Outside cabinet for meter etc.

[Paul2011]

I am about to embark on building a new house and detached garage. The site I am using has an existing property on it which is to be demolished. It has an electricity pole on the edge of the site and an overhead cable to the existing property - 6 metres or so away.

Rather than disconnect the property, arrange a temporary supply and then have to re-connect to the new house, I wonder if there is anything stopping me from the following approach.

There is plenty of room to put an external cabinet/housing of some sort against the base of the electricity pole on my land. Is there any reason that this cannot be made the permanent supply point for the property - housing meter and whatever switchgear etc was needed. During construction underground cable could then be run separately to the new house and garage.

I obviously intend to have a qualified electrician do all this work but it would seem to me this would have the advantage of removing the need for an unsightly overhead cable and avoid involving the electricity company twice. I will have to run underground cable to garage anyway as I intend to put PV cells on the garage roof.

I would be grateful for views as to whether this is a practical possibility, and if so any views on what sort of size and type of cabinet would be required, both to meet my needs and satisfy the electricity supply company.

Thanks

 

[Penance]

You would need to contact your DNO as the supply from the pole to the meter is their property.

 

[topquark]

Contact your distribution network operator. It comes down to ownership of the line from the pole to the house. You, as home/land owner, do not own this. Your distribution network operator does and as such it is them you would need to contact to get the work done.

 

[Paul2011]

Thanks for these. I understand the DNO would need to do the work to disconnect from existing property and connect to the new cabinet at the base of pole, but subject to that is there anything wrong with this proposed arrangement?

 

[Engineer54]

A friend of mine wanted to do the very same thing as yourself, and received a flat out NO from the DNO!!! Another friend from a different part of the country got a Yes, but cost him an arm and a leg, both in DNO charges and the installation of a 30 to 40m concrete encased cable duct at 600mm.

A very sensible request i might add, but not it seems to some DNOs, and a cash pig for others!! I wish you well, and hope you can get what your after doing. They will not however, allow you to mount any cabinet etc, to the overhead power supply pole....

 

[topquark]

Thanks for these. I understand the DNO would need to do the work to disconnect from existing property and connect to the new cabinet at the base of pole, but subject to that is there anything wrong with this proposed arrangement?

Technically no, nothing wrong with it. However as E54 has said, some will entertain it, some won't. But it almost certainly won't be a cheap solution.

 

[Paul2011]

Guess I still cannot understand why it would not be more costly for NDO to disconnect from existing house and run the wire down the pole to a permanent cabinet at the base compared with with (1) disconnect from existing house (2) attach to a temporary supply (3) come back at a later date and string an overhead cable to a new house and re-connect.

Surely once the supply is terminated in a permanent cabinet then everything else is my responsibility. If it were terminated at the house, presumably it would be my responsibility to run a supply from the house to the garage.

 

[topquark]

Guess I still cannot understand why it would not be more costly for NDO to disconnect from existing house and run the wire down the pole to a permanent cabinet at the base compared with with (1) disconnect from existing house (2) attach to a temporary supply (3) come back at a later date and string an overhead cable to a new house and re-connect.

Surely once the supply is terminated in a permanent cabinet then everything else is my responsibility. If it were terminated at the house, presumably it would be my responsibility to run a supply from the house to the garage.

It's not so much that it will cost them more (it won't) it's more that they can get away with charging more, they are still a bit of a monopoly in that respect.

 

[Engineer54]

Whenever you deviate from the normal local supply method, the pound sign starts spinning in the minds of the money men at the DNO Head Office... They will also tell you what they require to run the supply cable, ...ie, the trenched concrete encased duct to the head position etc!!!!

 

[mogga]

Guess I still cannot understand why it would not be more costly for NDO to disconnect from existing house and run the wire down the pole to a permanent cabinet at the base compared with with (1) disconnect from existing house (2) attach to a temporary supply (3) come back at a later date and string an overhead cable to a new house and re-connect.

Surely once the supply is terminated in a permanent cabinet then everything else is my responsibility. If it were terminated at the house, presumably it would be my responsibility to run a supply from the house to the garage.

the basic answer to this point is BECAUSE THEY CAN!!! and you have NO other option as interfeering with DNO equipment is dangerous and an OFFENCE your in a NO win situation they are in a CASH flow situation Sorry to say it but you are at their mercy not only to cost but also to timings company I use to work for doing temp site instals were forever getting put back by DNO as there we were bottom of the pile Barrat ect ect sites where guys could make loads of easy jobs came before 1 hard work bummer of a site