jumping_flea please help our 13.5k electricity connection dilemma

We have had a price from western power to connect our small goat enterprise to the mains.
£13,500-00 + vat….. Major wheel wobble I can tell you.
We feel like we’re dealing with the mafia. No one else is allowed to do the work. We are a small business, we will be paying for this for ever and to add insult to injury we are doing some of the work. Digging the trench, laying the cable, back fill and plotting the route in the ground for the maps.

Jumping_flea can you help, I see this is your line of work, please, please could you or any one tell me how long it takes these guys to fit a high voltage transformer to a pole and how long would it take to fit a new pole under high voltage cables and connect the wires? The labour comes to nearly half the cost, which seems very high to us.

Cheers

goat-poo digester + gas engine + generator = free carbon neutral electric 🙂

A workmate wanted to be connected to the mains, which ran past the field he wanted the supply in, and it was ~ £9k, so yours isn't unreasonblle in comparison if you need a long run. Not sure he found any way to get it cheaper either…

Thanks, that may be a cheaper option. I will start feeding them plenty of cabbage straight away and get them working!

have you got a stream on your land? Micro hydro could be done for that sort of sum IIRC. Wind generator with diesel backup?

Thanks Dave.

Its 120 metres of cable which costs about a grand and we are doing the rest of the work associated with the cable length. Still think it's a lot unless I am majorly under estimating how long it would take these guys to do the work.

Spinning classes in a spare barn?

Thanks TandemJeremy

No stream i'm affraid and low lying so very little wind.
Back to the goat poo idea I think!

price sounds reasonable to me, and Im currently pricing up a £260 million grid connection 😀

Thanks bigyinn,

Now thats an idea, saw that on tv, only by the time the power is generated there would be little time for any thing else, except perhaps to take a glance at the divorse papers!

Illegally tap into the mains and raise the 14k by growing weed, then go legit with the money. Glad to help.

Spinning classes in a spare barn?

for the goats, of course 🙂 It's a well known fact that a goat will run several miles on one carrot.

Thanks iain1775,

Think your £260 million grid connection may be over doing it for what I need for my goats but you sound like you may be able to answer my original question.

Hi,
There's so many options I hadn't thought of…
May be able to tell Western power where to stick their gold plated cable!

I know this isn't very helpful, but why did you choose somewhere without 'leccy for your goat enterprise, and then set it all up without checking the figures out first?

Did you do a business plan?

Is it too late to move?

I'll buy 13k worth of halloumi cheese then were all winners

Does wildgoatie dream of electric goats ? (Sequel to Bladerunner in which countless electricty supply workers meet an untimely death)

Thanks user-removed,

Well my business plan of sorts (like most peoples plans) was made up of figures mainly quessed, only I didn't realise Western Power would guess double my figure, bad luck and planning on my part.

Oh, too late to move i'm afraid!

Hi simonfbarnes.

Well, the way I feel at the mo I could write a brilliant blood curdling script, perhaps make my fortune on the back of it and never have to worry about electricity connections.

do you have names for all your goats? I filmed a goat farm once for a tv documentary and all 109 goats had names! madness 😀 but awesome

"all 109 goats had names"

the trick is getting them to tell you what their name is in the first place.

do you have fainting goats?

😀 I think some of their names were to embarrassing for even the goats to cough up 😛

fainting goats! YE BUDDY

Some names, SPARKY is definitly not my favourite at this time!

Well, the way I feel at the mo I could write a brilliant blood curdling script, perhaps make my fortune on the back of it and never have to worry about electricity connections.

how about a closing scene where the entire board of the electric company is smeared with goatnip and chased by the herd with cattleprods attached to their horns ? Bzzzzzzzzztt!!

Yep, they will be fainting when I tell them how hard they have to work to pay for the electric.

simonfbarnes, you have a better imagination even than me. I will get the cattle prods ready for filming.

wildgoatie, I once asked the electricty company for an estimate to move the meter a metre vertically so it could be in the same cupbaord as the gas meter (instead of at the back of the cellar). They wanted over £600 so you're getting off lightly 🙂 Hence my vindictive ire!

Big Diesel Generator?

My friend who spends 5 months of the year in a field uses one of these:

But bigger. These things are near silent, unless you open one of the doors!

Trouble with a generator, turn on one light bulb and your drinking fuel.
Not very environmentaly friendly!

part of the cost could be if they have to switch off the existing line to do the work, if that line serves alot of customers, or vital infrastructure (water treatment plant for example) and an alternative supply isnt there then they may have to bring in generators etc to maintain supply whist they do the work, the planning of that and leafleting of affected properties etc will all be included in their quote
It could also be that a new pole is needed as well as a transformer etc
Its not always as simple as just connecting two bits of wire and putting a plug on the end (but Im sure you understand that already)
Without further breakdown of the WPD price it would be difficult to comment, but £13.5k does not sound too unreasonable (and I would be suprised if they are letting you completely lay and backfill the cable yourselves?)

Have a looky:

Biomass Energy

I've been looking into biomass etc with colleagues – for anaerobic digestion you do need quite a lot of mass for it to work – don't know about goats as we were looking at human waste.

Hi Wildgoatie

I have to deal with utility companies on a daily basis making applications for new supplies, etc. WPD are, without a doubt, the best utility company we deal with. The person who has completed your quote is an engineer who has sat down and most likely spent a great deal of time to find the most economical way of connecting you to the grid. As a utility company, they have a duty to provide the customer with the most economical way of connecting to the grid. From the additions you're making, it sounds like they may be upgrading part of their network, and the engineering time in that alone will be quite substantial.

Anyway, generally your quote sounds reasonable, although without a breakdown it's hard to say. It also sounds like they're installing a pole below HV overhead lines so an element of risk may have been priced into the works as it sounds quite dangerous.

As a side note (and this doesn't help you I understand), WPD prepare their quotes free of charge so it might have been better to contact them at the beginning of the job, before you started onsite.

You could look into a combined heat and power solution – go to the calor website for more details.

Hi milkherd,
No they're not upgrading part of their network or charging for leafleting etc. They are saying they cannot put the transformer on a T off pole (a pole that takes cables at 90 degrees to the main cables) and have priced to put a new pole 2m away. I have seen a transformer on a T off pole in exactly the same way as we need, with less ground clearance. I dont understand it.

i'm no engineer but…

1 – goats on treadmill
2 – use carrots to start goats running, generating electrickery from treadmill
3 – divert some said electrickery to a small'ish cattle prod
4 – use cattle prod to keep goat moving

well exercised goats into the bargain

use cattle prod to keep goat moving

unkind 🙁

to prevent the unkindness, what about using a goat prod 🙂

how much electricity do you acually need? If you acn get your consumption low enough (LED lamps etc) then a generator might be feasable along with biomass or other renewables.

Hi TandemJeremy,

Our pasteuriser is 9kw pluss some other bits and pieces, so quite a lot and we need some reliability of supply as we need to store our product in a fridge.