Tampering with POCO equipment

[chris kennedy]

I had a very interesting request today to open a pad mount 13k/480 tranny and pull the fuses so someone could save $2300 in POCO fees.

I would like to bring this guy up to speed on the possible penatlies but Google has given me crap. As you know this is FPL country.

Thanks
Chris

[Koga]

refering to "POCO fees" But if its someone asking you to do something that is against co. policy , Is it worth losing your job ?

Koga

[Special ED]

POCO = power company if I'm not mistaken...

Don't do it unless its on a work order. Is it really worth losing your job? What if you pulled the fuse and someone called you in or what if there was a freak accident? What would you do? Be smart. I won't risk my job for someone and I sure as hell wont ask someone to risk theirs for me.

[chris kennedy]

POCO = power company

This is correct. I'm sorry, thats common jargon on other Forums.

I did not open or tamper with any FPL equipment. This was just an odd request.

I know this is a crime but can't find the penalities. I would like to show this guy how serious this really is.

[shaun]

I had a very interesting request today to open a pad mount 13k/480 tranny and pull the fuses so someone could save $2300 in POCO fees.

I would like to bring this guy up to speed on the possible penatlies but Google has given me crap. As you know this is FPL country.

Thanks
Chris


Why? Why would ya? Not worth the trouble.

[Special ED]

Penalties can range from tresspassing, to criminal law suits for lost revenue. Definately not worth it. Back in Louisville it was a huge fine and the lawyers they had were good at collecting.

[chris kennedy]

Why? Why would ya? Not worth the trouble.

For christ sake shaun, because I care? If you make a mistake or I make a mistake something burns or someone gets hurt. If the plumber ****s up, we mop it up. I have to sleep at night.

Wheres Tracey, feel free to delete this. I'm in a shitty mood tonight.

[returntotheeve]

Yeah, I sleep well at night knowing I have a way to pay the mortgage. I'm all for helping out the customer but you need to weigh your options. The best way to help them is to educate them. The POCO gets very upset when you mess with their equipment or leave it different than they know it to be. We have guys busting into xfmrs to prep to pull secondaries, bad. Had one deenergize it thinking the service he was working on was the only one on the can, bad. They left four homes out, can unlocked, said he spoke to "The guy". The company was going to refuse to cooperate with this guy again. That could be you, if something went wrong somehow don't think the customer or company wouldn't think twice to come after you. C.Y.A.

[loodvig]

I had a very interesting request today to open a pad mount 13k/480 tranny and pull the fuses so someone could save $2300 in POCO fees.

I would like to bring this guy up to speed on the possible penatlies but Google has given me crap. As you know this is FPL country.

Thanks
Chris

How is it that you, as an electrician, can open FPL equipment in the first place? Where I come from no electrician has keys to open up things!

[Koga]

a few things and I'm up to speed , I'm like lood , what the hell are you doin with keys to padmounts ? That is a big no no in our system. One or two of our underground contractors have em. But an electrician aint supposed to go inside em for nothin period. Probably a good way to get into a whole lot of trouble real quick !

Koga

[Hemingray Insulators]

anyone hear of the universal lock key? bolt cutters lol. i dont know what all of your utilities are useing but the Powerco around here has went to all disposable locks, where you twist the bolt head where it shears off, need to get in the equipment? ya cut it off and put on a new one when your done..... they use them on just about everything here now cept substain gate locks and stuff.......

[Ski_Digger]

Just wondering what the $2300. bill was for? Just to kill a service for someone? Or was someone trying to get a new service hooked up for nothing?:confused: :confused:

Ski

[loodvig]

Years ago our company opened a padmount trans so an electrician could pull new wire in a spare duct. He left to get some stock and left the doors open. It was a 'live front' type with the exposed primary bushings. Now because of that no trans are opened unless it's dead. If it can't be killed the electrician has to pay for a man to stand by. Usually it's a guy who's on lite duty or something like that.

[Koga]

will get the lock off but it wont get the penta head bolt out. you need a socket for that. We double lock all URD transformers. Any way electricians do not hook anything up inside our padmounts period. Just the way we have always worked. You want a service hooked up for anything you call in and get an application for service. Once all the paper work has been done, they send out an order.

Koga

[Ski_Digger]

koga I agree with ya. Guys are talking about elec. pulling the wire in, are the elec. that work for the power company, or are they inside wireman? Why are elec. pulling the wire or do some companies only go to the urd tubs?
Just asking
The Polish might just be taking over.:D
Ski

[BigClive]

The Polish might just be taking over.:D
Ski

Oh, do you guys have a "Polish" issue in the USA too?

Britain is flooded with Polish workers at the moment. They just claim they can do any work regardless of experience and work for well below a sensible rate.

The big contractors and the labour supply agencies love them because they can save money in the short term.

[Ski_Digger]

Hay Big C.
Those coments of your are starting to hit close to home, "Ski"_Digger:D .
Just not understanding why elect. are pulling wire for lineman. and it cost
$2300. to get a service shut off. We have a good working relationship at this time with our area electricans, and they do not get charged to shut a service off at this time. We also pull all secendary wire to the meter, it is our wire. Just looking for someone to explain.
Loovig's post I have heard of but it was with cell tower elec thinking they need to help us and intalling their oun pipe for the sec. serv., and digging into our tubs. That only happened one time. Also with some phone urd boys trying to get into the electic field installing urd cable and digging under some tubs "hot" and pushing cable in and not see what into. Not good anyway you look at it.
Take it easy on those Polish boy we are just trying make it to. You know it is a Dog eat Dog world and some Day we got the milk bone shorts on.:D ;)
Stay safe and work hard.
Ski

[BigClive]

Hay Big C.
Those coments of your are starting to hit close to home, "Ski"_Digger:D .

