C.O.C without electricity???

[MullerR]

Just a question to confirm im not crazy or full of sh*t. Am I missing something or am I dumb. There is a coc needed at a premise which Eskom must supply. Now we all know its common practice for eskom or council to be in posession of a copy of the coc for the installation before electricity can be switched on. Now, the coc needs to be done, but eskom refuses to switch on for testing purposes,cause "they can only switch on when in posession of a coc. How on earth can i do a proper coc without supply electricity. The coc in fact needs info like the supply voltage, Pscc, earth loop, elevated voltage on neutral etc.

[AndyD]

You can't do a full falid CoC on any installation that isn't live, you can't do any of the tests you mentioned and especially the most important test which is the earth loop impedance Ze.

For me this is a prime example of how the purpose of a CoC is being perverted and bastardised in a tidal wave of ass covering by pretty much everyone and hence devaluing the certificate to being next to worthless in many cases.

I had a supply cable fault a few weeks ago on a pump station that is on private land. Because it was a private estate they refused to remedy the fault even though it was on their supply cable that installed by them. They just left the cable disconnected in their supply distribution kiosk about half a mile away. I localised the fault, excavated and repaired the damaged SWA cable and after testing it I phoned them to reconnect on their side. They refused to reconnect unless I 'issued a CoC for the cable'. I told them in no uncertain terms to take a hike. Eventually I made them a printout of the test results from my network tester and taped to the kiosk and just left them to it.

[MullerR]

Thanx for your excellent description of exactly what I feel towards the whole situation. Guess i will have to try and unlock the unused part of their common sense.

[Eskom]

If they supplied a temporary builders point with 20Amp prepaid meter out side if it is a new house being build so then at least you'd still be able to complete all the tests. Best is try get hold of the supervisor in charge of that depot and negotiate with him that you need the supply to complete the CoC they want and tell him the duration of the test then you will hand them the CoC. Hope you get a break thru.

[Sparks]

Their COC does not need supply voltage or loop impedance readings. They need to know what size main switch is in the DB. Leave out the readings you cannot take and make a note in description to that effect.