I've read several reports on here that people have asked their local electricity company to fit an isolating switch between their electricity meter and their consumer unit, and the electricity company has obliged, free of charge.
In this age of getting your electricity from British Gas, and your Gas from Atlantic Electric (or whoever), who do I actually contact, and where can I find a telephone number or address that will get me through to someone who knows what I'm talking about?
I'm in Bedfordshire, and I have no idea who the original electricity supplier would have been.
I have never heard of them providing the actual isolating switch for free, but if you provide and fit a suitable switch with tails long enough to reach the meter, then they will often tranfer the connections at no cost.
In our area (ex-Manweb) - we`d normally ask the customer to pass a request to fit *just* an isolator via their own supplier, who would then contact the meter operator (which for domestic property would normally be the ex local supplier anyway, but due to the regulator, no-one is allowed to talk to anyone else any more)
If it needed a cutout change as well as an isolator, we`d arrange for that without going via the supplier, and will happily fit an isolator while we`re there.
a) is only responsible as far as the cutout / cable head - the rest, in theory, is down to the supplier and MOP, so fitting an isolator on after the meter is beyond their area of responsibility
(a) If you have rewired and want new meter tails connected, then you should contact your supplier, who in turn calls out the MOP. Ditto to get an isolator fitted.
(b) To get a new house on supply for the first time you must sign-up with a supplier first, then proceed as (a) above.
(c) If, for some unmentionable reason, you have blown the main fuse then you should call the DNO directly.
Are those correct?
Now, what about:
(d) You simply want the main fuse withdrawn for a few hours in order to carry out work on your main switchgear, but not involving connection of new tails to the meter. Is that supplier/MOP or a DNO job?
(e) You are planning to rewire and want advice on the capacity of the existing service, and/or need to have an old service upgraded to 100A. Or you want to upgrade from a single-phase to a 3-ph supply to feed (a submain to) your new workshop block. Who to contact?
(f) You want the service intake position and meter moved.
Yes, I think (as far as understand it) you have that spot on* now :-)
for a new supply, different areas probably handle things in different ways - for a brand new supply to a new house the builder will normally sort it out (the ex-incumbant REC will normally do it, and as part of the connection, a supplier will have to be nominated)
If you are simply moving into a house with an existing supply, contact the supplier. Of course, you won`t know who the supplier is if the house was vacant, which is where MPAS (meter point administration service) comes into play. They should, bearing in mind the points made about the MPAN and correct identification of property etc be able to tell you who the supplier is. Some suppliers may be willing to accept a new customer without this rigmarole.
Who the hell knows - this is one of those grey areas the regulator hasn`t defined. If an isolator was fitted, you wouldn`t need the fuse pulling on a temporary basis like this unless it was a commercial supply where the ex-incumbant REC will not supply an isolator (usually based on the size of supply)
This may again vary by locality and / or local network conditions*. Information about the size of supply may not be readily available. For a single phase supply we technically only provide a 20kva service, so many supplies will only be rated to 80A (sometimes lower, but a cutout change might make a fuse upgrade more viable where appropriate), but you have to take into account other things - some services are looped from an adjacent property or a sub-main not owned by the REC may be in use. If the service cable was only installed fairly recently then sometimes discretion might be used and they might be fused at 100A.
network conditions may include, for instance, a pole mounted transformer already running at capacity. Uprating fuses might be enough to cause problems elsewhere on the network, which brings us neatly to...
If you need an upgrade, then depending on factors such as those mentioned, the ex-REC will provide a quote for an uprated supply. I`m not sure whether the supplier currently has to initiate this or whether the ex-REC will take the call direct from the not-a-customer-of-theirs. Guaranteed Standards (see
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apply, and a quote should be given within a certain time period, not withstanding the factors mentioned or other difficulties.
Some RECs now have "offshoot" companies that look after supplies of a certain size or above, although one-off domestic supplies and service alterations are still handled by the REC per the regulator (no-one else wants the work because there`s no money in it)
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