To each according to his needs

How to get the necessary electrical power for a modern cottage? Which authorities should be contacted to complete all the required documentation? What can and should be done to ensure that the required amount of electricity flows freely into the house? We provide answers to these difficult questions with the help of energy experts.

Where do people usually start when they want to build a house? With the choice of place of future residence. It is clear that I want to have a forest, a river, and a field nearby. Many make a purchase of land, guided by emotions. And only then they face the problem of communication. It turns out that the local electricity supplier is able to allocate the permitted power, sufficient only to light a country house, but not a modern country cottage. Problems arise due to the fact that future developers have a poor idea of ​​​​legislation, standards, building codes and rules, and often reason «in terms»: they say, «electrician— not a prosecutor, you can always negotiate with him. The disappointment of the owners is all the more bitter, the more mistakes they make in this direction, since each of them turns into significant costs.

Gordian node of power supply

Pillar transformers today are the best way to supply electricity to several cottages when connected to the main networks. They are «hardy» and require minimal maintenance. Before purchasing a site and building a new home, you should find out if there are utilities in the nearest district. Electric networks are in the first place here, because without electricity you can’t build a house, you can’t pump water and you can’t read a book.

A simple answer is given to this complex question if you have been taken care of and built a cottage village with the necessary engineering support. ATin similar modern settlements, in a specially designated area, the administration or developers put up a substation with one or two power transformers of rated power, for example, 630kVA, for conversion 6-10kV voltage in 220-380C. Such a technical solution makes it possible to provide up to 50 cottages with an area of ​​250 to 400m² by 30-50kW power.

Most buy plots either «in the field» or in long-established communities— villages, townships, garden associations, etc.neighbors or at the central information office of an OJSC (for example, Mosenergo) you can ask in whose jurisdiction your allotment is located. Which municipal or district network organization operates in your area. The head (director) or chief engineer of this organization has full information, so you should contact them (by reception days and hours) and find out the possibility of connecting to the power grid and the level of available power and estimate the financial costs. Specialists in the production and technical departments (PTO) of district or municipal networks will be able to advise you more accurately. It is they who directly prepare the clean texts of technical specifications.

There are several scenarios for bringing electricity to the cottage:

• Ideal— existing «settlement» (conditionally) network with voltage up to 0.4kW in good condition and allows you to connect to it without problems up to 30kW of power from the nearest support.
• average— there is a power grid, but the power of the substation has been exhausted, and it is working at its limit. Power quality is poor— voltage during days and peak hours does not reach 220B, and your house will most likely not be the first from the substation. More than 3kW for lighting and TV operation will not be allocated to you, and if they do, you will have to change the wires to others with a larger cross section.
• Rare— a neighbor recently built a substation for himself, in which there is a 250 kVA transformer, and they will gladly let you connect.
• The worst— the nearest substation is more than a kilometer away, and it is inefficient to conduct a low-voltage power line from it— there will be insufficient voltage at the «end». As a rule, the only way out of the current situation— expensive construction of own substation.

In the first case, consider that you are lucky and feel free to buy a plot or build a house, starting the procedure for processing property documents. ATin the most common cases (average and worst), you should think hard, talk with the above people, evaluate (in a column) the possible costs (about them below) and only then make a decision about buying and building. BUTif you are the hero of the last scenario, ask who owns the substation— neighbor, district or municipal networks. If the owner— a neighbor, then he carries out the operation and repair of the supply branch at his own expense under an agreement with a local or third-party organization. Then the meter is located at the substation. Consequently, the neighbor has the right to dictate his terms, take money from you and, in the future, can cut off your wires at the moment of a sudden insanity. Draw your own conclusions.

From our point of view, it is better if the property is in the hands of municipalities or distribution networks (the latter is quite rare due to the complexity of legal registration). They can conclude an agreement with you directly, without the mediation of a neighbor. «Networks» carry out preventive maintenance, repairs, and no one except them will have the right to approach the transformer box, even if it is located on someone’s (for example, your) territory.

