Poco Terminology: “Power Wedge” ?

[Yankeefarmer]

Lost a leg of our power yesterday. House feed wire fatigued in the high winds where it was clamped to the feed wire from the transformer about 300 feet away. About 20 years ago a house was built in the (former) farm field across the street. The PoCo installed a new transformer on the pole in front of my house, but connected only him to it. The three leads coming the 300 ft to my house are about 70 years old with multiple splices, and I have made several requests to simply connect me to the transformer in front of my house, to no avail. So when the lineman arrived to repair our service, I asked if he could do that as the repair.

He told me he couldn’t because he had no extension wire with which to do so, but would be putting in a service order to do it, because our power wedge was burnt and needed replacement. I never heard the power wedge term before, and assume he’s just talking about the anchors on the pole where the three low side wires are secured. Can anyone offer clarificatio?

 

[dave*99]

Does it look like this?

 

[Yankeefarmer]

Here’s a picture. I circled in red what I think he was talking about, but not sure. Maybe he was talking about that clamp which supports the uninsulated neutral and support cable.

 

[dave*99]

This is the wedge. It grips the neutral. It should link to the wedge to an eye bolt on the pole.
It looks like that loop piece is missing. So the cable tension is pulling on the neutral cable clamp to the right.




The green line shows where the loop should be.
Of course it would be more horizontally oriented if it was installed.

 

[Yankeefarmer]

Thanks!

 

[wyliesdiesels]

yeah the neutral has no strain support so the splice is getting pulled.

 

[Yankeefarmer]

I‘m pretty sure that connection has been there since about ‘92, when we moved our service entrance. During the great Halloween snowpocalypse of 2011, that line held a massive oak limb that landed on it without our wire coming down. Of course, we were without power for a week because the high lines were down.

Notice that the crossbar is fairly new. About 3 years ago, I notified the PoCo that the crossbar had rotted and broken. The high line was supported by the lead feeding the transformer.

 

[Norcal]

One brand I remember is "Wej-It".

 

[nadogail]

The linked YouTube Videos are very informative. I personally will not be climbing poles to release any Power Wedges but i now know more than enough to be Dangerous.

 

[Bert_]

I've always called it a wedge clamp. A preform is the other alternative to support the wire