IQA/Iberdrola/Scottish Power

[Windmill]

Scottish Power, now owned by Iberdrola, have subcontracted a supply cable replacement to a company called IQA.

The latter have sent out letters to all flat occupants at the same address, telling them that they must be available on certain days so that the cables into each flat can be replaced, and that the power may be off from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. (requiring people to take steps to protect frozen food).

Not much sign that they're prepared to do the replacement after people get back from work.

They've erected a scaffold *inside* the stair well 'to protect our workforce' but there seems to be no need for it. All that's needed is a stepladder to access the cable entry points above the door into each flat.

A large new distribution panel has appeared near the main entrance door, and all the new, bright orange, cables run from there to just outside each flat. There seems to be nothing wrong with the old cables (not very old as these things go) so the whole thing is a puzzle.

Could it be that they plan to fit some kind of cutout in the line to each flat, so that they can cut off the supply without needing to gain entrance ? Or could they be planning on a single meter reading point? How big does a meter need to be nowadays? I suppose a 4 inch cube might be enough.

Something to do with "smart meters" ?

You have to wonder if they're anticipating a rise in the amount of private enterprise after they put up their prices.

[Jeremy Nicoll - news posts]

Having never seen the tenement stair in question it's hard to comment, but I would guess that some risk assessor has decided that it's just about possible that a worker on such a stepladder could fall off it and risk going down the void between floors. Maybe it's a way for the contractor to charge SP as much as possible for the job?

Might they be fire-proof cables? Or is the orangeness just meant to remind scrotes that these are especially unlikely to be a good idea to cut?

I should think that some photos might help if you expect anyone to make a knowledgeable comment.

[fred]

In article , Jeremy Nicoll - news posts writes

Exactly so, the tenements in question will generally be on four floors and have a four or five foot stair/balcony running round an open stairwell. Anyone taking a step off a ladder on the top floor will fall

70feet onto concrete.

The building will have been put up around 1900 and this is just routine cable replacement, probably the second in the building's life.

Where I have seen this done they used 2 or 3" galvanised trunking for the cables and to avoid a crossover problem with the existing installation they had to come in early, rip out the old installation, put in the new one and reconnect all in the one day.

On one that had an existing cutout, there was no change to the internals, just a re-cabling, the meter stayed where it was.

Clean up and filling was done the next day.

Also, don't be too surprised if you get a no show on the morning of the job and they reschedule.

Ignore the mobile number for the site supervisor on the notification sheet, it is never answered and messages will not be returned.

There is an office (in Hillington I think), find the geographical number for that on the company website.

[robgraham]

Fourteen months ago a gentleman appeared at my door (rural area near Edinburgh) saying he wanted to inspect the wooden pole in my garden for the cables supplying my house. "Ahh, yes - expected so, no modern markings so it will have to be replaced".

At 6 monthly intervals there has been other guys appear, but no other progress, so don't hold your breath that anything will happen on the day they say it will !! Rob

[Huge]

Contrariwise, once we reported flickering lights to the faults line, a nice man appeared at the exact hour promised, replaced a faulty insulator, which fixed the flickering, said that the poles to the house needed replacing because of woodpecker damage, agreed that we could have longer poles to avoid combine harvester damage, they appeared when promised to do that, complete with the correct poles (The Unimog pole planting machine was very impressive) & we were all up and running in a few hours.

[Windmill]

That's probably the reason. It puzzled me, in fact that explanation didn't occur to me, because the scaffolding as it presently exists does nothing to protect anyone. (It might, if they used it as a frame over which to stretch strong nylon netting or the like).

And attributable to safety requirements besides! Unarguably a necessity!

No idea. Looks ugly though.

That would take some time, and I'm not quite sure (but could find out) how to post pictures. I vaguely remember something about 'TinyURL'.

There isn't a lot to see. Big metal distribution box labelled "Danger

415 volts" which is perhaps a little misleading - it'll be 240 volts phase-to-neutral with three phases so 415 volts between phases. But I suppose that's standard labelling. Lots of orange cables coming out, coiled-up at the far ends ready to be connected into each flat.

[Windmill]

Previously replaced about 20 years ago, I think. BICBW.

That's the difficult part: getting access when flats are empty or the occupants are at work all day.

I've had lengthy arguments with electricity companies including SP (some before Iberdrola) over things like tariffs and meters.

If someone else in the past, in the same flat or the same general area, had failed to pay up, they wanted to lump me in with them and put in / not take out a prepayment meter, or refuse to install a 3 rate meter.

Or refuse to become the supplier until a new meter has been fitted by the existing supplier.

Or ignore me when I repeatedly pointed out that the day/night/storage readings had been switched around.

That was only corrected when I showed a bill to the people who were changing the meter!

Obviously a mere customer couldn't know how to read a meter.

In fact the errors resulted in *lower* bills, but I didn't want problems in the future.

Now, seeing the way they're jacking up prices, I almost regret my honesty.

Useful to know, thanks.

[Jeremy Nicoll - news posts]

Or something to attach safety harnesses/fall arresters to?

I think tinyurl just produces a short url from a long one. What you need is a place to upload pictures to... There's lots of sites that one can upload files to for sharing, eg:

as well as sites that are photo-orientated.

[Windmill]

I've taken a look, and although they wanted someone to be in to enable access next week (having specified a date), nothing has been connected, either to any of the flats or I think to the main supply, so it seems a little doubtful that they could meet their targets.