The hard way of the owner

Becoming (being) the full owner of the site and real estate, you can proceed with the official procedure for obtaining energy supply for your existing or future home. We do not consider unofficial ways, namely the theft of electricity or verbal agreements with neighbors.

The path from preparing a package of documents to turning on the electrical installation at home is divided (enlarged) into several stages:

• allocation of capacities and issuance by the power supply organization of technical conditions for connection;
• designing an electrical installation at home by a licensed design and construction organization;
• coordination of the project with the owners of the land (substation), communications, energy supply organization and the State Energy Supervision Authority;
• execution of work on the project of an electrical installation company hired by you, which has the appropriate licenses and work experience. You can ask about it in the energy supply organization;
• testing and drawing up an “Acceptance Certificate” by an inspector of the State Energy Supervision Department;
• sealing of electric meters, signing of the Agreement on the use of electricity with Energosbyt and turning on the power supply at home.

Capacity allocation

Before designing, it is necessary to obtain a technical assignment from the local power grid for connecting the electrical installation of the house to the network. The future consumer, who is also a developer, must clearly understand what kind of electrical appliances (boiler, underfloor heating, snow melting system, water heaters, pumps, household appliances) will consume energy in the house, what should be the power of the electrical installation to ensure their normal operation. ATin the future, this will save him from the need to make changes to the project or reconstruct the electrical installation.

Letter and documents. The terms of reference are drawn up in the form of a letter addressed to the chief engineer of this energy supply organization (or an official representing municipal networks, as a director’s option) with a request to issue technical conditions for connecting a certain power indicating the category of electricity supply at home.

The letter must be accompanied by legal documents. This is a situational plan for the location of your site and a house on the ground, a certificate of ownership of this land plot with a permit to build a house, agreed with many organizations. Signatures of representatives of Gorgaz, Rostelecom, Vodokanal and the Power Grids themselves, indicating the presence or absence of these companies near or on the territory of your communications area. ATideally, you should have these visas after the registration of real estate and the construction project, approved by the chief architect. But due to the fact that there is a deplorable experience when the village administration allocated (now this right has been taken away from it) land, despite the so-called burden on this site, some power grids consider it necessary to clarify this issue. Otherwise, already at the stage of signing the project, worse— carrying out work (for example, laying cables), it turns out that you are working close to gas mains, and according to the standards, a significant distance from them must be maintained. Most difficult practice— in the conditions of urban development. Here, the maximum number of communications for the most diverse purposes is laid underground. BUTpower engineers can only issue technical conditions for connecting electrical power when the documents are drawn up as expected.

Duringmonth, the letter is considered in the production and technical department (PTO) of the district or municipal network. It usually does not take less time, because the flow is very large. For example: over the past year, only in the Moscow region, 500 subscriber (private) substations were connected, not counting thousands of low-voltage connections of individuals. ATin other regions, the delay may be caused by long calculations, clarifying the cost of the connection service for connecting the requested capacity, because everywhere in the Russian Federation, with the exception of Moscow and the Moscow region, this service— paid.

Will they give or not? At the stage of the terms of reference, the power grid has the right to officially (before that there were only conversations) either to allocate a connection point, or to give specific recommendations in the form of technical specifications, which must be done to solve the problem. ATin some cases, an overhead or low-voltage cable line (0.4kV) stretches to the nearest substation (or pole), the power of which is already distributed among the users connected to it. ATothers manage to resolve the issue by redistributing power at the expense of other facilities where it is not fully consumed (for example, owners rarely appear in nearby houses). “Scientifically”, energy specialists have such a thing as the electricity demand coefficient. Without going into details, let’s say that this factor reflects how much the installed capacity is used. For example, a holiday village is being built for 100 houses, 20 of which will be permanently occupied by someone. Obviously they won’t need the power needed for 100 houses, so a more modest 250 kVA transformer is installed, and sometimes 160 kVA.

It happens that, according to technical conditions, it is necessary to replace existing wires with wires with a larger cross section (so you can bring more electricity to you). But if there is no reserve power at the substation, the only way out is to change the transformer to a more powerful one. It is paid by the newly connected subscriber. Tonote: the cost of a domestic step-down transformer with a capacity of 160 kVA— 60-80 thousand rubles. Installation, commissioning and start-up work, as a rule, is carried out by power networks, which then operate new equipment.

