplah all about?

Wouldn't the fault current capable of being delivered only be as much as the #4 service drop from the pole? Increasing the size of the SE conductors would not make the fault current available more or less.

A Q for you Bill, is 2/0 rated for 200A service? You could not get by with nothing but 3/0cu. here in Houston.

Our meters here are of but one type also. They are all CL200(class200). And yes that is rated for 200A service. Older installations when most services were 100A used a CL100. All are the same now for socket type meters. The CL100 meter gets changed to a CL200 if the customer upgrades their service, but very seldom as you stated Bill does the #4 drop get replaced with 1/0 unless the drop is old or there is evidence that the cust may be adding load(adding on a room or two, pool)otherwise the #4 drop that has served so well for 20 years is still capable of handling the cust needs.

Meter ratings are as follows;

CL100- 100Amps and 60A services
CL200- 100AMps to 200A services
both are socket type meters

CL400- 400A service which is a bolt-in type meter.

And just one more Q Bill,
The utility allows the electrician to make the permanent conn. at the WH? Even if they supply you with the connectors. You would have a band of furious lineman on your hands if you tried that down here [Linked Image]
Down here the electrician at his discretion will make temp conn so the cust will have power until the utility makes perm conn.