Power to a rural garage

[NEPA_Z]

Hi, all, from frozen PA. I'm planning a hobby garage on an undeveloped lot on a rural road. My building will be about 100' from the road, where power passes by via existing poles with drops to the homes; there are houses on either side of my lot.

My question is, what might I expect from the utility regarding costs to bring power to my building? I understand that if I were building a house then the utility connection wouldn't cost me, but for a non-residential use it's different. Anyone have experience with this, please?

Thanks!

 

[RPH]

Location, location, location. This will depend upon your location more than anything. Here where I am (Michigan) they wanted $1800 just for the transformer and I was responsible for the wire coming to it from the building. You need to contact local utility and also check zoning on only a garage on site.

 

[kd3pc]

Here in Tn, it was all but free....I think a $50 meter fee and setting up the account. I had to trench and lay the conduit at my cost.

No Virginia, Spotsylvania county was home owner had to provide the "approved" meter base and it was $5 per ft whether over head or buried - but they did the whole nine yards at that rate.

Check with your local power company, as RPH says it "all depends"

 

[dw1]

I will have about the same setup as you do, my pole barn will be approx. 120' from the road. I called the power company, they are going to drop a service down the pole at the edge of my property and put an underground tap box. They want approx. $1200 to set this up, I will run my 200 amp underground service from there into the barn with meterbase on the barn. As others said, a call to your power co. and see what they will provide for free. You might have to fill out a load sheet for them, but since not a residence like you said (constant load where they re-coup their investement on parts) you might have an upfront cost to do this. Good Luck!!

 

[Rookie2]

Depending on which power company , go on line and you will find a lot of info for their services.
https://www.firstenergycorp.com/content/customer/west_penn_power.html

 

[Bib Overalls]

Do you plan a residence on the property at some point? If the answer is "yes" you might be money ahead to go with a 400 amp (320) service up front. When the house is built you can run power to it from your existing shop/garage.

 

[Bigbandguy]

One other possibility might be a "temporary" construction service. I know from experience that once in place they will stay in place as long as you pay the bill. What I did to get a "long term" temp service was put up a standard pole (surplus from a power company pull and free) Rented a rather large hole digger for that. Then placed the code required bracing on the "temp" pole with the proper meter box with GFI outlets so it "looked" like a temp service. As soon as service was started we ran 100 feet of underground feed to the building that needed power. The braces were removed and the meter is read like any other. The "temp" service was billed at slightly higher rate but I didn't use the minimum anyway and it was a HELLUVA lot cheaper than some discussed above. I had this "temp" service on that property for over 10 years. Unless you need a build permit to get the service you are home free. I expect that depends on the area. Worth a try anyway!

 

[woodzy]

You really need to talk to the power company. 15 years ago, I purchased a lot with a house. The plan was to demolish the house and put power to the barn I was building back in the lot. When the power company came out, I talked to them about direct burial of the line. They said it was expensive - like $10 / foot since then need to run high voltage back to the barn and then a transformer to feed the barn. The distance was like 420 feet. During our conversation, they said they could set 4 utility poles, and a transformer and from the last pole go underground to the barn. Total cost then was a whopping $52.00. I couldn't pass that up so they set the poles and it was hooked up in a day.

15 years later (last year), I decided to build the retirement home in the front of this lot and they just set a 2nd transformer to feed the house and underground about 90' to the house. Total cost for that project was $152.00. The guy I dealt with said I have more power than the entire street with a high voltage section and these two transformers.

So for about $200 I have 4 poles, 2 transformers, and about 130' of underground service. I think it was a great deal. My advice is to be nice and work with them and you probably will get cooperation since they want to sell you power.

 

[Falcon67]

When we moved out of the city in 1984, the "rule" here in Texas was 100' drop and a pole (rural electric initiative) at no cost to the land owner. Cost at that time to run to our house @ 225' was right at $1000. Since deregulation, who the heck knows.

 

[NEPA_Z]

Thanks for the insight, everyone - much appreciated. I have a meeting with the power people on Monday; we'll see what happens.

 

[NEPA_Z]

The power company consultant was very helpful; inspected the site and proposed a new pole on my property with power drawn from an existing pole across the road. Choice of overhead or underground service from the pole to the building - and no upfront cost apart from my needing to trench, etc. Definitely one of the easier tasks on this project so far...

Thanks