ELECTRICITY safety checks are being carried out at homes and businesses in Rugby this month.
National Grid Electricity Distribution (NGED) staff are visiting customers’ properties in Rugby as part of a safety inspection programme.
Domestic and small business customers in the CV21 postcode will receive visits from NGED-approved contractors to check that service termination points are working properly.
The service termination point, also known as a cut-out, is where the main incoming electricity service cable and fuse is situated, in most cases close to the electricity meter.
They are situated in a meter cabinet on the outside of most modern properties built since the 1980s, though it could be located inside the property adjacent to the electricity meter or the customer’s consumer unit.
No disassembly work will be carried out and customers’ power supplies will not be interrupted while inspections occur.
Richard Brady, NGED’s Policy Engineer heading the inspection programme, said: “Inspectors will visually examine cut-outs to check they are working as they should, taking photos and notes for our records.
“In the unlikely event of a defective cut-out being found, NGED engineers will be sent to carry out repairs at no cost to the customer.
“Visits will also be an opportunity to confirm what types of low-carbon technologies (LCT) are connected to our network, for example electric vehicle chargers and solar panels, to help our planning for future load growth on the network, and enable LCT items to be connected quicker in the future as we will have records of the cut-out asset on site and its condition.
“These are important safety visits but we understand they could be inconvenient for customers and apologise in advance if this is the case.”
Inspectors will be from a company called A Coole Electrical, and will be clearly identifiable as working for NGED. They will be able to present ID and authorisation to enter properties.
Customers will have the option of taking their own photographs of their cut-out and meter and sending them to NGED, who will decide if a follow-up visit is needed.
