Contractor To Install 30 Kva Transformer

[fremmel]

We're getting ready to build a house far enough away from other houses that we'll have to buy our own transformer. The local electric authority says the smallest transformer is 30 KVA single phase and wants an astonishing 170,000 baht for it and it's installation on a couple of poles. But in their price breakdown they list a 1,000 baht charge to check out the installation. This makes me think that they're not doing it themselves but are hiring a contractor and then going in behind him to check it out. If so, maybe it'd be possible, and cheaper, to try to find and hire a contractor directly and then pay the electric authority to connect it. Has anyone tried this or know of a company in Udon that could do this?

[Deke]

We're getting ready to build a house far enough away from other houses that we'll have to buy our own transformer. The local electric authority says the smallest transformer is 30 KVA single phase and wants an astonishing 170,000 baht for it and it's installation on a couple of poles.

I'm sure single phase pole-mounted transformers are available in much smaller sizes than that. Try calling Ekarat Transformer and see what they recommend.

[longball53098]

We're getting ready to build a house far enough away from other houses that we'll have to buy our own transformer. The local electric authority says the smallest transformer is 30 KVA single phase and wants an astonishing 170,000 baht for it and it's installation on a couple of poles.

I'm sure single phase pole-mounted transformers are available in much smaller sizes than that. Try calling Ekarat Transformer and see what they recommend.

If you are going to spend the bucks,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,why not get a 3 phase system installed and be done with it,,,,,,,,,,,then you are sure of having an adequate supply for future needs and if anyone ellse wants to hook up to your supply that you paid for then you can sell connections? maybe?

I would think if you pay the bill to install it then you have controlling rights to who connects to it,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[fremmel]

Thanks. I just checked Eckart's site (http://www.ekarat-transformer.com/products.php) and they say they make single phase down to 5 KVA. Since EGAT quoted 90K baht for the 30 KVA transformer maybe we can save some baht with a smaller one, say 20 KVA. Since we're just building a normal house and not a factory farm that should be more than enough for any future needs.

From talking to 2 or 3 people in the local office, including the head of the office, the transformer will indeed be our personal property and we could even take it with us if we move. I also asked them if we could share the connection with a friend next door and they said no. What I was really asking was, if someone else built a house and wanted to use the transformer would they hook them up to ours. So it looks like we're safe on that.

I didn't want to go with the 3 phase because that's at least 2 or 3 times more expensive and I can't see that we'll ever need that much power.

[fremmel]

To follow up my own post in case anyone else runs into this issue. We just called Eckart in Khon Kaen and surprisingly enough someone knowledgeable was there even though it's Sunday. Despite what the website says he said their smallest single phase was 30 KVA. He said they could do the installation but with the 20K baht fee EGAT charges private contractors their price would be around 180K. And it was my TW that called so this wasn't the special farang price. So... it looks like there's not a cheaper way out.

[mobile69]

We had a similar setup a couple of years ago. The local electric authority quoted nearly 200,000 for a 30KVA transformer & 250m of poles, wiring from nearest high voltage wires. This would not be our transformer & anyone would then be able to connect to it & build a house. We ended up using a private contractor (QTC) who installed transformer on our land. They also did the connection to the nearest supply (250m away), but they were subcontracted by local electric authority for this, with me having to pay both bills. The transformer was about 60,000 bt, & the total bill was about 190,000 bt. If we were located next to existing high voltage line, the cost would have been about 120,000 bt. This was 2 years ago.

[Rimmer]

A sub contractor would often work out cheaper than the PEA doing the work.

The transformer will indeed be your own property. Make sure it is inside your land.

Make sure you see the diagram of the pole layout and get them to put the poles and transformer where you want it, not where it's easiest for them.

You will have to buy a main switch for the transformer tails to connect into plus a meter. then you will have to get from the transformer to the main board in the house probably underground with NYY cable which is suitable for direct burial.

If it's any consolation I paid 800,000 baht for a 50kva TP transformer inside my land, The HT lines coming 600 mtrs from the road.

It's sometimes nice to have TP if one phase drops out you still got power in parts of the house if they balance the load correctly.

[fremmel]

My how the prices go up. For us the high voltage line does run along the border of the property. We called QTC but they aren't open today. Will call tomorrow. Have to see if they work as far north as Udon.

The transformer will be on our property, about 20 meters in. At first they wanted to bring it in about 60 meters, right up close to the house. No thanks. The price we got was all in, including a 150 amp meter and a 12K baht electric deposit. Because of cable thefts in the area, and aesthetics, I am planning to go with the NYY underground too. I guess TP could be nice - but not at that price. I think a small generator for the fridge and freezer would be more my speed.