In other words, no one will provide you with the required electricity in advance, it simply may not be available. This is typical for old dacha cooperatives and settlements, where even the existing facilities are not able to cover modern needs. ATpeak hours, when all the neighbors, as if by agreement, turn on lawn mowers, pumps, electric kettles, stoves, and even more so heaters, the voltage in the network drops from the required 220V up to 180AT.

It turns out that the normal functioning of the technique is impossible. It is unrealistic to agree with comrades in misfortune and «throw in» for the purchase of an additional step-down transformer and the pulling of new wires of a larger cross section. Therefore, the financial burden falls on the shoulders of the newly built members of the cooperative (garden partnership), the aforementioned newly connected network subscribers. One of the editorial staff of the magazine told a touching story about how the power supply company gave him a written permission to connect to the network on the condition that he buys 7 km of wire of a certain brand with a total cost of about $1000. Moreover, according to the verbal explanation of the head of the local power grid (urban-type settlement), this wire was supposed to provide additional power for the entire holiday village, including the house of our employee. It turns out that no one guarantees the owner a personal supply of high-quality electricity, although in general the situation is improving at his expense.

Specialist comments. Similar stories can be told by many who have encountered the «arbitrariness» of the electricity grid, who are trying to solve the problems of replacing and buying basic equipment, while electricity tariffs include depreciation charges. We asked for comment Gennady Vladimirovich Kuznetsov, Head of the Distribution Grid Service, Mosenergo.

«Firstly, seven kilometers of wire, at first glance, are overstated requirements, since stretching wires rated for voltages up to 0.4kV further than 700-800 meters from the substation is meaningless, there will be no voltage at the end. Even if he changed the whole network— four wires, this would be 2.5 kilometers.

Secondly, if the requirements of the power grid branch of the JSC seem excessive, you should contact the General Directorate of Mosenergo. Relatively speaking, it is always worth contacting a higher organization and talking about your problem. Moreover, you can ask to technically substantiate the requirements or pay a third-party design organization that will make the calculation, take measurements at the points and show that the power grid specialists are wrong or vice versa.

Thirdly, this approach should not be called arbitrariness. ATin such a situation, we, in fact, go towards the consumer. Of course, from his point of view, it would be more correct if we built or reconstructed the capacities for it ourselves, and then in the long run took our toll at the expense of tariffs. Thus, we would develop networks, the number of consumers would grow, deductions would rise and everyone would be satisfied. But for construction or reconstruction, money is required, which can be taken today only from tariffs. However, there is a system of priorities. Part of the funds goes to the construction of stations, part— for the electrification of previously inaccessible areas and emergency repairs, and only a small fraction— for reconstruction. Of course, there is a plan according to which we replace 600-700 kilometers of networks annually, but this is a little more than 1% of the length of our electrical networks. The electricity networks reconstructed this year at this pace of work will be included in the construction plan in 2102year. ATin your locality, they can carry out planned work to increase power reserves both in 2 years (and they don’t want to wait so long), and in 50 years.

Unfortunately, in the region controlled by Mosenergo, unlike other territories of the Russian Federation, there is no way to pay us for the allocation of capacity, that is, to sponsor modernization. Therefore, ways to get power— this is the replacement of equipment with more productive one: either buying a wire or a transformer, or building your own network with a substation, poles and wires. ATIn the first case, an «exchange agreement» is concluded with the customer. For example, an old 160 kVA transformer is replaced by a new 250 kVA one. Some pull a separate wire towards them along their supports, because they do not want to share it with anyone. It costs three times more than replacing the «public» wire. And they have to serve the «branch» themselves under an agreement with a specialized organization— it is not cheap. In addition, no one is immune from natural disasters, falling branches and a «fool» who interrupted a cable or wire, the repair of which is carried out at his own expense. That is why it is easier to either replace existing equipment— a transformer, wires (under the contract, the old ones will be given to you, and the work will be carried out free of charge), or transfer the poles with wires to the ownership of the power grids. Then they will be responsible for security.

