Section III – Use & Responsibility of Electric Service

A. Use of Electric & Power Conditioning

The electricity supplied by the Cooperative is for the exclusive use of the Member on the premises to which such energy is delivered by the Cooperative. Service shall not be shared with another, sold to another, or transmitted off the premises unless approved by the Cooperative. If this restriction is violated, the Cooperative reserves the right to discontinue electric service without notice.

The Member's electrical equipment shall be operated and controlled so as not to cause electrical disturbances on the Cooperative's system or to be detrimental to the service furnished other Members of the Cooperative.

The Cooperative reserves the right to require the Commercial or Industrial Member to install at the Member's expense such power factor corrective equipment to achieve a minimum of 92.5% power factor; and to require any necessary equipment to prevent undue voltage fluctuations so that it is not necessary for the Cooperative to supply excess capacity and facilities. The Cooperative reserves the right to require the Member to install such controls that are necessary to prevent voltage or other disturbances on the Cooperative's system that would be detrimental to service furnished to other Members.

Where the Member installs equipment/appliances with sensitive electronic components such as computer microprocessors and other devices containing programmable controllers, it is understood that the Cooperative cannot guarantee to provide the special voltage and power needs required by sensitive electronic equipment at all times. It shall be the responsibility of the Member to install, own, operate, and maintain appropriate "power conditioning equipment" in order to protect such devices from damage due to power line noise, voltage fluctuations, power interruptions, spikes, transient surges, harmonic distortions or other types of power disturbances which may be construed as being less than suitable to such sensitive electronic components.


B. Responsibility

The point at which service is delivered by the Cooperative to the Member, to be known as a "point of delivery," shall be the point at which the Member's facilities are connected to the Cooperative's facilities. The Cooperative's responsibility and liability terminates at the point where the Cooperative's service drop conductors first contact Member's building structure, mast pipe, or other such service terminating structures or facilities. All such terminating facilities shall be approved by the Cooperative but shall be owned, operated, and maintained by the Member. If the meter base needs to be inspected or worked on, the Member needs to contact the office to set up a date and time so the service can be disconnected. The Cooperative reserves the right, but shall not have the duty, to determine the suitability of apparatus or electrical facilities to be connected to its lines, to determine whether the operation of such shall be detrimental to its general supply of electricity, and further reserves the right to refuse to supply, or to discontinue the supply of electricity until such time as the Member shall conform to the Cooperative's regulations. The Cooperative also reserves the right to disconnect and remove its facilities without notice when in its judgment it deems that the Member's terminating structure or facility is inadequate.

The Member shall use reasonable care in designing the electric wiring and circuits. The Member's electric loads shall be connected to Member's circuits so that the loads on the individual phases, legs, and circuits of the Cooperative's service conductors are properly balanced. The electrical facilities must conform to the latest version of National Electric Code, that the County Inspection Agency has adopted. In no event shall the Cooperative be under any obligation to inspect the electrical facilities of the Member, but where the Cooperative has a reason to believe that the electrical facilities of the Member do not comply with recognized requirements, the Cooperative may refuse to supply electricity to the Member.

The Member shall be responsible for notifying the Cooperative of any plans for adding electrical facilities that might overload or impair the electrical service or the facilities of the Cooperative. The Cooperative will upgrade its facilities at no charge to the Member if, as determined by the Cooperative, the probable additional revenue is sufficient to justify the investment and operating expenses involved or a CIAC will be charged. The Member shall also notify the Cooperative of unusual electrical facilities to be added and obtain the consent of the Cooperative for the use thereof.

The Member shall be responsible at all times for the safekeeping of all Cooperative property installed on the Member's premises and to that end shall give no one, except authorized Cooperative employees, access to such property.

The Member shall be liable for the cost of repairs or damage to the Cooperative's property on the Member's premises resulting from the negligence of, or misuse by others than Cooperative employees. In the event of damages to the Cooperative's property on the Member's premises, the Cooperative may require a reasonable security deposit to insure payment for repairs in the event of future damage.

Member’s will be responsible for tampering with, interfering with, or breaking of seals of meters, or other equipment of the Cooperative installed on the Member’s premises. The member hereby agrees that no one except the employees of the Cooperative shall be allowed to make any internal or external adjustments of any meter or any other piece of apparatus which is the property of the cooperative. The Cooperative shall have the right during regular working hours and in emergencies to enter the premises of the consumer for the purpose of installing, reading, removing, testing, replacing, or otherwise disposing of the apparatus and property, and the right of entire removal of the cooperative’s property in the event of the termination of the contract for any cause. The Member will keep the area where the Cooperative’s apparatus and property are located free from obstruction, danger, and/or safety hazards. The Cooperative’s agent will, upon request, show credentials and state the reasons for requiring access.

The Cooperative shall not in any event be liable for loss injury or damage to any person or property whatsoever, resulting directly or indirectly from the Member’s use, misuse, equipment, or presence of the said electricity on the Member's premises or elsewhere, after it passes the Cooperative's metering equipment or other point of delivery; or for any loss or damage resulting from the presence, character or condition of the wires or electrical facilities of the Member. The Cooperative retains all responsibility only with respect to the actions of its employees in connection with property owned by the Cooperative.

For safety reasons, nothing other than Cooperative owned equipment whether temporary or permanent may be attached, leaned against, or generally blocking access to Cooperative owned electric facilities at any time. Any member-owned property including, but not limited to, signs, basketball equipment, security lights, etc. found to be attached, leaned against, or generally blocking access to Cooperative owned facilities, will be immediately removed by the Cooperative. This provision does not apply to meter poles owned by the Cooperative with member-owned service wires and meter bases attached.


C. Meter Accuracy

The Cooperative will maintain an accuracy of its meters of plus or minus two percent in accordance with the Ohio Revised Code. The Cooperative, by employees or its agents, may visit the service and visually read the meter as deemed necessary by the Cooperative.

If a meter fails to register correctly, the meter will be replaced with a calibrated meter. Each meter shall be tested and calibrated to plus or minus two percent accuracy before being placed in service at a given location. The arithmetic average of light load and full load tests will be used to determine overall accuracy of the meter.

Upon request by a Member, the Cooperative shall test the meter provided that such tests are not made more frequently than once in 24 months. Three phase meter tests shall be conducted by replacing the meter in question with a calibrated meter and testing with calibrated meter test set. If tests of meters are required by the Member to be made more frequently than once in 24 months, the Cooperative shall require a meter test fee. The fee will be refunded if the meter tests faster than 102% or slower than 98%.

If the meter is found to be in error greater than 2%, an adjustment will be made on the Member's electric bill per section VI – Billing and Payment for Service. In the event the metering equipment installed by the Cooperative fails to properly register the energy during any period, the consumption for such period will be estimated upon all known facts and billed accordingly, or at the option of the Cooperative, shall be estimated from the amount of energy used during a period in which the Member operated under conditions similar to those existing during the period in which the metering equipment failed to properly register energy consumed.


D. Estimated Bills

On occasion, the Cooperative will have a need to estimate member bills. Estimates for a service will be based on past use or the most appropriate use information available to the Cooperative.


E. Idle Services

Any service that has been disconnected for a period longer than one year will be classified as abandoned and is considered an Idle Service. The Cooperative will attempt to contact the property owner to determine the future need for electric service when services have been disconnected and left idle. The Cooperative, at its discretion, may remove the idle electric facilities. If an idle service is removed and service is requested in the future at that location, the request will be treated as a new service. All costs associated with a new service installation will be calculated in accordance with the line extension policy in effect at the time of the request. The Cooperative requires services that have been idle for more than 12 months to be inspected by the governmental authority prior to reconnect.