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Submitted By -Near Miss 120/240 volt service
The job was to energized a underground service and set a meter and remove an overhead service which was disconnect at the house. The crew inspected the new meter base and used a volt meter to checked for voltage on the load jaws, ( backfeed) then ran a ohm meter check on load jaws. (looking for grounds and shorted conductors) The main switch in the building was open. The underground service was terminated in the meter base. The crew moved to the riser pole and then worked to connect the underground service. First they tried attached the service neutral to the system neutral on the overhead system when they experienced an arc. They measured 117 volts between the underground neutral and the overhead system neutral. The crew noticed an extension cord running from next door to the house. Has anyone guessed what went wrong?
The extension cord was connected to the service panel feeding the house wiring with the main open. The electrician incorrectly connected the hot one of the cord to the house neutral.
The crew was not injured. All the proper checks were performed by the crew. crew. The voltmeter checks will not catch this type of back feed. We are currently trying to develop a method to catch this type of back feed. Does anyone have any ideas?
We have 200 linemen at our company and we have two near misses of this type reported recently from different areas.
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