A customer wishing to have an electric pole on their property relocated may take one of a number of steps. The simplest is to call LUCELEC’s Customer Service Department at 457-4400 or visit any of the Company’s locations at Sans Souci, Vieux Fort, Soufriere or in the Providence Commercial Centre at Rodney Bay. One may also write a letter addressed to the Managing Director.

Following this initial contact, LUCELEC will undertake a site visit to the property in question. This is to assess the scope of work involved and to discuss a more favourable location for the pole with the land owner. If a new spot cannot be identified, LUCELEC will begin the process of rerouting the line, which involves seeking approval from neighbouring land owners to utilize their property if the pole cannot be placed within the road reserve.

The amount of time necessary for a relocation to be completed depends on the voltage level involved. At the low voltage level where the interruption in supply to facilitate the relocation affects a comparatively small area, the relocation can be undertaken in approximately 2 weeks. Relocating poles that carry higher voltages however, will require more time. Requests that involve the 11,000 volt distribution system may take as much as a month to complete. At the transmission level, which is 66,000 volts, the process of rerouting a line is much more involved. LUCELEC therefore prefers to enter into a lease agreement for the area occupied by the pole.

Seeking Compensation for Damaged Appliances

LUCELEC takes pride in, and is internationally recognized for the high quality of service that it provides to its customers. The nature of electricity, however, is such that any electrical supply may experience irregularities that may lead to the damage of household appliances. While in a lot of cases these irregularities originate from within a customer’s installation, LUCELEC encourages any consumer who believes that they are experiencing symptoms of poor power quality to contact the company immediately by calling the Customer Service Department. These include blinking or dim lights and computer or television images that are flickering or are very small or have shrunk for unexplained reasons.

LUCELEC takes such claims very seriously and will visit the customer’s home at the soonest possible time. The company will take some electrical measurements and will conduct a review of any appliance that the consumer believes has been damaged by the power supply. This will be followed by a thorough examination of the distribution system in the area and LUCELEC’s records of system events to determine whether there were any irregularities that may have contributed to the damage to the appliance.  If this investigation reveals that events on the LUCELEC system may have caused damage to the appliance, LUCELEC will either pay the cost incurred by the customer to repair the appliance or, if it cannot be repaired, compensate the customer for the market value of the appliance at the time of the incident less depreciation.

As usual, if you have any comments or questions associated with this article or about LUCELEC in general, please feel free to contact LUCELEC via email to [email protected] [1] or by calling 457-4400.  You can also visit our website at www.lucelec.com [2] for additional information.