One of the less likeable parts of my job,
going around to the houses of people that have not paid their power accounts for a while (some up to 6 months), and remove the mains fuse, until the said account has been paid.
I absolutely hate this aspect of my job, but
business is business,however, I was asked by an elderly man the other day,"How would I like it if I was in his position, with Dinner half-cooked,and the power is about to be turned off?".
I really feel for the people that cannot pay the exorbitant prices(Line Charges+kWh charges), that power companies charge.
How would you feel if you were in my shoes?.
Although we should all pay our power accounts,the pension system over here is a shocker, leaving the elderly to perform a balancing act with thier fortnightly allowance, some of them go without food and some of the essentials of life, just to pay the power bill.
Have any of you been in the same boat as me?,
We just get a Permit To Disconnect, no questions, just do it!.
Your thoughts on this regime?.
P.S, In the senario that I put forward, I came back the next day, it would be a shame to ruin a good roast!!.

I didn't realize that disconnections were part of your job in NZ.

In the U.K. only a PoCo employee would do this, and I certainly don't envy you having to turn up at somebody's house to pull the service fuse.

I think that disconnections here aren't all that common, unless all attempts to contact the person or make arrangements have failed. If bills start to get high/unpaid here, most utilities will suggest that they install a prepaid card meter. Quite a few people around here are on that scheme (voluntarily, in most cases) to help budget the costs.

The cards are generally available as £5, £10, and £20. It works as a modern, cash-less version of the old "shilling in the slot" meters.

The modern meters have an "emergency credit" button on them which gives about £5 or £10 of extra credit, just in case somebody runs out of cards at an awkward time. (If that runs out too, they'll have to insert cards of a high enough value to cover the emergency credit and the next minimum payment before the contactor will close again.)

The meter's LCD display can be cycled through kWh normal/low rates etc., but usually displays the amount of credit remaining (in pounds/pence) so that people can see how much they're using.


[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 01-30-2003).]

Trumpy,

Do the utilities require you to do this? I can understand why you wouldn't like it.

If I were in your shoes I'd refuse to do it...I'm not the power company's cop. Let them deal with it.

Same in Ireland the ESB is very slow to disconnect customers it's an absolute last resort.

They'll usually suggest:

1) changing your payment so that you spread costs over the year based on average consumption rather than paying heavy bi-monthly bills during peak usage seasons (autumn/spring and especially winter here)

2) they'll suggest energy saving measures.

3) Install a card meter as above. You just purchase prepaid units either on magnetic cards or on a rechargable smart card. The long-term plan is to have meters that can accept Visa Cash/Equivilant (Electronic Purse) so you won't have to buy them in an ESB shop. These meters regularly appear in student and shared apartments and holiday accomodation or where disputes over the ESB bill might occur.

Before a domestic supply was cut off here they'd also suggest that you talk to the department of social welfare about getting income support and budgeting advice.

Same with the main telephone company, eircom. They'll usually phone up and ask why and bar all chargable calls until some sollution is found or install a small payphone/cardphone (less common since pre-paid mobile phones are so popular) They also provide student/shared apartments with pin access. So if you make a chargable call you must dial a pin number unique to you and calls are attributed to the people who made them on seperate pages of the bi-monthly bill.

Cable television companies are the only ppl who go around cutting people off on a regular basis. Vodafone Ireland are also very trigger happy!

A prepaid card meter!What will they think of next?Paul,you got any pictures of these installations?

I've never heard of card meter. It sounds like a good solution. (Relatively speaking)

Here, the social authorities are (should be) notified before water or electricity is disconnected. In many cases electricity is part of the rent, and therefore not disconnected. (In my case both electricity and cable TV. I cancelled my the phone about two years ago, as it didn't fit my budget.)

txsparky....credit cards

I don't know about Power, but our good ole Telekom is quite fast. If you don't pay your bill they set your line to "incoming only" without much negotiation or warnings.

Trumpy,
Thankfully electrical contractors do not have to disconnect consumers here.
As Paul said, only PoCo officials can disconnect supplies for non payment.
Nowadays such disconnections are extremely rare. I think most UK PoCo's have a policy of not disconnecting elderly consumers during the winter months.
If you have difficulty paying a bill our local PoCo (Scottish Hydro Electric) will instal a card (token) operated pre-payment meter, like the type described by Paul. These meters can be programmed to recover any debt owed at a set rate every week from the cards inserted, while paying for all current usage as you go.

During the 1990's card meters became very popular up here, even for those not having difficulty paying, as Hydro Electric were offering discounts for prepayment customers with no additional charge for a card meter, unlike some regions.
These meters are still very common but are starting to fall out of favour, except for those on tight budgets. Many customers now pay by monthly direct debit, as you get bigger discounts and spread the cost evenly over the whole year.
Some of these card meters can simply be re-programmed (by the PoCo) to operate as a standard credit meter if a customer changes to direct debit or quarterly billing.
I should be able to get a picture of one in the near future.

Trumpy,
i don't believe in attacking the soldier that is sent to enforce the policy given him/her.

in the bigger pix, what makes a country great? i say it's a countries compassion towards it's people, inparticular young and old, not it's wealth or might.

