Good question. I live/work on the boundary between two utilities. Allegheny Power does the disconnect at the service head. When I'm finished the inspector puts his sticker on the new panel and I call the utility back
(the guy that disconnects usually gives me his cell #) and they reconnect.
I have not done an upgrade in Duquesne Light's area yet but I got screwed out of a job because of misinformation. Duquesne Light allows the electrician to disconnect and reconnect. After I finish the upgrade, the inspector would approve, I would reconnect and the inspector would notify the utility of the upgrade.
I've spoken to people at Duquesne Light many times about the "logistics" of a service upgrade. I wanted to know how they went about it so I could quote jobs. They always told me "Oh yeah, because of deregulation, we now charge $250.00 to cut-off and reconnect for an upgrade" Despite numerous opportunities, they never told me that I could do it myself! I quoted two jobs and made sure I told the customer about the $250.00 charge by the utility. It wasn't until I called a local inspector to introduce myself that HE mentioned that I could do the cut-out and reconnect myself.
To make matters worse, I told one of the customers about the charge and suggested they call just to verify the amount. Guess what - the utility told them the charge was $100.00! I really felt stupid. I meant to call the utility this week to ask about that discrepancy but didn't get to it.
I also bought lineman's glove and protectors for that job. I'll need them anyway.
BTW, I called Bashline in Grove City, PA to order gloves and was told that there is a 30 week wait for the rubber gloves. I ended up buying from Mitchell Instrument - no problem, got them within a week.
Don
