ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Meter Center Upgrade - PPL Territory

Just wondering if anyone is familiar with PPL and could shed some insight on an upcoming project.

We are looking at a project that would upgrade 11 townhouse buildings in one community from a 2-Position 200A (each townhouse unit having a 100A service) to a 3-Position Meter Center.

The 3rd Meter would be for a condo association subpanel, to service some lighting loads and receptacles for Verizon fiber equipment. It would be a NEMA 3r 4Ckt MLO 125A rated panel with 3-20 A breakers installed- installed right next to the meter center and fed from a 2-Pole 60A breaker in the meter center.

My question is - what is the procedure for moving the meters from the existing meter center to the new meter center.

Since no feeders are being upgraded we are looking at a total downtime of maybe 1-2 hours per building, while we de-terminate and pull down the meter center and put up and re-terminate the new center.

The only unknown is getting the existing meters back in.

Any insight on this would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Whenever I do an upgrade around here, I just take the existing meters out, and put them back into the corresponding new sockets. You just have to be careful not to mix them up, or there will be a lot of confusion when everyone's bills come in. When dealing with more than one meter, I usually mark them right on the glass dome with a sharpie marker before pulling them.

You are going to need the PoCo to provide you with the new meters for the house panels, right? So why not ask when you call them to arrange for the new meters?

"what is the procedure for moving the meters from the existing meter center to the new meter center."

The procedure is to get an Electrical Contractor that works in the area.

Why would you replace the existing meters, are they in bad shape? or do thy just like spending more money, why not run a 60A drop to a new meter and panel? or am I missing something.



[This message has been edited by LK (edited 11-12-2006).]

The running of a new 60A drop to a new Meter Pan seems logical - and was the first design choice.

However, the building owner and PPl want to minimize the amount of equipment on the outside of the building.

The intention is to use an electrical contractor that works in the area, I just like to do a little research on PoCo procedures in certain areas when designing a project.

I am only involved in the design side of the project.

When I say "procedure" I more meant the procedure with the PoCo rather than the actual physical procedure.

Some PoCo's will only let their guys do it - and other say having the EC swap a meter for an upgrade is no problem when the service is 200A or below.

Just curious

p.s. some people on this board need to relax a little when people ask questions - rather than bite their head off.