Own substation

Finally, imagine a situation where the only way to get a power of 35kW with the consent of the power supply organization— network connection 10kV through an individual step-down transformer. Until recently, the Rules for the installation of electrical installations did not provide for such a connection. Today, power grids have the right to provide you with a connection point (free of charge in Mosenergo or for money in other regions) for the construction of a substation, but there are still a number of questions.

The problem is the very placement of the transformer substation and the equipment included in its set. As a rule, transformer substations in rural areas look like a kiosk mounted on poles, to which a staircase leads. The installation of such substations requires a special land allotment. It is also practiced to install power transformers on special masts and in separate buildings. If new houses are being built on the territory of the village, and land allocation for the substation is not provided, the customer will face the need to resolve this issue with the participation of a local architect. It is not a fact that he will enter the position of a house builder … And he will have to give personal land for this.

In world practice, in such cases, compact pole transformers (mini-substations) are used, the power of which allows connecting from one to four cottages to the main networks. These transformers are installed on ordinary (wooden or reinforced concrete) supports, they look aesthetically pleasing. They are «hardy»: allow overload up to 40% at peak load; equipped with built-in protective automation and, most importantly, do not require maintenance. Such transformers are produced by large electrical companies such as ABB, Siemens. According to N. P. Nikitsky, director of the JSC «Royal Electricity Network», in the settlements surrounding the town of Korolev, transformers of this type with a capacity of 43 kVA by the American company Howard have been used experimentally for three years. The cost of American-made pole transformers is $3.5-4 thousand. ATCurrently, by decision of the State Energy Supervision Authority, their operation in Russia is officially and everywhere allowed.

The same power pole transformers of Belarusian, Ukrainian, Russian production cost half as much. The main difference between analogues produced in Russia and the CIS is that they require constant maintenance, frequent maintenance, for which the local power grid must have both qualified electricians and the necessary materials. Therefore, not all power supply organizations agree to conclude service contracts with homeowners for individual Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian transformers. In addition to paying for services under the contract, the customer has to pay for the installation of a special support for them, installation of protective automation, and commissioning. ATUltimately, the total costs may exceed those borne by the owner of an imported unattended type transformer.

The process of building a network goes through the same stages as the electrical installation of a house: application, design, coordination in Energonadzor, signing with Energosbyt, connection. After the construction and equipment of the substation, an Act on the delimitation of property with power grids is drawn up— a «red line» is being drawn between personal possessions and the power grid. FROMFrom this point on, you bear full responsibility and expenses for the maintenance of your personal transformer box and network. If neighbors want to connect to you, your right to refuse or agree to them, we have already talked about this. It is easier to transfer ownership to networks, but then there is no guarantee that no one will agree with them, will not «power» from them and will not remove more power— such that you will not have enough.

Electrical installation at home

Project. The design of a power line, external and internal electrical installation of a house should be entrusted to organizations that have a license to perform this type of work, issued by the State Energy Supervision Authority or the State Construction Committee of the Russian Federation. There are no chances for the «leftist» drafts to be approved by the official authorities. It is best to have your developer act as a general contractor and do the project for you himself or through subcontractors. But often the design, construction and installation of equipment is carried out by different organizations. Then it makes sense to contact the local power grid and ask to recommend a company to create a project (this can be done by phone call). In the future, the specified company will deal with the issue of coordinating the finished project documentation in the local power grid and in the State Energy Supervision Authority. At this stage, as a rule, there are no big difficulties, except for your requests. The average cost of a cottage power supply project with an electrical installation with a capacity of 5-30kW in the Moscow region is 6-40thousand rubles. However, then there will be a long series of obtaining signatures in different instances and, finally, approval in the highest body— the regional branch of the State Energy Supervision Authority, where decisions are made in strict accordance with the regulatory and technical documentation. In other words, mistakes will have to be corrected more than once.

