The electrical equipment located on the customer’s property belongs to Lewis County PUD. Employees will need access to the electrical equipment during various times of the year. We need access for;
- Meter Reading: for timely & accurate billing.
- Emergencies: In the event of a fire, crews must be able to shut the power off before firefighters can work safely. Every second counts during such a critical event.
- Maintenance: Lewis County PUD employees will check on and maintain meters and services as needed during the year.
- Outages: In the event of power outages, employees may need to access our equipment. If the equipment is not accessible, it could cause delays in restoring the power to you and those around you.
If the PUD is not able to access our equipment, you may be charged a “Meter Access Charge.” This is the amount charged to the customer where we have limited or restricted access to maintain equipment or read meters. We reserve the right to determine what constitutes restricted access.
Electric Meters
Some customers would like to enclose their electric meters for aesthetic purposes. Enclosed meters and the meter base enclosures must be accessible and unobstructed. If you choose to enclose your meter, please be sure to provide an unlocked and unobstructed access door.
Locked Gates:
- In the case of a coded gate, the property owner will be required to provide us with a gate code. Some systems allow you to set up additional codes just for utilities and other approved visitors. The code will only be used to access our system and will never be shared.
- In the case of a gate requiring a key, the property owner will be required to provide us with a key.
We respect your privacy and right for security as a property owner, we will only access our equipment when necessary to provide reliable service to our customers.
Access to Premises; Identification:
- Authorized representatives of an electric utility have the right to enter a customer’s property during reasonable hours to perform necessary functions such as meter reading, maintenance, repairs, testing, installation, or removal of the utility’s property. Utilities must provide photo identification to utility representatives who are authorized to enter customers’ premises. Customers have the right to see the utility-provided identification of electric utility representatives before allowing entry to the customer’s property.
- When performing maintenance, repairs, testing, installation, or removal of the utility’s property, the utility must restore the customer’s property as close as reasonably practicable to the condition prior to the utility’s action, unless otherwise defined in the utility’s tariff or through a separate agreement with the customer.
Padmount Transformers:
Our crews need room to work safely around padmount transformers. Please keep shrubs and fences 10 feet away from all sides of the transformer. Obstructions closer to the transformer may be damaged or removed during service restorations and maintenance.
