I recently did a service upgrade that involved replacing a pedestal meter socket. We scheduled an 8 am disconnect, which didn't happen until 11 am (our POCO isn't what it used to be). Around 4 when we were ready to connect, the POCO guy asks if I'm ready (Yes, I am).

However, instead of coming to crimp the lugs on the lines and install them in the meter socket, he's going to reconnect power to the lines. I yelled at him that I wasn't ready for THAT, since the lines were laying on the ground taped together. I can't believe that he didn't even look over to see if it was connected. This guy is an accident waiting to happen.

Dave

Dave,
This sort of thing really hits home with me, disconnecting and re-connecting installations for Electricians, is my Bread and Butter as a Faultsman.
This sounds like poor communication on the part of the PoCo worker.
It's a good thing that he was in sight of you when he went to re-liven the wiring.
I agree this guy is a real worry.
This is what happens when people assume things.
In my old stamping ground of Timaru, there was a story of a PoCo Faultsman that had to re-connect a house that was being re-wired and a new switchboard fitted.
The Electrician told the Faultsman to come back at 5pm that night, as he would be finished and the power could be put back on.
The Faultsman had returned at 5pm and the Electricians van had gone, so assuming that the job had been completed, the Faultsman reloaded the fuse.
What the Faultsman didn't know, was that the Electrician had been held up getting the wiring finished and had gone away to get more gear and had also twisted the Mains tails together inside the wall to keep them out of the way, while drawing-in the new cables.
Apparently when the Faultsman stuck the fuse back in, there was a "very large" explosion that came from the house, to the extent that 3 house bricks were hurled onto the driveway next to the house.
The damage inside the house was much worse so I'm told.
But as silly as this story sounds, it just goes to show what can happen when two people don't communicate amongst each other properly.
Some of the worst accidents start from the smallest of things!.

{Message edited to fix UBB tag}


[This message has been edited by Trumpy (edited 10-07-2004).]

BTW Dave,
I'm told that there was a Line-Mechanic electrocuted in Timaru today.
I don't know a lot about the actual incident, but I wiil post something as soon as I know.
Chances are, it will have something to do with bad communication!.