Service drop

<p>In <a href="/facts/Electric_power_distribution/F5NfTeWP">electric power distribution</a>, a service drop is an overhead electrical line running from a <a href="/facts/Utility_pole/wRPdk0VI">utility pole</a>,  to a customer's building or other premises.  It is the point where <a href="/facts/Electric_utility/N9UaR3PL">electric utilities</a> provide power to their customers. The customer connection to an underground distribution system is usually called a "service lateral". Conductors of a service drop or lateral are usually owned and maintained by the utility company, but some industrial drops are installed and owned by the customer.
</p><p>At the customer's premises, the wires usually enter the building through a <a href="/facts/Weatherhead/LXuE8qgb">weatherhead</a> that protects against entry of rain and snow, and drop down through <a href="/facts/Electrical_conduit/zICsNI9x">conduit</a> to an <a href="/facts/Electric_meter/08C83Imq">electric meter</a> which measures and records the power used for billing purposes, then enters the main <a href="/facts/Electrical_service_panel/dlKaDFU8">service panel</a>.  The utility's portion of the system ends, and the customer's wiring begins, at the output socket of the electric meter.   The service panel will contain a "main" <a href="/facts/Fuse_(electrical)/xN78ylMS">fuse</a> or <a href="/facts/Circuit_breaker/vbw6cWSe">circuit breaker</a>, which controls all of the electric current entering the building at once, and a number of smaller fuses/breakers, which protect individual branch circuits.  There is always provision for all power to be cut off by operating either a single switch or small number of switches (maximum of six in the United States, for example); when circuit breakers are used this is provided by the main circuit breaker.
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Service drop open-in-new

Service drop