[MassHistPres] Electric Meters & other utility locations

[slater at alum.rpi.edu]

We are having a problem with this in Springfield as well. Houses in our
historic districts generally had meters in their basement, with service
entering the house in the front (closest to the street). When someone
wants to update their service, the electric company will force the
homeowners to locate the meter outside, and due to the location of the
existing service, the meter winds up on the front of the structure. Here
is a building that is just outside one of our districts, you can see the
horrid effect:

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/12/developers_bringing_new_l
ife_t.html

My understanding is that this is not a well-planned thing -- the power
company shows up to disconnect the service to allow for the upgrade and
only then does the homeowner (and electrician) find out that they need
to put the meter outside. By then, they are faced with just doing it, or
rescheduling everyone -- the electric company, the electrician, and any
other contractor they have on hand.

It is usually not easy to place an external meter in a place different
than where the original meter is, because this is where the circuit box
is located, and all internal wires run there. That is why you will see
two pipes leading to the external meter -- one coming up from the ground
to the meter, the other going down to the ground to the internal circuit
box.

We had a representative from Western MA Electric come to our meeting,
and without citing any code or regulation he basically told us to stick
it. We have been told in the past that they wanted the meter on the
outside for safety reasons for their meter readers - but now that meters
are read wirelessly, that excuse is no longer valid so they are now
saying that it is for safety reasons so that the meter can be removed to
cut off service in case of a fire. We think that they just want to make
it easier to turn off service for nonpayment because we don't see this
happening in more affluent communities.

We are in the process of drawing up a letter to the Massachusetts
Department of Public Utilities to see if there is anything that can be
done to push the electric company's hand on this issue. It might be
interesting to try and coordinate some effort from all historic
commissions in the state -- surely that would have more weight.

Ralph Slate
Chair, Springfield Historical Commission

<-----Original Message----->We have a spate of new electric meters being
placed
>on the front of buildings in our LHDs. We only find out about them when
the
>owners object, otherwise the electricians just install them wherever.
The City
>Electrical Inspector told me that the placement of meters does not fall
under
>MGL 143 section 6A because the Electric Code is different from the
Building Code
>and therefore we have no say about the location.
>How are other cities handling this? Are there other tools we could be
using to
>relocate the meters? 
>Thanks, 
>Kristi Chase 
>Kristenna P. Chase, Preservation Planner 
>Historic Preservation Commission 
>Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development 
>93 Highland Avenue, Somerville, MA 02143 
>(t) 617-625-6600 x2525, (f) 617-625-0722 
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