[Rimmer]

My how the prices go up. For us the high voltage line does run along the border of the property. We called QTC but they aren't open today. Will call tomorrow. Have to see if they work as far north as Udon.

The transformer will be on our property, about 20 meters in. At first they wanted to bring it in about 60 meters, right up close to the house. No thanks. The price we got was all in, including a 150 amp meter and a 12K baht electric deposit. Because of cable thefts in the area, and aesthetics, I am planning to go with the NYY underground too. I guess TP could be nice - but not at that price. I think a small generator for the fridge and freezer would be more my speed.

I like the idea of a generator for the fridge and freezer. If the truth be known I don't need anything like 50 kva TP

My total load can not exceed 56amps if I turn everything on at once, but never do so the actual maximum load off one air con at a time and a couple of fans runs around 15amps.

Problem down here is that they would not even talk to me unless I put in TP High Tension

Ahh well that's life

[Khonwan]

I had PEA install a 50kVA 3-ph transformer with two poles a couple of years ago. There was no 3-ph supply in the village so I had to pay 50% of the cost (the other 50% being borne by the state) of adding a third high-voltage cable over a distance of 4.3km (the existing s-ph high voltage cables already ran past my land). This brought the total cost to around 180,000 baht.

My transformer was installed 1.556km from my house (all my land), so I purchased all the cable (50mm²) direct from a factory 400km away, transported it myself, purchased and installed posts at 40m intervals, and ran the cables overhead (assisted by a couple of villagers) for less than 200,000 baht (inclusive materials, labour, transport, etc).

The total installation therefore cost me less than 400,000 baht. PEA had quoted 720,000 baht some 2-3 years previously to run electricity straight to my house.

From memory (!), the cost of the 50kVA 3-ph transformer plus two poles was around 25% more than a neighbour paid for a 30kVA 1-ph transformer plus two poles.

[fremmel]

Khonwan - sounds like the way you went worked out well for what you got. It seems like there was a pretty good bump in prices over the last couple of years.

For anyone who might be interested, I talked to QTC and they'd sell us a transformer but they don't work in Udon. But they would send it up to us for 8K baht. We talked to the electric authority some more and have decided to go with them. They do the installation themselves rather than use a contractor like I first thought. And the 90K they talked about for the transformer turns out to include all the transformer related hardware as well. The transformer by itself was more like 50K to 60K, basically what Eckart and QTC quoted. They would have let us go with an outside company to install everything or even just buy the transformer and let them install it.

Buying ourselves was attractive because if we bought the transformer there'd be a 2 year warrantee but with PEA there's only 6 months. PEA explained it was this way because they bought their transformers from the same companies but they may sit in storage for a good while before they install them and the warrantees run from the date of purchase. A major downside, and this is what made the decision for us, was that the warrantee and repair service would have to be by whoever we hired for the installation. Since we live well outside Udon and even farther from any of the major installers any problems we had might take a while to get resolved. And I don't want to go for several days without power.

I've got to say I was very impressed with the folks at the local PEA office, expecially the head honcho. He probably spent over an hour with us on our 2 or 3 visits to the office while we were trying to work out a way to do this cheaper. He was really friendly and didn't try to pressure us one way or the other and patiently answered all our questions. Really a nice guy.

[mobile69]

Is there any maitenance or servicing to do on a transformer? As ours is over 2yrs old now, just wondering if someone needs to give it a check over? No intention of climbing up to have a look myself.

[Khonwan]

Is there any maitenance or servicing to do on a transformer? As ours is over 2yrs old now, just wondering if someone needs to give it a check over? No intention of climbing up to have a look myself.

Good question! I think the oil has to be checked but I'd completely forgotten this myself.

[fremmel]

PEA said they come out and service it once a year. Top up the oil and maybe some other stuff. I think they charge 800 baht for that.

[thaipatanakitgirl]

We're getting ready to build a house far enough away from other houses that we'll have to buy our own transformer. The local electric authority says the smallest transformer is 30 KVA single phase and wants an astonishing 170,000 baht for it and it's installation on a couple of poles. But in their price breakdown they list a 1,000 baht charge to check out the installation. This makes me think that they're not doing it themselves but are hiring a contractor and then going in behind him to check it out. If so, maybe it'd be possible, and cheaper, to try to find and hire a contractor directly and then pay the electric authority to connect it. Has anyone tried this or know of a company in Udon that could do this?