# Can elect co lock out my standby generator?



## ark steve (Jul 31, 2016)

My son was late paying his bill, and the elect co disconnected him after he paid it. When they put their lock on the meter they also put another lock on his elect panel on his side of the meter, so we couldn't switch over to the stand by generator until they reconnected him. That can't be legal, where to I complain? My state's utility comm routes all complaints against this company back to the company's own complaint dept. The icing on the cake is this happened while he was at drill with the National Guard.


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## motormonkey (Jul 10, 2016)

Here, the power company owns and maintains and is responsible for the line into the meter box, and the customer owns and is responsible for everything else. Except in emergency or hazardous situations, they can't legally mess with customer owned equipment. That may not be the case where you live. It varies a lot from one place to another.

Any local electrician should be able to tell you what's yours and what belongs to the power company in your locality.


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## RonJ (Aug 5, 2015)

I maybe wrong for your area, but I know that when folks have not paid their electric bill, and the electric company comes and terminates the power - you have to pay that bill, plus a "re-connection" fee. One way to avoid these utility termination situations is to set it up to be automatically paid...not by the person, but the utility goes to your bank and the money is transferred. I say this latter way because, in my opinion, if they fail to come and get it - that is their problem...the customer cannot be punished, but the first way - the customer has the responsibility.


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## ark steve (Jul 31, 2016)

They have always said that from the meter to the house is our responsibility, it even says on a disconnect notice that if nobody is home the service entrance switch must be turned off or they won't reconnect it, but that is in the panel (on our side of the meter) they locked us out of. Luckily his wife was home. He paid the bill on Friday, on Saturday he paid the reconnect fee, and the same day an additional fee for after hours reconnect, they finally turned it back on 2:30 Monday afternoon. In Arkansas the state utilities commision has turn over all enforcement to the companies own customer service dept. They are the only ones to accept, and investigate complaints about themselves. I don't know who to complain to, and wonder if we would have gotten into trouble if we cut their lock off the panel they say themselves they can't mess with. Interesting note, he was under orders in the National Guard when they did it, which puts doing anything against his home a violation of the Patriot Act.


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## RonJ (Aug 5, 2015)

Just a suggestion, you might want to write or contact your State Attorney General. You might mention why you went to him....the routing issue - can't hurt.


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## Dan N. (Jul 23, 2015)

In Ohio no one is supposed to take out the meter on the home without the power company knowing. Most generator installs require the meter to be pulled. If they come to disconnect and see a generator that was either not permitted, not inspected, or they were not notified, they can lock out the generator until proper inspection/permits has been done to ensure no back feed and all applicable codes were followed when installed. The home owners have a responsibility to ensure all proper procedures are followed when having a generator installed. In Ohio its not up to the contractor to ensure permits are pulled. It all falls back on the home owners. That could be why, however if you call the power company they will tell you why they locked it out and what authority they have to do so. If they can't provide that, they probably were not allowed too.


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