ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area EUSERC ?

There was a suggestion that we start this as a topic. I was just wondering how many members are affected

Do you work with a PoCo that follows EUSERC single choice
	Yes
	No
	No but it is coming here
Votes accepted starting: 12/15/14 01:52 AM
View Results

The following states have EUSERC standards Pocos:

Washington
Oregon
California
Nevada
Idaho
Arizona
Montana
Utah
Wyoming
Colorado
Alaska
Hawaii

( 30% of the national population )

EUSERC started in Southern California (Southern California Edison) (1945) and has expanded north and east over the years.

Its primary concern is for the safety of utility crews and emergency responders.

This is done by excluding most of NEMA's product line -- and designing EUSERC's own. EUSERC doesn't build anything. What has happened is that one by one the NEMA players have introduced EUSERC specific Service equipment.

As a result, I chuckle at many ECN posters. Their queries go to design issues that EUSERC has taken entirely out of our hands... starting with the size of the typical Service for a single family home. It's 200A 240V --- period. (It only goes up for McMansions... 320A 240V single phase.)

You'll have to plead with the Poco for a variance.

Similarly, EUSERC (at least my Poco's) flatly mandate 100A 240V temp power Services. (The residential crews don't set temp power -- they set permanent power from the outset.)

EUSERC style Service equipment can be found directly in every NEMA player's catalog. It can be spotted as it will be invariably a non-minimalist design.

I have been out of the "EUSERC" area since 2009, so my info might be dated, but ...

In Nevada I installed plenty of smaller services. Suppliers had warehouses filled with 100,125, and 150-A "all-in-ones."

Indeed, you could install one of these smaller services without any special issues; to install a 200-A service you had to get things approved by the PoCo's engineering department.

To be fair, PoCo standards seem to be enforced about as often as I buy a winning lotto ticket.

For example, my local PoCo "requires" ringless meter bases ... though I had no issues replacing my old ringed service with a new ringed base.

200a does sound silly for a small home with gas appliances.

I spoke to PG&E line crews -- dedicated to underground service laterals.

They informed me that (circa 2003) their management standardized on just two wire sizes. (for vanilla residential laterals.)

This policy cut their inventories -- while preventing back-orders/ wire shortages.

A given crew would be dedicated to one wire size -- and kept busy pulling 200A Service laterals all day, all week, all month.

The savings accruing to any given homeowner by downsizing the all-in-one evaporate in the big picture.

All of the tract homes and McMansions standardized on 200A or 320A. They were already getting the sweet price.

As for old work/ heavy ups... no doubt the smaller cans make perfect sense when there's a serious lack of room. PG&E is still going to bring the same conductors and charge its fee. (A flat rate in plotted subdivisions.)

But then, local conditions have virtually every habitation wired for air conditioning.

Most likely EUSERC is being blamed for what the Poco simply wants to do for its own economic reasons.

Since EUSERC is dominated by the PoCos, that is a distinction without a difference.

Not sure about EUSERC in Arizona, I did a little checking on my POCO web site but found nothing. As far as service size, we still go by what the city/county approves. Just did a 100 a few weeks ago with no issues. Arizona has 16 different power companies, some of which are co-ops and some are tribal owned. In my area I work mainly with Tucson Electric Power which is a Unisource company.

http://www.euserc.com/our-members?start=60

Tucson Electric Power is a member of EUSERC... for what it's worth.

BUMP

Thought this was a good poll, so I bump'ed it up.

--Scott (EE)

Does anyone know the reasoning / rational for the requirement to use 3" conduit as the minimum size for UG services? It is a rather big waste to use 3" on a 100A UG service.