Electrical Mains Supply to Adjacent Properties

[westie101]

So it came to pass that there were a number of Electricity Boards in the country prior to privatisation.

Four of them were: -
South Western Electricity Board SWEB
South Wales Electricity Board SWaLEC
Midlands Electricity Board MEB
East Midlands Electricity Board EMEB

Now their boundries did not actually coincide with any boundry described for administrative purposes but with electrical network boundries established when the whole lot was nationalsed in the late 1940s.

So any argument about what area each company covers in relation to what an area is for government administrative purposes is totally nul & void!

Following privatisation some of the old Boards retained their names but as take overs took place names were changed for legal reasons.
e.g. The name NORWEB (ex North Western Electricity board) can no longer be used for a distribution company as it was sold to National Power, but is still referred to by the suppliers as "the Norweb supply area"

One of the takeovers saw SWEB under go a name change to Western Power Distribution (WPD).
This company then took over SWaLEC, MEB & EMEB so as the parent company is WPD they are all referred to leagally as WPD.
Nothing at all to do with their geographic location in any way means or form.

Some of the documentation and emergency call numbers still makes reference to the old coverage of the constituant companies.

The same occurs with UK Power Networks that took over from EDF (Electricity de France) that owned and operated South Eastern Electricity, London Electricity and Eastern Electricity. Similarly reference is still made to the original board coverage.
I'm sure that had the Eastern & South Eastern corner became only labelled as EDF it would have obviously confused the situation more!

Similarly NEEB & YEB became Northern Power Grid
MANWEB (Mersyside & North Wales) combined with South of Scotland to become SP/MANWEB
and the grandly named Scottish Hydro Electric Board combined with Southern Electricity to become Scottish & Southern

But the electrical and operation boundries never changed!

Norweb became United Utilities who operated the Water, Gas & Electricity networks and the electricity network was sold and is now Electricity North West

 

[JohnW2]

... their boundries did not actually coincide with any boundry described for administrative purposes but with electrical network boundries established when the whole lot was nationalsed in the late 1940s. ... So any argument about what area each company covers in relation to what an area is for government administrative purposes is totally nul & void!

Exactly. As I said, where I live (NW Bucks) was in the EMEB area, but has never been in the administrative "East Midlands" region.

Kind Regards, John

 

[maltaron]

To return to the start of this thread regarding rental. I am in WPD area and get about £7 a year for one pole and one stay.

 

[Adam_151]

We have a similar situation at the other end of the area John, there are towns which are classed as being in north Lincolnshire, but which are in the old YEB region and so are under Northen power grid rather than WPD. Not a problem once you know about the situation, although I admit I no not know quite where the border lies!

@ Westie... Who is responsible for the metering fuses on the front of CT enclosures, DNO or metering operator?. Also does this change when the metering enclosure if one that incorporates the cable head as well?

I ask because on a site where they had become mechanically damaged, neither would agree who it should be who came to fix it. In the end DNO sent a jointer who taped it up as a short term fix, meter operator sent a chap who looked at it and said there was nothing he could do. In the end meter company then sent a chap who used to work for the regional board before privisation who had rubber curtain to allow working within the enclosure. It just seems a daft situation that we can have issues that fall between the cracks post privitisation, that simply would have been dealt with under the old area boards

 

[Taylortwocities]

To return to the start of this thread regarding rental. I am in WPD area and get about £7 a year for one pole and one stay.

WPD have a handy guide on moving your supply. Download it at http://www.westernpower.co.uk/docs/connections/Moving-Supply-Guide.aspx

It will give you a lot more relavent information and tells you how to initiate the next steps.

 

[westie101]

@ Westie... Who is responsible for the metering fuses on the front of CT enclosures, DNO or metering operator?. Also does this change when the metering enclosure if one that incorporates the cable head as well?

I think it should be the DNO to repair them as most MOPs don't actually have staff authorised to pull fuses on 3 phase equipment or work on the units other than to change the meters

 

[ericmark]

It would seem records can be lost and errors can be made as a result. My son wants to have the meter where it can be read without assess into the house and also where he does not have cables on the outside of his house.

So he phoned up to find what needed to be done. He agreed to install a meter cupboard where the supply came out of the ground and to provide tails to that enclosure for the reconnection.

All paper work exchanged but as yet not quite ready for the change over. The next door property is supplied from his house but the DNO is insistent this is not the case.

I really do want to see what happens when they come to move supply.

One firm I worked for paid a good few thousand pounds to have overhead 3.3kV supplies removed from the property. 20 years latter they have still not been moved. OK the firm changed plans so there was no hurry but it would seem the DNO does forget what they have done over the years.

