Revenue Protection&Safety

Field Safety

Safety FirstSection 1.5 Personal Protective Equipment

PPEApproved eye protection shall be worn when required. Contact lenses are not considered approved eye protection. Safety glasses w/ side shields for flash protectionShoes suitable to the type of work performed shall be worn at all times. (EH- Electrical Hazard) Hard Toe (ANSI-Z41EH)Low voltage rubber gloves shall be worn when working on or in close proximity to voltages above 50V and below 600V.

PPEClothing worn by employees in the performance of their duties shall be suitable for the work to be performed and the conditions under which the work is to be performed.Casual Clothing for undercover workFire protective clothing shall be worn as required. Keep it available in your vehicle for the unexpected

FR ClothingMust be worn whenever rubber gloves are required for the work being performed10 minimum clearance for non-protected personsDifferent Vendors offer wide variety of typesFR switching hood required whenever performing work on 480V services

Safety FirstMake sure that you are aware of your surroundings and any objects that may be in the area that you will be walking in. Use company approved ladders, when necessaryIdentify your work area for unsafe conditions. Watch out for booby traps!Communicate w/ peers during tailboard meetings

Whats Wrong withThese Pictures? ? ?

Wires tied in to top of main switch, bypassing CTs and metering feeding sub panel for new addition to restaurant.

Entire addition was fed from these line side taps!

Slide bypass modified to keep one leg bypassed at all times.

Line side tap inside A-base meter box fed 40A circuit breaker, electric heat and water heater.

It pays to take a closer look!

Anonymous call about theft at two-family house.

Two meter sockets Notice bypass compartments not sealed!

Customer installed lugs on manual bypass block - wires feeding 100A breaker that served electric heat and hot water.

Looks like any other CT, right?Someone had cut the current wire.

These breakers fed from unmetered tap not protected by main breaker

Meter Socket Checks

All required meter tests must be performed whenever a meter is removed, installed, disconnected, reconnected, tested or convertedEven more important when diversion is suspected or discoveredManual/automatic bypasses present additional potential for flashes!

Automatic bypasses. A great idea, butAn easy way to steal and a potential safety hazard!

Meter Socket Checks Always check for:Proper Voltage Backfeeds Shorts

Insulated Tools Different Manufacturers available.Required for any work on energized conductorsSecondary form of protection only Not meant to be used in place of the users personal protective equipment.Proper inspection, maintenance importantImmediately replace defective tools

Insulated Tools Should meet/exceed IEC 900 standard for insulated tools, ASTM F-1505 standard for insulated hand held tools.Help you meet the OSHA requirements in their safe work practice standard: 29CFR1910.269, 29CFR1910.333 (b), and 29CFR1910.335 (a) (2).

Now lets take a look at some real life situations that weve come across Tell me what you see wrong in these picturesOK, whats going on here?

The meter on the left is disconnected. The apartment is being fed from the line side of the meter in the middle, so its not going through their meter. We still get a reading on the left hand meter, it shows zero use (the meters disconnected) and everybodys happy.How many people would walk up to these meters, do your reconnect, meter change, whatever and never even notice whats below the meters? It would be easy to miss, if youre not looking****** NOTE: The investigator went out the day after this picture was taken and the wires were removed. A perfect example of how valuable a picture is when youre on the scene.Whats wrong with this?

Two wires come from above the CT compartment and go out the bottom.By taking the time to open up the main switch compartment, the mechanic spotted a major diversion. This restaurant had added a whole new dining room that was unmetered.

Not only is this stealing power, but because its fed from the line side of the main breaker, its extremely unsafe for 2 reasons: A short downstream along the wire wont trip the mainIf someone does shut the main off, thinking theyve killed the whole building, there will still be live wires in part of the building.This customer tampered with the slide bypass, so that one 120V leg was bypassed at all times. This type of bypass is a little less common. They bent one of the tabs on the bypass mechanism so that it made contact with the line to load straps, whether the bypass was up or down. The customer who we billed wasnt the one who did the diversion, so we could only bill for 12 months.Customer tapped on to the line side connections ahead of his A-base meter to feed a 40A circuit breaker, 5kW electric heater, electric water heater and a circuit that went out to a workshop in his barn. This is where he tapped in on the main switch, ahead of his meter.Here we have two examples of manual bypass meter sockets, with bypass blocks in the lower compartment. Like so many of these, the bypass compartments are unsealed. You should be pulling these covers off, inspecting and resealing them every time you have an order!Customer installed lugs and wires from bypass block to feed a 100A breaker. It appears that the bypass was installed in 1985, at the time an addition was put on the house.

METER SERVICE CHANGED THE METER TO AN AMR IN 2000. THIS COULD HAVE BEEN A $5000 AWARD FOR SOMEONE, IF THEY HAD TAKEN THE TIME TO LOOK UNDER THE COVER This was turned in by a mechanic who noticed zero current on one phase, when he was changing the meter. Its a perfect example of why you have to: Perform the socket verifier test when changing a meter andPay attention to the information that todays meters (and the socket verifier) give you. QUESTION ANYTHING THAT DOESNT LOOK RIGHT! At first the mechanic thought it was a defective CT. Upon closer examination, we discovered that someone had cut the black current wire, heated up the wire to stretch the insulation, then stuffed the wire back inside the insulation to make the wire appear intact.These were approved at one time. The plungers activate bypass shunts behind the block. When the meter is installed, the plungers are pushed in and the bypass is disengaged.

Now think about what would happen if those plungers were ground down, or if they deteriorate on their own because of age, or whatever.