Take it easy on those Polish boy we are just trying make it to. You know it is a Dog eat Dog world and some Day we got the milk bone shorts on.:D ;)
Stay safe and work hard.
Ski

At least you speak English.

I'm not sure if "making it" actually includes working for a fraction of normal hourly rate resulting in local workers becoming jobless and losing their homes because they couldn't pay their mortgage on a labourers rate.

You have no idea of what happened when our government opened the floodgates to European immigrants to butter up their fat-cat construction buddies.

[chris kennedy]

How is it that you, as an electrician, can open FPL equipment in the first place? Where I come from no electrician has keys to open up things!



what the hell are you doin with keys to padmounts ?

I never said I have keys.:rolleyes:

I'll come clean.(chris is not my real name:D)

I have some keys. This allows me to look into a vault or pad mount to plan a job. Please bear in mind the FPL subs out work and after storms all hell breaks loose. So I have just kind of collected them.

I respect other peoples work and would not tamper with it. But trying to deal with FPL requires some research.

[johnbellamy]

Oh, do you guys have a "Polish" issue in the USA too?

Britain is flooded with Polish workers at the moment. They just claim they can do any work regardless of experience and work for well below a sensible rate.

The big contractors and the labour supply agencies love them because they can save money in the short term.

They got families too, Thats what guys tell me, I know I am a close minded asshole, well try and recuit these guys, and if you wern't so lazy, there wouldn't be a need for less trained guys to do your work, companies will take care of you. Any of this ringin any bells?

Now I have been trying to get along, And I am not trying to start anything, but I couldn't let this one go. This is just my opinion, and like I have said before, I am a black and white guy, I don't see all the shades of grey.

[Orgnizdlbr]

Clive is talking about an influx of "foriegn" workers who will settle for much less and push citizens right out of work. Ring any bells? Whats going on in the UK is exactly whats going on here, Mexicans, guatamalans and others who displace Americans with approval of big business and a tacit wink and nod from the government. It's a friggen shame........

[johnbellamy]

Clive is talking about an influx of "foriegn" workers who will settle for much less and push citizens right out of work. Ring any bells? Whats going on in the UK is exactly whats going on here, Mexicans, guatamalans and others who displace Americans with approval of big business and a tacit wink and nod from the government. It's a friggen shame........

The point I am making is that anybody that takes union or my job away it doesn't make any difference the job is still gone.

Non union, I wonder how they feel about somebody taking there jobs away? I don't believe they are happy with cheaper labor driving there wages down, taking there jobs away.

It is not apples and oranges, the problem is still there, companies will pay the lesser most of the time if they have the option to, even in the long run it will hurt them, but jobs are still gone and working conditions are lessend.

But I know progress right, buy enough buckets, flood the trade with enough untrained labor, just get the job done, make it so anybody can be a lineman, bulletproof the trade and don't try to stop it, just get out of the way of that big ass snowball of progress and enjoy your trade while you can.

[BigClive]

We don't have the same union system as you do in the USA. Workers here generally have to fend for themselves, hence it IS apples and oranges.

We're not lazy, but a typical electrician expects a modest hourly rate equivalent to about $20 an hour. When unqualified immigrants are so keen to do the work for $10 an hour and they are being exploited by technically clueless office staff who can only see as far as short term profit, then it's a tricky situation.

The immigrants don't move over here. They work here and send the money back to their families in Poland. (Which now has a shortage of workers.)

The UK Institute of Electrical Engineers recently did something that no genuine standards organisation with proper engineers would do. They changed the three phase wiring colour code in such a manner that a phase and neutral colour were swapped. This was done to make our system similar to other systems in Europe so that immigrants find it easier to work on. All existing British electricians will shortly have to re-certify to the new "system" at their own expense. (17th edition compliance)

The level of red tape is stifling these days. The standards of training and workmanship have never been so low. (Sound familiar?)

[BigClive]

Are you kidding? The better the weather, the worse the quality of immigrant.

I should add that the Polish immigrants here are generally extremely polite and hard working. It's the agencies that encourage them to come here that are exploiting them, encouraging them to masquerade in trades they are unfamiliar with and basically passing them off as cheap labour.

Like that Australian immigration agency where I found the "corporate" section of their website that bragged how they "owned" a large percentage of the skilled labour and how much money they turned over in a year from providing immigration services.

[BigClive]

Well....ya got that right. Haden't thought bout it that way....till I looked around. I'll just leave it there.....:rolleyes:

Yeah, I didn't want to mention the fact you lived in a locale notorious for attracting scummy riff-raff. :p

[woodwalker78]

A few year's back before I became a t-man for FPL I was running a crew. We had an order for an open and standby on a urd tx so an electrician could pull some cable into the sec side of the tx from a temp they had set up. When we arrived on site the electrician meets us as we pull up and tells me not to worry about opening the tx as he had already finished his work. I was puzzled and thinking a t-man had already been there to open the tx asked him what time the t-man had arrived? I lost it when he explained he had dug a small hole next to the pad and had pushed the wire into the tx!!!! The tx was a live front and using caution with all ppe carefully opened the doors. This guy had actually pushed the three #2 copper conductors under the pad into the tx and kept pushing until the conductors went into the primary side of the tx. Actually going under the barrier board between the prim and sec chambers!!!!!! The wires somehow curled around in the primary chamber without touching the live ripples!!!!! After giving this "electrician" a very harsh lesson in electricity 101, I asked why he did not wait for someone to open the tx? He explained that he couldn't wait and he had been doing this type of work for a long time and knew what he was doing!!!!!!! Another Dade county cowboy!! I still wonder if this guy is doing electrical work???? If he is, its just a matter of time before he has a meeting with the reaper.