(no, i am NOT a BLH [bleeding heart liberal]lets not confuse a handup with a handout eh?

here we are in similar straights, where a handful of big companies control 90% of our countries wealth and influence .

Here's a pic of a prepayment meter quite similar to ones i've seen installed here in Ireland by the ESB although not identical. Private pre-payment meters are used by landlords in some short-term rental acomodation (especially where students are involved)



Here's how the ESB handles payments, disconnection is possible but it's very rare, particularly in a domestic situation. The elderly, those dependent on social welfare payments etc are pretty much exempt as the social services would step in.
http://www.esb.ie/main/energy_home/your_esb_bill_payment_options.jsp
shows all of their payment options/methods and welfare options.

{Edited to fix image post at DJK's request - Paul}


[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 01-31-2003).]

Well, I won't bother to go take a picture of the next card meter I see, because the one DJK has posted is identical to the type used in this area.

One of the buttons is the emergency credit switch, which is operative only when the contactor is open. The other button cycles the display from its default "credit remaining" state through various options: total units consumed, normal-rate units, night-rate units, etc. Many of the PoCos here will also "do a deal" for a high bill where once the card meter is installed they charge, say 10p per unit instead of 7p until
the balance is paid off.

On telephone bills, British Telecom operates in a similr way to EirCom (when did that name take over from Telecom Eireann, by the way?). They restrict a line to incoming calls only while haggling over the best way to clear the bill.

Same with the water utilities here: Disconnection is almost unheard of.

The Irish Govt. seems to treat its pensioners far better than the British: Free bus and train travel, electricity (or gas) allowance of so much per year, free telphone line rental, etc. A couple of years ago over here there was an absolute outcry when the govt. gave pensioners their annual rise and it was just 75p per week extra.

Some years ago when I read about electrification of developing countries, I started thinking of this type of prepaid electricity. I didn't know such meters existed. Does anyone know the cost of such a meter? (To buy)

You see, in developing countries, electricity is expensive and the expansion of electricity is very slow as it needs state subsidiaries. I read that in Nigeria, population growth outstrips the electrification, thus in reality making the country less developed each year.

Here is the idea: An integrated 20A breaker, disconnect, 30 mA RCD and card meter. Make it really cheap. Aim to wire a house for $100. Numbers below taken out of thin air, but engineers have the right to do so

$50 All-in-one meter
$15 30 metres of 2.5 mm2 cable
$15 5 socket outlets
$5 3 Light switches
$15 Work

Then there is probably another $100 to bring power from substation to house. $200 should be within reach of many families, in all but the poorest of countries. If you can offer electricity on a commercial basis, the number of connected households would explode.

[This message has been edited by C-H (edited 01-31-2003).]

I know that there used to be coin-insert meters here long ago (electricity only, the shilling-operated gas fires never caught here), but they disappeared long ago. I once saw one in a museum.

PaulUK

Telecom Eireann was completely rebranded just after it was totally privatised a few years ago at this stage.

They already had loads of brands beginning with eir--- (eircell, eirpage, eirpac etc) so they went for the name "eircom" (Always in lowercase)

The logo went from this:



to this:



I think the old image was getting a little 80's and they wanted to move away from being just a phone company. They really took the rebranding seriously though. I've never seen anything quite so fast. Within 3 months they had erased all traces of Telecom! Every phonebox, every payphone, every trace!

Was a pretty extensive rebrand.
They've their own font which is copyrighted and used in their logo and in all of their marketing stuff.
and they also now have a standardised male
voice used in all marketing, operator services, voicemail, automated services anything they provide uses the same guy! even if you visit their website you'll get this guys voice!

Click on this to hear the TACKIEST only voiced over website i've ever seen and their "Supermouse" character (kinda quirky ads!)
http://www.eircom.ie/bveircom/mouse/index.html

a rat for as mascot djk?

sure C-H,
here's a cheapo system here, the SWER system.

btw~
i do notice the price of power here driving alternate energy sales.....

Thanks for all of your input guys,
Because I work off and on for the local Power Board, as a Line Mechanic/Faultsman,
it is written into my Employment Contract,
that I must do all of the duties that are required of me.
I am one of 3 On-call Faultsmen, and having spoken to the other 2, they do not like this part of their job either, but it has to be done, simple as that!.

Sparky:

I folled that link and soon googled the net for more info. This is a very intresting system. Thanks for the tip! I got stuck this weekend trying to work out a way of implementing it at very low cost.

Trumpy:
I am sure that the old folks are not the only people you turn off. I just wanted to add my two cents.
We were remodelling a basement in a $500,000 house here in the US a while back, actually just getting started, when the utility guy drives up. Well, he had a disconnect notice and I asked a few questions. The owners were 90 days late, and had been disconnected before. He said they could get turned back on if they paid one months worth or $90.00. I am sure the mortgage on this house runs to two or three thousand a month, and these deadbeats can't pay ninety a month for energy. I don't feel too bad for these people.
I commend your fairness in dealing with your clients(?)

cubby964,
That's an unreal story, mate.
Just goes to show how wrong some people have
thier priorities.
Yeah, it's true, that it's not only the elderly, that get cut-off, no-one is immune from this!, just don't pay your power bill for a few months and see what happens.