Hi
The bloke from Central Networks (the local electricity network company) says my electricity supplier owns my meter. If so, I suppose I give it to who I like by swithcing supplier? I need to move it as the room it's in is to be demolished. I'd like to find out who owns it first so I can ask their permission.
LGF
You need to talk to your electricity supplier, but in my experience this can be a painful process as you are switched between your supplier and local network company. The chances are that the latter will do the work in the end for you. They will arrange for the meter to be moved on a date you agree with them (at your cost) and then you will need to arrange for an electrician to connect it back to your consumer unit. Round here they need to be quite close. 3m being the maximum distance, but they will probably send someone round to assess the job first so you can agree it all with them. They were very helpful with us once we had got the right department. They will also probably want the meter to be on the outside of the house - for H&S reasons they don't put them under stairs or high up (or low down) in a convenient corner these days.
You need to check the depth at which you are burying the conduit - we were asked for more than the 500mm of your previous post.
HTH
I was worried it was all going to get a bit confusing! Central Networks only require 450mm depth below gardens/paths for LV cable. I've told them that the wall the meter is going on will be an outside wall eventually, which they seem happy about.
Cheers
LGF
The CN bloke has not been precise enough in his use of English. He means "supplier" as in the physical electricity not "supplier" as in who you pay for said electricity.
I suspect they will want to move it and the no doubt the incoming feed...
Scottish power, as Transco own the gas meters
-- Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite
I`ve covered this a couple of times previously, but the old "electric company" is now in effect 3 seperate companies, two of which are not allowed under government regulatory rules to talk to each other.
If the cutout (cable head in some parlance) is in the bit that is going to be demolished it will need to be moved. It *will* cost.
The people who move it are the owners of the mains cable network (aka the old REC / regional electricity company, or whoever bought them out)
As part of the move, you may be asked to nominate a supplier (the people you`re going to pay your bill to)
The *supplier* nominates who they want to be the Meter Operator (MOP)
- which is often the metering department of the REC as it used to be.
As you`re dealing with different companies, expect different timescales, and the work to *may not* be contigious i.e. on a brand new supply, the customer has to contact their supplier to arrange for a meter to be fitted *after* its been made live to the cutout, whereas an existing service will probably have the meter moved to the "new" position without any hassle by the same team who move the incoming service.
Actually I posed this question to the bloke from Central Networks - my "supplier" the ones who own the cables and manage the electricity supply, when he visited recently. He said my "supplier" owned the meter, not Central Networks. When I pointed out that I could change "supplier", he decided that things have gotten a bit confusing since privatisation and he hadn't a clue. Hence my question..
The incomming feed is definately being moved - the pre-war (according to the CN guy) overhead power lines are being replaced with discrete underground cables.
Thanks for the information! Hopefully I can get Central Networks to move the meter. I'm going to have to get some rewiring done asap. I've just counted 26 wires comming out of my fuse box (12 fuses). There is also a more modern looking box with 2 MCBs, with "Data Only" stickers on them. Come to think of it there are some sockets in the house with the same stickers. If CN see the wiring mess in this place, I couldn't complain if they refused to reconnect.
LGF
If my understanding of common practice holds throughout the country, you may find you get an isolator fitted, and its up to you to get someone to connect your side of the installation.
Thanks again!
LGF
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