Cleveland Public Power builds electrical services including the service switch or service panel. They do not follow National Electrical Code on at least 1 out of 3 services. Defining the service point as the load side of the service switch and saying that the service does not need to be Code because the electrical utility owns it creates insurance problems for me. Nationwide is about the only insurance company of the ones that have agents who are close to home who will insure someone who has had a state license for less than 3 years.

Since they install electrical services for FREE the customer has no incentive to have me do the job the right way. I am then stuck with things like 1/2 inch diameter copper clad steel ground rods sticking up out of the ground and no mechanical protection for the part of the grounding electrode conductor that is close to the ground. They also use residential copper wire sizes for commercial single phase services - maybe that might work but a 100 amp or 200 amp service is either lightly loaded or heavily loaded.

The insurance companies have insisted that electrical untilities use the stricter of NEC of National Electrical Safety Code for anything that touches or runs underneath customer property. The sole exception is that a power service drop that has no communication drop underneath can be 16.5 feet over a public street or commercial driveway if the custormer has a space constraint. Usually, the Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company has solved that kind of problem by installing a pole right next to a customer service entrance. First Energy does not have a problem with using NEC in customer property so why can't Cleveland Public Power be reasonable and follow NEC for anything that touches customer property?

Ohio law says that cities have authority to regulate electrical utility installations but the Cleveland building department does not inspect CPP's electrical services. CPP is somehow a law unto itself. Cleveland Public Power allegedly has their own electrical inspector but I see a lot of services inside and outside City of Cleveland where both the electrician and the inspector are at least 30 years out or date on NEC. A lot of electrcians are still putting the service weatherhead below the point of attachment and putting the splices above the weatherhead which creates a problem with stranded conductor acting as a poor excuse as a water hose.

Cleveland Public Power one time toasted ( killed ) somebody with a handhole cover that was not grounded and bonded and a 480 volt streetlighting circuit somehow energozed the cover. This was after the Ohio Supreme Court struck down sovreign immunity.

Mike Cole mc5w at earthlink dot net