Advice on Replacing Faulty Pyro Meter Tails & Rising Main - National Grid saying it's not their responsibility

Hi, I’m dealing with a flat that’s been without power for nearly two months. National Grid came in and removed the fuses as they made a buzzing sound and were deemed unsafe.

The original engineer was told that an electrician would need to come in to replace the tails. After a quick look, he said he wasn’t allowed to touch anything in that area and advised to contact National Grid.

After filing a complaint, National Grid sent another engineer, who summarized the issue:

"The rising main after the cut-out fuse has faulted. The rising main is made up of cotton-covered pyro meter tails inside a steel conduit. The conduit is used as the earth and is bonded to the incoming earth at the cut-out. The pyro meter tails appear to have faulted within the conduit. The meter is at the far end of the conduit, past the fault."

I’ve been told I need to get British Gas to move the meter and install new tails. I’ve contacted them, and they’ve said they’ll be in touch within two days, but I’m half-expecting to be sent back to National Grid.

Does anyone have an idea of the next steps and potential costs involved in getting the power restored? I’m at a bit of a loss if British Gas sends me back to National Grid again.

Thanks in advance.

Personally I think that’s
I’ve never seen cotton covered Pyro. It’s more likely to be VIR which is cotton covered vulcanised insulated rubber. If the VIR is faulty BEFORE the meter it should be their responsibility as the users responsibility starts after the meter. Unless they are trying the BNO route

Thanks, I have no idea how to get power back. Hopefully British Gas will be more helpful this time.

The engineer said that anything after the cutoff is not their responsibility. Back when they were Western Power they would have just done it he said.

The flat is above a shop owned by the same landlord if that changes anything. Maybe they're trying to shift responsibility to him?

Hopefully British Gas will be more helpful but based on the past two months it doesn't seem likely.

As already stated the description of the wiring is nonsense it is almost certainly PBJ.

kerching said:

Personally I think that’s
I’ve never seen cotton covered Pyro. It’s more likely to be VIR which is cotton covered vulcanised insulated rubber. If the VIR is faulty BEFORE the meter it should be their responsibility as the users responsibility starts after the meter. Unless they are trying the BNO route

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I would agree with the bull
Given the cotton covering it suggests an old VIR cable and I don't recall ever seeing anything other than bare imperial Pyro and it would normally be a 2 core cable and not single cables

Thanks for the input, it's been really frustrating dealing with the national grid.

What should my next steps be if you have the time? I'm not sure how I get them to replace the cable if they keep saying it's not their responsibility.

reponsibilites are, as I understand it, DNO to cut out, meter is leccy supplier - BG in this case, after meter, home owner. Between cut out and meter - argued over, but should be BG as they have permission to connect into cutout whilst installing new meters.

I would say you need to run a new supply up through the building, you may be able to get swa through the existing conduit, or something like 16mm FTE. Or you could reuse steel conduit as earth and install meter tails. From waht I've seen of such things, reusing the conduit might be rather optimistic due to physical cable sizes of modern cable. Install a switch fuse isolator or something similar, new meter tails to the meter, and leave new tails from meter to cut out for DNO to wire in.

Thank you, hope you have a great weekend.

I'm supprised you haven't been refered to an entity called the BNO yet - that is building network operator. Supposedly that is the organisation who maintain the 'soft lateral' through the building from the first point of isolation to the isolation link next to your meter - The problem is chances are they only exist in the minds of the DNO. The supply all the way into your premises would have been installed by the predecessor to the DNO - The area electricity board*, who would have also looked after metering and billing at that time, through successive amounts of privisation, now they are only responsible for the network upto the initial point of isolation in the building, with the rest falling to the 'BNO' and they don't care that there is no BNO, it still falls to the BNO when they don't exist. Its further complicated by the fact that both the metering and the initial service head are going to be sealed and only those working for the DNO or the metering company are supposed to open them up.

The only way out of it really is for who ever holds the freehold for the building as a whole (hopefully a collabration of all the individual leasholders) is to assume the role of the BNO, and appoint a contractor to install some split concentric through the building to a new cutout adjacent the your meter, its either (depending on their helpfulness) - left for the DNO to terminate into their equipment, or it just somehow gets magically connected, no one knows who because the seals must have been missing for years, and all is right with the world.

*They still did this sort of thing even when they were RECs (regional Electricity companies) there is a shopping centre round here built in the early 90s, the DNO have infrastructure throughout the building, from transformers in the yard upto multiservice distribution boards throught the service corridors, suppling cutouts in each unit, the supplies being run on tray through the service areas, a wall was being taken down and the main contractor needed the service moving, not only did the DNO have no record of where it was supplied from, but they admitted the job would be problematic, because they only have jointers and linesmen now, they didn't have any teams set up who could install containment and a cable in a service corridor like in the old days. I ended up suggesting to everyone at our little informal meeting (main contractor, architects, DNO) that the best way forward was probably for the DNO to supply the cable, it to be made the electrical contractors responsibility to install the cable and traywork, and then the DNO to put a servicehead on it and terminate in the MSDB and make the old supply dead..... but its all complete madness