National Grid contractors are set to call at scores of homes and businesses in Ottery St Mary, to carry out ‘important’ safety inspections.
Inspectors will be from a company called Calisen and will be clearly identifiable as working for NGED.
The National Grid said when their workers call at Ottery St Mary addresses, they will be able to show ID and authorisation before entering properties.
Customers will also have the option of taking their own photographs of their cut-out and electricity meter and send them to NGED who will be in touch if a follow-up visit is needed.
Pictured here is a Single Phase Meter Cabinet, which will be checked by National Grid inspectors
Image: Calisen.
Contractors will visually inspect NGED and energy suppliers’ equipment and record basic details. No disassembly work will be carried out and customers’ power supplies will not be interrupted while inspections occur.
Any faults found will be fixed free of charge by engineers.
Pictured here is a Legacy Internal Meter Point, which is set to be checked by inspectors visiting homes and businesses in Ottery St Mary.
Image: Calisen.
Richard Brady, NGED’s policy engineer heading the inspection programme, said: “The UK is recognised internationally as having one of the most resilient and safe energy systems and this inspection programme underlines our commitment to the highest safety standards.
“Inspectors will visually examine cut-outs to check they are working as they should, taking photos and notes for our records. In the unlikely event of a defective cut-out being found, NGED engineers will be sent to carry out repairs at no cost to the customer.
“Visits will also be an opportunity to confirm what types of low-carbon technologies are connected to our network, for example electric vehicle chargers and solar panels.
“This will help our planning for load growth on the network and enable low-carbon technologies items to be connected quicker in the future, as we’ll have records of the cut-out asset on site and its condition.”
He added: “These are important safety visits, but we understand they could be inconvenient for customers and apologise in advance if this is the case.”
An example of a Three Phase Modern Meter Cabinet, which National Grid contractors will be inspecting.
Image: Calisen.
NGED said it is aiming to complete 400,000 inspections of cut-outs in homes and small businesses across the South West, Midlands and South Wales every year in a rolling programme over the next 20 years.
Because it has an Ofgem licence it is obliged to carry out asset inspections to make sure cut-outs at low voltage metered properties are operating safely.
The service termination point, also known as a cut-out, is the location where the main incoming electricity service cable and fuse is situated, often close to the electricity meter.
In most modern homes built since the 1980s, the cut-out is situated in a meter cabinet on the outside, although it can also be found inside the property.
See here for more information about the cut-out inspections.
