Increasing 3 phase capacity

[Raynard]

Obvs not an electrician so please bear with me....

We have pretty much got to saturation point on our existing 3 phase transformer, so our sparky says. Therefore I guess we need to ask SSE to upgrade / uprate it?! Has anyone had experience of this and how you go about it / tips to try not to pay to much.

The farmer inside of me fears they will try to charge us for upping the capacity for the whole of Dorset network.

Cheers

 

[Badshot]

Be prepared to have lots of lube ready.
It'd be cheaper to have something running on a genny.

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

Obvs not an electrician so please bear with me....

We have pretty much got to saturation point on our existing 3 phase transformer, so our sparky says. Therefore I guess we need to ask SSE to upgrade / uprate it?! Has anyone had experience of this and how you go about it / tips to try not to pay to much.

The farmer inside of me fears they will try to charge us for upping the capacity for the whole of Dorset network.

Cheers

You will be charged (or should be) the pro-rated upgrade cost based on your kVA usage of the new trans kVA.

That's how UK Power Netwoks (the DNO in the east) apportioned my charges 4 years ago.

 

[Doing it for the kids]

They should be able to justify their expenses.

It will be a lot, see if you can find what is using wha power and if you can isolate and run on a genny.

Get a price from them and go from there, they will want to know every fart that flies regarding your electrIcal usage and what kit you have wired up

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

Gosh without dredging up old threads (and some painful, in wallet memories), they will prepare the quote for free and you are under no obligation to accept it of course (or pay for it should you decline). So theres no harm in asking. There is contestable and non-contestable elements of work. Trenching, supplying and laying conduits etc are all contestable, so you could do this yourself (or appoint other contractors).

The biggest costs are in "bringing the network to you" basically any new line work, be that aerial or underground will cost a small fortune.

Actually the transformer upgrade cost shouldn't be too bad in reality (I think my Tx upgrade cost was about £3 to £4K or so from memory) for a 100 kVA unit. We are "only" on a 100A / 72kVA supply here, then again I get to avoid HH charging (for now anyway).

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

They should be able to justify their expenses.

It will be a lot, see if you can find what is using wha power and if you can isolate and run on a genny.

Get a price from them and go from there, they will want to know every fart that flies regarding your electrIcal usage and what kit you have wired up

They do and it really is worth getting your (hopefully good, commercial) spark to help out with clamp meter measurements of all your existing main loads. Don't just go on nameplate ratings as these aren't always accurate enough.