ECN Forum Forums Code Related Discussion NEC & other Code issues CODE VIOLATION OR NOT

In this plant we have 3 complete different services coming into it,I'm talking meters and all.The building has walls breaking it into sections,
can we run power out of service 1 into a room and then come from service 2 or 3 into same room . I don't think they should be mixedor if they can what are the guide lines for mixing.
the service is 220 3 phase and 440 3 phase .
The voltages running into same rooms from different sources or 110 up to 440 single and 3 phase

Doc,
I don't see a violation of the NEC other than a probable violation of 230-2(e). There also may be OSHA issues as far as the required lockout/tagout procedures.
Don(resqcapt19)

should each service have a permenant tag stating building serviced by the number of services to the building (on each service) that way fire department has a way of knowing to.

[This message has been edited by sam (edited 02-08-2001).]

230-2-e (identification)kicks you over to 225-37( more identification)which tells you to mark everything.

Then we come to Ex #1 which basically says that you can blow that off if you maintain "safe switching procedures"
( exceptions can be so conflicting!)

This is probably what Don stated....

Once in a while i'll go on a service call where everything is identified. I'm sure it takes some time, but it sure saves some too...

As i read it,without hashin' 230 too hard, you could have six meters and mains, .

I wonder if some places are purposley set up this way to avoid larger more expensive services, or to introduce a variety of voltages without having to pitch for an X-former

maybe I was misinformed,but in a similar plant we had to different services coming in and they ran power all over the plant .The company wanted to add a large sub panel so we called in a large contrating company {electrical } and they told us we could not mix the services up and he was paid a gob of money to run new circuits and keep them in same room.When he was finished room 1,2,3
was from service #1 and room 4,5 were on service # 2. This where I am confused as what you guys are saying is maybe the old company I worked for may have been taken if there is nothing wrong with mixing

Was it done simply to restore some sense of order?

According to the electrical contractor,it was a serious violation to mix services,and therefore to get up to code we had to pull circuits out of an area that was provided by say service one and run circuits from service 2 into the location that service 1 had been powering that way all power in that room was from one service and disconnects are all in same area

I am not aware on any rules in NEC 230 dis-allowing the inter-mixing of the conductors in a raceway after they left an OC device.
It does seem that it should considered as an separated devired, somewhere in 230-2, and would require a transfer switch in case some of the conductors inter-connected and thus a possible 'back-feed' into a service that is down for repairs etc.
Who knows when an insulation break-down may happen between the one or more services?

It may not be a violation, but could be a saftey issue.

Glenn