Fused neutral cut-out

monoloco · Apr 20, 2015

Apologies if this isn't the appropriate bit of the forum to post this to, or for any uneducated comments in what follows - straying beyond my elec expertise!

We had our meter changed over to a digital one the other day & the guy who did it spotted we had an old fused neutral cut-out. So Western Power Distribution have been out today wanting to replace it.

I understand enough to appreciate it needs replacing (not that I'd personally be fiddling with wires to come a cropper if the neutral fuse did get blown), but they're saying they need to dig up w nice hole/trench in our (recently tarmaced) driveway to fix it.

Is there a good reason why the service head couldn't safely be replaced without doing that, or is it genuinely unavoidable?

I just want to make sure they're not doing the thing that's easiest/cheapest for them, but not best for us!

Thanks!

monoloco · Apr 29, 2015

I spoke to the DNO office yesterday and they were very helpful & forward leaning about finding a way to do it without a joint hole in the driveway. They want to come and have another look before deciding but volunteered that they had people that may be able to do it live, or with 2 weeks notice may be able to get the ok to dig on the road. They didn't rule out local shutdown, but we a bi hesitant about it due, as you say, to the Ofgen outage targets they're measured against.

Will update once they've visited and decided what to do.

monoloco · Apr 30, 2015

Came to see it today. Guy took one look and said it'll be no problem for him to do it live, and that he's qualified to do so, unlike the guys who originally came.

Due to do it next week (safely, I hope!).

Thanks for the all help / advice.