In each case, different organizations apply visas to the project, including:

• power supply organization, all municipal services of the city, town or village (if any, from Gorgaz to landscaping);
• in a controversial case— interested firms and individuals who may disagree with the fact that you will be integrated into the existing network (for example, a neighbor applied before you and agreed on the project, so you will need to agree with him);
• at the end, the project is signed by the inspector of Energonadzor.

The difficulty lies in visiting the above institutions and entities that receive the population on different days and hours and «respect» the classic bureaucratic red tape. You can speed up the process only in an informal way (consult firms specializing in coordination about it).

Installation and testing of electrical installations. Visiting «craftsmen» from the south, as a rule, perform electrical work in violation of technology, after which professionals have to redo a lot for them. Installation and adjustment works under the project must be carried out by construction and installation organizations that have a license for this. FROMthey need to conclude an agreement in order to make payments to the company and to the tax authorities officially. This will facilitate the registration of the right to property after the completion of construction (for a substation, a cottage). Testing and commissioning of equipment with the subsequent execution of acceptance documentation is entrusted to be carried out by the same or third-party organizations if the company performing work on the project does not have a test license issued by Gosenergonadzor.

After the installation of the electrical installation in the house, outbuildings and on the estate, it is necessary to present the technical passports of the installed electrical equipment to the laboratories accredited by the Energy Supervision Authority certified by the State Standard. Based on these documents and test results, the owner of the house is issued a Certificate of Compliance of the electrical installation with the requirements for it and permission to use electrothermal devices (electric flow boilers, convectors and radiators, electric stoves, heated floors, etc.). This is where problems can start. As a rule, when buying wires, electrical fittings, devices, people either forget to ask the sellers for certificates and passports of products, or receive (on the market) documents that do not meet the standards. You will need this certificate to apply for insurance with insurance companies.

Inspection. Then you call the inspector of Energy Supervision at home, and he, on the basis of the Certificate of Conformity, must draw up an Act of allowing the electrical installation to be connected to the network. FROMwhat problems can be encountered here? For example, according to the PUE, sockets with protective caps should be installed in the house (so that a nail is not stuck), but simple ones, etc. Often, at the installation stage, the owners change the connection scheme or the location of certain sockets and switches, despite the fact that in the project they are specified differently. And so on. According to the coordinating firms, which asked not to be identified, the elimination of inaccuracies or violations may cost more than «compensation» to the inspector. It sometimes reaches from $100-200 for sockets up to $1000 for larger sins. In addition, the inspector— a busy person and can stretch with the arrivalmonth, therefore, he needs to «give acceleration.» This is where the connections developed by local designers and coordinators help. Visiting «specialists» have a harder time.

Energy supply contract. The power grid and the owner of the house are then required to conclude an Electricity Agreement. At this stage, a representative of Energosbyt visits you and draws up an Act on the acceptance of metering devices and seals them. Since his task is local and he can only find fault with the design of the shield and the compliance with the installed capacities, his «services» are inexpensive, if not completely free. ATconclusion, the overhead or cable line service turns on the power supply at home. FROMAt this point, the local power grid, which has an agreement with the owner of the house (customer), performs preventive maintenance, service maintenance of the power line before entering the supply wires (cable) into the house. And you can enjoy the light and warmth in the house.

Price?

It is appropriate to ask how much it will cost a private customer to lay or pull a power line to his house. The cost of services of construction and installation organizations depends on the complexity of the project, on what equipment is installed, and … on the number of organizations involved in the documentation approval process. Among them— Gosenergonadzor, Gorgaz, Rostelecom, etc. The more expensive the installed equipment, the higher the estimated prices. It’s no secret that the implementation of the design task is cheaper than obtaining signatures in permitting instances, and there may not be five or ten of them. Installation of a turnkey power line with all approvals in the Moscow region will cost the owner of an individual house from 7 to 200thousand rubles— gigantic spread! The cheapest solution— air input to the house from a nearby power line support with voltage up to 0.4kV. The same, but with connection to a high-voltage power line and the use of a transformer substation, costs much more money.

The editors would like to thank JSC MOSENERGO and the directorate of JSC Royal Electricity Grid for their help in preparing the material.

• Source: Ideas for Your Home Magazine#68