What You Should Know About Overhead Powerlines

Most of the homes in Sydney get their electricity from overhead power lines.

Now, while AusGrid and Endeavour Energy will make sure the power lines in the street are working, they won’t have anything to do with your point of attachment, your service line, or anything to do with your home.

This means that they’ll make sure the power works in the street, but they won’t do anything between the street and your home.

What is an overhead service line?

An overhead service line is the electrical cable that connects from the power poles in the street to your property. It usually goes from the power pole to your point of attachment.

What is a point of attachment?

A point of attachment is the spot that the service line connects to your home. From here, it connects to the switchboard which takes responsibility for controlling the electricity going through your house.

Sometimes, rather than connecting to the house, the service line will connect to a private power pole.

How do issues usually happen?

There are two different types of issues that can come up – electrical defects, and accidental damage.

Electrical defects usually arise from a number of issues:

• UV damage over time
• Trees and branches that are too close to the service line
• Bare copper and/or damaged wires
• Low hanging cables (there’s a minimum clearance required)

Damage usually occurs from a number of different areas:

• Connection box damaged at the house point of connection
• Damaged riser brackets at the point of attachment
• Tree branches falling onto service line
• Trucks accidentally clipping power line and damaging point of attachment (not joking, this happens often).

Will AusGrid or Endeavour Energy fix issues

Hate to break it to you, but it’s all on you.

AusGrid and Endeavour Energy will make sure the power supply in the street is fine, and they’ll kindly issue defect notices when they encounter a defect, but they won’t do anything to help with your supply from the street to your home.

What do I do if I have an Issue?

Firstly, make sure you get a Level 2 Authorised Service Provider (or Level 2 ASP). We normally call it a Level 2 Electrician. There are a number of times you’d need a level 2 electrician, and this is definitely one of those times!

See, you can’t just have any old electrician working on your power lines. It’s super dangerous, so the power companies want to make sure only approved electricians who have had the right training and follow the right safety processes do it.

We’re approved with both AusGrid and Endeavour Energy, which means we’re allowed to clear electrical defects and repair overhead service lines – but if you’re not approved, there’s hefty fines if you mess with it (not to mention a massive chance of dying!!).

There’s a lot that goes into getting approved to work on power lines, and a lot that goes into staying approved to work on power lines.

This means that a Level 2 Electrician is equipped to fix issues and clear defects, safely.

Conclusion

If you take one thing away from this article, please make sure it’s the importance of getting a Level 2 Approved Service Provider to take care of your overhead service lines.

And of course, if you need a quality Level 2 Electrician in Sydney, give us a call!