Electricty supplier want to charge for upgrading

Culture1

We have had a fire on a commercial site. Not in the same unit as the electricity supply.
S p energy cut the supply and pot ended the cable. They now say their equipment in our building is to old to just reconect the supply. They now want to charge me for putting new cable and equipment before the meter and for connecting us back up. Is this right that I have to pay for their equipment and for them to do it. They say it could take about 6 weeks after I accept their quote and pay for it. Can anyone help me with this.

utility_csa

All depends,

Im guessing you have a CT supply with it being commercial. Only issue with these i could imagine the CTs being very old types or an obscure ratio like 80/5. I'd be asking why you should be paying for it, unless the fire was caused by negligence. Good luck if its a CT supply and it all needs doing its going to cost a fair amount.

Does the site still have any form of electric?

Culture1

Yes it is the CT supply that needs replacing. They originally isolated the electricity in the area. The next day they came back to isolate our site. They said they could not isolate it from the main supply, because they could see no way of doing this from in the factory. There is a large isolation switch that cuts all the electricity to the whole site and there are three 200 amp ceramic fuses that connect to the main incoming cable and the large isolator. So they then decided to dig a hole through the concrete and cut the mains.
This is the only feed onto the site. The site has ten units with ten different business operating from each unit. They have all been closed for 1 1/2 weeks. I am not an electrician but I could see that removing the the thre main fuses for each phase would have done the job. The fire was was in a separate unit and did not affect any cables except its own feed and that of the adjoining units. All these units had there own isolators in the same unit as the main supply. I know the supply is old and that it needs updating but if they had not cut the main cable and just removed the fuses it could have been planned and now I wouldn't have to wait over a month without electricity and losing most of my tenants. If they put a new ct panel in and I pay for it does that make it mine?

chanz4

None of the equipment is yours, but as you or a tennants damaged the origional with the fire your insurance should pay out. Potending is not done lightly