Thread: Cost of moving a power pole

I have an SWER power pole and transformer right in the middle of my back garden, directly behind the house on a rural block. This wasnt so bad until all the trees around it suddenly fell over one week.
I cant replant as there is a sign which says no cultivation in any direction for 7m. Anyway it would take years before new trees would make a difference.
It is the last pole of the line.

The power company is coming out to have a look.
The pole is in poor condition. A small inspection shows the pole is flaking off chunks of rust just below ground level. The pole and transformer are owned
by the power company. The transformer looks pretty rusty too. Both about 25 years old.
Ideally I would like to move the pole and transformer back towards the next pole (which is 150m away) about 25m. This would mean that the existing underground cable of about 10m will have to be lengthened to about
35m.

Is this likely to be ridiculously expensive? If the pole needs replacing anyway (at their cost), what would be the likely cost of the extra underground cabling?
Could I make a reasonable case that the original sighting of the pole was ridiculous? (in those days I believe the power company paid for and decided where poles should be placed).

Depends on your maximum demand which will determined the size of your mains. The normal is 16mm2 but this has a limit of 60A over that distance due to voltage drop. The next highest will be 25mm2 which will bump up the cost.

I think you will have to get an electrician to access the maximum demand and give you a quote on the cable size needed as it won't be a case of joining the mains you will need new ones.

I have a mate in Dublin that was quoted by E.T.S.A. several years ago $16,000.00 to have a pole moved 20m

Originally Posted by China

I have a mate in Dublin that was quoted by E.T.S.A. several years ago $16,000.00 to have a pole moved 20m

I suspect that must have included flying the pole business class to Ireland.

Originally Posted by Bros

I think you will have to get an electrician to access the maximum demand and give you a quote on the cable size needed as it won't be a case of joining the mains you will need new ones.

Bros, I think he may get away with a joint but the extra length of SWA will need to be upsized due to the extra length (and voltage drop). I may be wrong wrong though, it's been awhile since I was involved in the electrical racket, I mean industry

Originally Posted by Uncle Bob

Bros, I think he may get away with a joint but the extra length of SWA will need to be upsized due to the extra length (and voltage drop). I may be wrong wrong though, it's been awhile since I was involved in the electrical racket, I mean industry

If you get an electrician that says he will join the mains underground find someone else.

Originally Posted by Bros

If you get an electrician that says he will join the mains underground find someone else.

I don't know the approach taken elsewhere, but here in Tasmania this practice is acceptable only with the specific authorisation of an Electrical Inspector / Aurora Energy and they'll only approve it where there's a valid reason.

Only time I've seen it done was a very long mains cable, it was around 800 metres from memory, which supplied some measurement equipment in the middle of nowhere (and which uses only a few Watts of power anyway - these days I'd expect they'd use solar for such things).

In that specific example, the Inspector was satisfied that hauling the cable in a single length didn't make a lot of sense for practical reasons, and that a join would thus be acceptable and sensible. But It's not an acceptable practice under "normal" circumstances that's for sure.

stan250, that is exactly the qestion my mate asked

normally when a transformer is moved it will be replaced & refurbished, they will charge you for a new one though and the pole will be replaced too. Joining of underground consumer mains happens every day where they join in an underground pit at a property boundary, couldn't see why it would not be possible if it was contained in an appropriate pit with the correct joiners.
regards inter

Originally Posted by Uncle Bob

Bros, I think he may get away with a joint but the extra length of SWA will need to be upsized due to the extra length (and voltage drop). I may be wrong wrong though, it's been awhile since I was involved in the electrical racket, I mean industry

mm echo in here - what Bros correctly said was "as it won't be a case of joining the mains you will need new ones."

The issues raised re joining was if the line in had to be upgraded due to the extended distance to overcome line losses - if it was the same cable dimension then a join might be appropriate - but it would not be appropriate to join a new section of 25mm to the old 16mm.

As to who gets charged what, you need to confirm as it is not always as described by interd even in NSW. It depends who owns the pole and a few other matters too - I have been involved in a few cases where the moving of the pole was at no cost to the owner other than the new run of cable form the new location to the original connection point from the line end. So you need to talk to the utility about the specific circumstances rather than speculate.