TexasCHLforum.com

KD5NRH wrote:

ninemm wrote:What they should do is to give you the three months the PUC dictates for you to have your meter moved to an accessible location.

The line coming to my house has an interesting feature; there are two ends on it. One of them isn't even on my property at all. All the electric companies need to do is put the meters on the supply end of those lines in the first place, and they won't even have to move up to last-century technology like remote reading.

That certainly is an option although it wouldn't be quite as simple as you may think. You could put your own pole up at the property line and have the utility company run the service to that pole instead of your house. The electric companies do not install the meter bases and generally do not allow customer attachments on their poles. The customer (or his electrician) is responsible for the installation of the meter base and other service entrance equipment. The electric company would probably like this arrangement as it would have the customer paying for the losses in the service wires from the meter to the house. Also, the customer would be responsible for any repairs to those wires. The electric company stops at the meter. Since it looks like the lines that serve your home are in the back (between Lockwood and Melissa), there would need to be a vehicle accessible alley for this to be viable. Otherwise, the meter reader would still have to go through your yard to read the meter.

LaserTex wrote:Knowing some of my neighbors, I am not really sure that making them responsible to trim tree limbs off of power lines is a good idea. I think a safety consideration is a BIG part of the requirement for a QUALIFIED team to cut the limbs.

Electricity = you can't see it, smell it, taste it, but it can definitely reach out and TOUCH you!!

Doug

I will agree that not everyone should be doing it. But the PUC is already considering making property owners responsible for having it done. I've heard some predictions that the power companies will be completely out of the tree trimming business in the next 10 years (everybody say "Hooray!). One of the reasons is that it is felt that customers in West Texas shouldn't be subsidizing customers in East Texas. Years ago, if you needed a power line run to a rural home, the power company would pay to have trees trimmed so the line could be built. Nowadays, the power company requires the homeowner or builder to have an excavation company clear a 20 foot right of way (or more) with a dozer at the homeowner or builder's expense. The tree trimming companies (Asplundh, Davey, ABC, etc.) are already developing their marketing and real estate departments. The real estate departments will be for the property they acquire when an ERCOT mandated trim job isn't paid for by the property owner and they file liens and then eventually end up with property. Look for ERCOT to become more and more involved in operations of energy delivery companies.

The Annoyed Man wrote:I just spent $500 yesterday getting my wrought iron driveway gate fixed. It was sagging so much that it need to have a section of it cut out and new steel welded into place. The reason it is sagging is that the guy from Encor/Reliant/Whatever (I'm a Stream Energy customer) keeps climbing over my fence to read my meter. I don't have a problem with him reading the meter, but the gate/fence are well over 6' tall, and when he climbs over it, his weight causes it to sag. If he would just come to my door and ask permission, I would let him every time (I work at home), and it wouldn't add but 60 seconds to the process of reading my meter. Each time I've caught up to him and asked him to knock on my door the next time, he literally waves me off and just keeps on walking.

I went out and bought some "Beware of Dog" signs to put on the fence. Let him think twice about whether or not he wants to keep climbing my fence without permission. The rassinfrassin' bleepedy bleep.

I will agree with you that he should not be climbing your fence.

What they should do is to give you the three months the PUC dictates for you to have your meter moved to an accessible location. After that, they should cut you off until you get it done. The PUC mandated in 2007 that meters should be able to be read without having to get someone to unlock a gate. The PUC felt it was unfair to most customers for some customers to have "special" meter reading requirements. As you say in your case, it would only take an additional 60 seconds to come to your door, imagine what would happen if 3,000,000 customers (per the Oncor website - 5,000,000 for Centerpoint) needed that type of "special" consideration. It would add 50,000 man hours to the meter reading task. If the meter readers did that, those of us who have accessible meters would end up subsidizing those of you who need "special" treatment. This is just as bad as the people who don't keep their trees trimmed away from the power lines. Those of us who do keep ours trimmed (or don't have trees) end up subsidizing those of you who, again, expect "special" treatment.

jimlongley wrote: I would think with all of the tree damage to power lines shown in the various media, that people would have a better understanding of just how poorly power lines and trees get along. I, personally, think that the law should provide penalties for homeowners whose trees are in any way responsible for power outages in weather events like we just suffered, and that those homeowners should bear part of the costs of restoration as well as outages expenses. Then maybe there would be less "needless buchering (sic)" of any trees, much less "hundred year old" ones.

I agree with you wholeheartedly. If a limb from your tree fell on a car parked in the street, you would be responsible for damages to the car. Why is a power line any different? The power company trims the trees at no direct cost to the customer and all the customer does is complain. Trees are trimmed according to forestry expert recommendations. That is, they simply do not cut back a certain distance. If a limb looks like it will grow into the the line over the next five years, it needs to be removed back to its point of origin. Stub cuts are dangerous to the health of the tree and promote unhealthy shoots at the stub cut.

In extreme weather events like we recently experienced, some of the trimming done is done in an emergency manner just to get the lights back on. Obviously, in wet situations it is difficult to get in and get out without making tracks with the trucks.

I really believe the day will come when it will be the customer's responsibility to keep the trees trimmed. Some electric cooperatives already give customers the option of doing it themselves. I recently had an experience with Trinity Valley Coop west of Canton and learned that their policy is to get 30 feet of clearance as they are on a 12-15 year tree trimming cycle. Just drive from Kaufman to Canton on Hwy 243 and you'll see what 30 feet of clearance looks like. Trees under the line along the fence line are cut down to around 6-8 feet high.

Trees not only cause interruptions to power. They also cause losses. Those trees that get very close to the line and occasionally brush the lines and cause minor sparking but do not blow fuses of trip breakers actually use electricity. That is, current flows through the temporary faults. It has been estimated that as much as 5% of electricity produced is lost through such "tree tip burning".