Actual situation I am dealing with:
-steet lighting power cabinets (pad mounted)
These used to be unmetered and the utility power came up into the cabinet and immediately terminated in a fused disconnect. Some of these cabinets had the utility wires running through a conduit before entering the disconnect while the rest were ran freely inside the cabinet. New street lighting cabinets are being installed (on existing pads) with meter sockets mounted on the side. Now all the cabinets will have "free air", utility owned conductors routed from the concrete pad to a chase in the back of the meter. The load wires from the meter pass through the same chase. None of the utilities I deal with allow line wires to enter the back of the socket. However, I can’t find that the NEC addresses utility wire routing or the mixing of the differently owned/managed conductors. The local inspector believes that, since the cabinet is "service rated" the situation encountered here is acceptable. "Service rated" does not mean that utility wires can be routed through it though. Utility wires are not service conductors. Service conductors do not begin until the service point which, in this case, is at the meter socket.
