When severe weather or unexpected accidents cause damage to the electrical infrastructure feeding your property, knowing who is responsible for specific components can save valuable time. Safe and reliable power delivery relies on a clear operational boundary between the customer and the utility provider.
To keep everyone safe and avoid unnecessary restoration delays, keep this equipment breakdown in mind:
- Your Responsibility: Property owners are responsible for the structural equipment physically attached to the building. For above-ground connections, this includes the weatherhead or masthead (the vertical pipe structure on top of the meter box); attachment hardware (like eyebolts); the service stack; the riser conduit; the physical meter box; and the ground wire and rod. For underground hookups, the meter box and riser conduit remain your responsibility.
- Our Responsibility: Your utility handles the main distribution network infrastructure. This includes the service line cable stretching from the utility pole to your home or business, the glass-enclosed meter sitting inside the box, utility poles, transformers, and lines within designated rights-of-way. For aboveground service, we maintain the wire that runs to your home, but we do not trim the trees along the service line. To trim trees or perform other maintenance work near your service line, please contact us to have the service line “covered” or “dropped” before any trimming occurs.
Safety Reminder: Never attempt to repair damaged electrical infrastructure yourself. Doing so creates serious safety hazards and can delay your service from being safely reconnected.
Visit our service connection safety page to review complete safety diagrams.
Outage FAQs: Damage to my electrical equipment?
If a storm damages your equipment (see service connection story) that connects to ours, you will need to get that repaired and inspected before we can connect your service. Watch a video on this topic and find out more information on outages.
