Telephone Service Installation (from QST)

1.  UDCs and ESPs work together to underscore the importance of telecom installations to the local telephone service companies.  The preferred position would be to request
that the local phone companies  establish a Direct Access "Desk" or department.  This way we can help to ensure that the individual placing  the telecom order at the local phone company understands the unique needs that Direct Access requires.

      For example, PG&E established a relationship with PacBell that caused PacBell to dedicate an individual to Direct Access.  Since this person was trained and knowledgeable in DA, we encountered relatively few complications (ironically PacBell is considering terminating this relationship because their chosen individual was a in-house contractor instead of an employee).  On the other hand, we encountered numerous problems with orders being placed and completed incorrectly it the other two
 service territories because they were unfamiliar with the process.

      2.  Our biggest obstacle with telecom installations was having our order
 completed correctly.  We believe that item number one will be a big step towards that goal, but we further believe that the market can be helped by agreeing to a uniform definition of what "complete" means.  We propose the following standardization for telecom installations for the various types of metering installations:

A.	Electric meter located inside building.  If the electric meter is located inside the facility in a socket of the switch gear, we propose that a  Standard Network Interface (SNI) jack be mounted on the wall on top of the switch gear.  Then when a meter is changed, the MSP will run the additional wire necessary to plug into the SNI.

B.	Electric meter located outside in meter cabinet. 
 (See item 3 for proposed meter cabinet access).  If the electric meter is located in a meter cabinet outside the facility, we propose that a SNI be landed on the inside of the cabinet on the side wall of the cabinet. If the meter cabinet is locked, the telecom installer should temporarily land the SNI outside the cabinet with some extra wire.  Then when the MSP comes for the meter change, the MSP will drill the cabinet wall and move the SNI to the inside of the cabinet.  The reason that we propose that  the SNI be located inside the cabinet is to prevent telephone line tampering.

C.	Electric meter located stand alone on outside wall. 
This is the trickiest situation.  We view telephone line tampering to be almost as significant as energy           theft because both situations could affect our bottom line.  In an effort to eliminate this opportunity as much as possible we propose the following for this type of installation.  We would like to have the SNI  box landed on the inside of the facility wall right behind the meter.  When possible, the MSP should use the KYZ output conduit already installed to pull the meter pigtails through.  Otherwise, the ESP should ensure that appropriate is conduit installed for the MSP. The MSP will then pull the meter  pigtails through the wall and connect to the SNI.  If the switch gear is located inside behind the electric meter, the SNI should be located above the switch gear as previously described.

D.	Cellular or Radio Frequency installations. 
 If the ESP decides to use a cellular phone kit or a radio frequency
 meter that requires an extra antenna, the equipment can simply be located on the outside of the meter cabinet or next to the meter if no cabinet exists.

3.	Telecom installation access
 There has been significant debate regarding MSP access to locked electric
 meter cabinets.  We certainly understand the position of the various participants and respect the solutions that they have developed. Unfortunately, those solutions have not solved our seconded biggest obstacle and that is access for the telecom installers.  Due to significant safety concerns, we will not allow any telecom installer to land an SNI jack if they are not certain of what is behind the jack (e.g. drilling a hole in a locked meter cabinet).  We are sure that everyone shares this concern.  This is why in Item B we
 recommended that the MSP drill the cabinet and pull the SNI inside if the cabinet is locked.  The other solution that we recommend is that if the
      ESP identifies a site that only the UDC has access to (e.g. a locked
 meter cabinet) that the ESP request that  the UDC goes out to unlock the cabinet so that the telecom installer can complete their work.

      We make these recommendations in an effort to be more cost effective for
 all market participants and to  standardize the telecom portion of DA metering.  The two most important considerations in providing these recommendations is first to ensure a safe installation and second to protect against telecommunications tampering.