in my area, we can not break a seal on the meter, only power co employee can remove the seal, $1000 fine. what about your area?

mj,
I take it that you are a licenced Electrician,in the US.
Over here in New Zealand or at least the area of the South Island that I work in,
what normally happens, is that you ring you local Electrical Inspector or the Control Centre, to get permission to break the seal.
This is normally given quite freely, provided you give them your registration number(and in my case, a clearance number).
Most of our work is done by Radio Telephone.

In NJ, you are not suppose to break the seal unless you get the power company's OK. Then they might also ask you fill a form making you responsible for the job. (And the liability.)

What the utilities may tell you and what your actual State Laws are may vary....


my bold ....

Out here in SoCA, our resi meters have a "super ring" with a keyed locking device. (No pic, my camera blew up). You call SCE or LADWP, etc., and they send someone out to unlock it for you. Response time is usually only an hour or 2, unless an emergency, in which case they're right there.
To bypass this, you'd have to drill out the lock, and then you'd be subject to tampering law (Hardly worth it)

For "problem" meters, there's stuff like http://www.inner-tite.com/rhino.html




[This message has been edited by Bjarney (edited 11-17-2002).]

We cut meter seals as a matter of routine when we need to cut the power for the service entrance. We always call the power company after to let them know the meter needs to be resealed

Bjarney,
Yup, that's the one.
They're a default setting down here!!

The poco here dictates that i shall not pull meters, cut or rebug service entrance.

But these are thier bylaws, and they know it because i'll not have thier beuracracy hold me up from making a living and do as i'm hired to do.

I could possibly think differently if in fact the poco owned any of the service laterals or OH drops here...not so...

If you think about it, we could cough up some 70E stuff that would have you deenergize via pulling a meter for safety reasons.
All in all if the poco won't trust a field sparky to do this, i have no ear to thier concerns either.

As to the so-called 'emergency response' here, there is none inside of 40 minutes or so.

Apparently past history saw the line foreman take the bucket truck home, not so anymore.

They have to get up, get dressed, etc, go to the shop, do all that is dictated ( punch in, truck checks..)by the poco to respond.

40+ minutes is an eternity in some situations....trust me.

We aren't suposed to cut the tag off, but we do it all the time. In many cases it could be more dangerous not to remove the meter if there is a problem that needs immediate attention. I've never been confronted about it and I've never notified anyone, but whenever I do, my intentions are clear and not malicious.

The only people here allowed to remove a seal are the POCO, electrical inspectors, and the fire department in an emergency. Being a small town though, you know most of the lineman and it usually isn't a problem if it is justified.

Same as Eagle. We do it probably 3 to 4 times a month, just on service calls. Never called anybody, never been questioned.
John

Electure, PG&E uses the same locking ring up here in the SF area. I called PG&E Nov. 9th to have them remove a lock and they didn't come out until the 15th. The telephone customer service people usually give you static about removing the meter, but when you're changing out a service, what are you suppose to do?

When I first got started in residential work, I called the PoCo before the first service upgrade I did, to have them come out to disconnect the service drop and pull the meter.

I was asked by the person on the phone if there was some reason I couldn't do it myself! I've been doing it myself ever since, without even bothering to call. I cut the overhead drop conductors and the meter seal myself, pull and reset the meter, and reconnect the service drop to the new entrance conductors. Generally, I will take the seal I cut off, and hang it on the new meter pan with a business card.

After the inspection is complete, the PoCo comes back to make permanent connections, and reseals the meter at that time. Have done it this way for several years now, and no complaints yet. About the only time I call the utility now is when the meter is sealed with one of their high-security "barrel locks", which needs a special tool for removal. These generally seem to be installed in more urban areas, with the usual arrangement being a simple plastic/wire tag or pressed lead seal.

Does anyone know of a source for one of those special tools? It would save a lot of hassle from time to time. The utility usually only gives a estimate on a service call time (somewhere in a 4-6 hour period!), and usually will not unlock the meter in advance of my arrival. A real PITA when you want to get a job started early and end up waiting on the PoCo crew for several hours....

it takes a while with a hacksaw....

In Austria all meters are hardwired. They have pressed lead seals that both prevent the meter being opened and the connections being accessed. Anyone can cut the seal, but only a licensed electrician can apply for resealing.
So if anyone else cuts the seal s/he will be in serious trouble when the meter guy comes next time. Electrician has to send a form to the PoCo, they usually arrive whenever they want, w/o needing the electrician to be present and reseal the meter. (In our case we didn't even notice them, we just found the new seal)

I always had a problem lining up for service repacements on multi-family dwellings. Got tired of waiting around for the POCO to show up. Sometimes had to wait over a week. I had to come up with something, so I talked to the agent I was working with, told him, we need to speed up the process, so we came up with a service change/inspection request that we sent to his insurance co.. When I called the POCO the next time, they said, sorry we don't have anyone available to unlock till next week, my reponse was, the insurance co. requests an inspection of wiring, sure enough, within a 1/2hr. There was the meter guy.

I am also in SoCa and I have to say that my local power company (SCE) was great to work with during our remodel.
I asked them to remove the meter seal - I called from work and it was done by the time I got home.
I upgraded our panel from 100A to 200A so I called them to make sure that the service entrance wiring was adequate. They sent someone out to replace it. How much did it cost? Nothing. They even replaced the meter when the contractor dropped a 2x6 on it from the 2nd story roof. Again there was no charge.
Maybe they treated me differently because I am an owner/builder.

Meters in England are hard-wired and have the terminal cover sealed. Nobody except a PoCo employee is allowed to cut the seal.

One occasion a few years ago when a building was to be demolished and I was stripping out equipment I called the local PoCo to have the power removed. This was in the days when you could still speak to the local engineer directly instead of getting a call-center, and because he couldn't get out at the appointed time he told me to just go ahead and break the seal myself to pull the main fuse. (Nice to know that not everybody is a "more than my job's worth" type!)

You get this note in the mailbox from the PoCo each year: "Please make a reading of your meter, fill out attached postcard and send it to us"

In reguards to the tamper resistant meter rings that PG&E(Pacific Graft & Extortion)uses in their service area,I had requested that that the service drop be removed so the mast could replaced (a limb fell on the triplex)and be ready for inspection on monday, this was fri. afternoon and the line crew left the ring on, I was so p***ed used a cutting torch (Hot wrench) to remove it,did not hurt the panel a bit. The meter was pulled due to the tenant setting the house on fire,leaving grease or cooking drugs on the range.