Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Jul 01, 2009 11:54 am I'm hoping someone can help me. We have almost finished our renovation and made our cal bungalow twice as big. Now they wont allow us to connect to the electricity with the old cable and are demanding we upgrade it and either pay for Jemena to dig an underground pit or buy our own electricity pole. We are in Victoria, does anyone know which is the more expensive option? We havent budgetted for new electricity infrastructure at all. A pit looks like it will be close to 5 or 6K. cheers, Kym Re: Electricity pole or underground pit? 2Jul 01, 2009 1:38 pm underground pit is the more expensive option and then you have to also pay to have the power taken from the pit to the house as well. I dont understand why they are making you pay for a pole though, the poles are normally located on the street verge and belong to the power company and so they should be providing a new pole if the current one needs upgrading? at least thats the way it is in Perth Re: Electricity pole or underground pit? 3Jul 01, 2009 9:41 pm Thanks for your reply. I hear you - well we must be the only house in the street that doesnt have an electricity pole in front of us. We have to go across either neighbours front yard and there are new laws on 'new connections' which ours is considered as such because we are upgrading the cable capacity. Yes it would be a nicer option to go underground for esthetics but we just dont want to pay the amount of money they are charging and the fact that we are building infrastructure for them. Our neighbours will also have access to this pit in the future should they upgrade also. So we have the other option of installing a pole ourselves out the front of our place but have no idea of the cost. Has anyone any experience with this? cheers Kym http://roxburghreno.blogspot.com/ Re: Electricity pole or underground pit? 5Jul 03, 2009 8:36 am I know a friend in north east victoria had to buy a power pole which cost approx 10k but now the neighbours want to use it they have to pay my friend half! Can't say on underground pits as i don't know! 2nd build here we come in Whittlesea! https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=92617 1st Build - Henley - Cooper in Doreen! (2009) https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=17354 Re: Electricity pole or underground pit? 6Jul 16, 2009 5:24 pm we are facing exactly the same problem at the moment (although the option of a new pole was never given to us). We are the only house in the street where the power supply line crosses a neighbour's property - and the new reg says we have to go underground. Got the quote yesterday. From the pole to the service pit outside our house - $3400. Then we need to pay whatever the extra is to run another pit from the street to our house. THEN we can upgrade the switchboard. THEN we can pay the thousands of dollars to put in aircon so we don't have to go to a hotel when it's really hot. We won 't get out of it for under $12K so it's a serious consideration whether we actually go ahead or not. But then the thought of another hot summer in this place as it is, is pretty frightening. We are outraged that we are paying for work done outside our property - doesn't seem right. I spoke to Energy Safe Victoria and apparently it is correct. My husband is going to ring the ombudsman but I don't think we'll get anywhere. Our supply company is Jemena too. I'll let you know what the ombudsman says. Re: Electricity pole or underground pit? 7Jul 27, 2009 9:03 pm Hi Sarahjn, We went to the ombudsman and got no where. They gave us a $1K discount - big deal. Anyway they seem to have us and we're stuck with it and have to pay up. Our lawyer is looking at it too - but we want to move in. Apparently you can go to VCAT after the ombudsman but sooooo many people I know have been in the same boat and the Ombudsman is useless. They just support the electricity company. Our lawyer had a quick look at it and suggested that they are only guidelines - not a law!! That's as far as we got. Good luck - hope you have better luck than us. cheers, Kym Re: Electricity pole or underground pit? 8Dec 15, 2011 3:32 pm Hello Pit Dwellers, To subdivide my block into 2 lots, I have to bring a separate power supply to my new corner lot. To reduce the Powercor quote of $5520 to connect 6 metres of Powercor's underground cable to my new pit from a T joint that they place into their extisting underground network, I have to demonstrate how much extra electricty my 2 lot subdivision will consume over the next 30 years. The more the customer cosumes over the next 30 years the cheaper the quote. So forget about solar hot water & natural gas heating. Go all electric & you may get your pit for nothing. Hi Mrboh Just wondering if you have any BAL or flame zone issues on your block, as getting compliance with BAL requirements whilst doing bearers and joists is tough. Not… 1 8379 Hi JW I just read your post and I find this situation quite strange. When we build, we get a temp pole for construction which becomes the permanent pole for one of the… 1 3947 |