Clearly each case is different and to quote what has happened elsewhere does not really help.

I expect the DNO will try to get out of moving cables off my sons wall and what ever the DNO says he can see them there and knows it's going to be a major thing to move them. It's not just his property it's next doors and likely it will involve digging up next doors drive to give them an independent supply. But also clearly no way-leave or the DNO would be aware the cables are there. I want to be a fly on the wall.

P.S. I live in the North East it was MANWEB close to river Dee and Chester but Chester to the East of me is in the West of the country. Just it's not the same country!

 

[JohnW2]

... 20 years latter they have still not been moved. OK the firm changed plans so there was no hurry but it would seem the DNO does forget what they have done over the years.

In this thread , about three and a half years ago ...

Again, I'm pretty impressed by the DNO. Only a few days after I talked about 'in the fullness of time', a man just turned up with a camera and a hammer to obtain information to allow the wire replacement job to be planned. What he said made more sense that the previous chap. In particular, he said that they would not use ABC for mural wiring and thought that they would probably (per above) run overhead ABC direct from the pole to my property. I now wait to 'hear back' from them!
The hammer, by the way, was to determine whether the pole needs replacing - which apparently it doesn't. I do like these high-tech tests

Although I was then impressed by the sped of DNO action, 3.5 years down the road I have seen or heard nothing more about this matter!

Kind Regards, John

 

[securespark]

Give them a bell, John & kick 'em up the arse!!

 

[JohnW2]

Give them a bell, John & kick 'em up the a**e!!

Well, if you read the whole of that old thread (at least, the initial parts of it!), you'll see that I don't particularly want/need to have the work done, anyway. The only point of the exercise was to get my feed off the wall of the neighbouring property (which, incidentally, has changed ownership during the intervening period), so I'm not particularly moved to do anything!

In fact, when I thought about what they appeared to be proposing a new overhead cable from the pole to my property would have inevitably passed partially above a bit of the neighbour's roof - would that be allowed?

Kind Regards, John

 

[Lindricklad]

Having used the detail provided early in my posting, I have ascertained that my DNO is Northern Powergrid. Although I have not yet made contact with them, I am horrified to see that the average cost of this work is likely to be in the order of one grand !

Further considerations have revealed that I appear to be in a 'no win' situation, since my architect insists that, for safety reasons, I will have to move the existing cable before work on the extension can commence; however I need the walls of the extension to be in place to provide a new route for the cable !!

Due to these difficulties, I am having to examine other possibilities. These include :-
(a) a cable being strung across the roof of my bungalow to my neighbour's property or
(b) negotiating with my neighbours to see whether the replacement supply that was installed for the 'third' bungalow can now be upgraded to also provide power to my adjacent neighbour (tricky because those parties do not appear to get on with each other !).
In both cases it would appear a new feed to my property will also be required since I understand the meter must be located on an external wall (it's current location will become an internal wall).


Any further thoughts regarding this dilemma could certainly prove useful !

 

[westie101]

You should not have to pay for this work if it is solely the supply to other properties.
The costs being estimated are for moving your own supplY1

Give the DNO written notice to remove the cables supplying other properties from your bungalow and wait to see what happens!

 

[westie101]

Oh and until you do talk to them you do not know how much the cost will be, despite what you read here or elsewhere or hear in the pub.

Get on to them and see what they have to say.

(who says the meter has to be on an outside wall? In a new property perhaps but there are loads on inside walls)

So again don't go by supposition, talk to the DNO and get facts

Oh and estimates etc are FREE

P.S. you will pay less per hour for a 2 man team from a DNO than for a single electrician.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Apparently the moderators cannot copy & paste, or edit topics.

If they could, then they could have done what I have done, and edited out the quoting (which I cannot do).

Still - hopefully this, and the next post, are better than the nothing that those who run the site are able to do.

Having finally got a response from NorthernPowerGrid regarding the cabling supplying electricity to my bungalow and that next door, it has been proposed that my neighbour will now get his own individual supply and my cable will be rerouted to facilitate the building of an extension to my property.
I was told by the guy who came to survey the situation that a box will have to be installed on the external wall of my bungalow; however he could provide no advise on how this will be connected to my current system (his knowledge was limited to cabling !).
Since this new box will be in excess of 3 metres from the existing consumer units, etc., will all those items now have to be moved closer to that box or is it possible to have additional cabling installed between them and the new installation (possibly with it's own isolation fuse) ?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

That is something for your electrician to decide.

Generally your two options are as you say to either relocate your consumer unit closer to the new intake position, or to install a switch fuse at the intake and run a new cable to the existing installation.