4.3 Service Conductors, Disconnects & Current SPS 316.230 Amendments
Key Takeaways
- Service conductors must satisfy overhead or underground clearances, protection, ampacity, and point-of-entry requirements in the assigned NEC edition.
- Current SPS 316.230 limits service raceways, cables, or conductors to 8 ft inside a building before the service disconnect or first disconnect of a permitted group.
- When the service disconnect is outside, current Wisconsin law requires it to be within sight of and no more than 30 ft from the building or structure served.
- Current SPS 316.230 states that NEC 230.85 emergency-disconnect requirements are not included in the Wisconsin chapter.
- Older Wisconsin cold-sequence metering and local utility dimensions are not current statewide SPS 316.230 exam rules; coordinate utility service requirements separately.
4.3 Service Conductors, Disconnects & Current SPS 316.230 Amendments
A service question often combines three authorities: the NEC governs premises service conductors and equipment, SPS 316 changes selected Wisconsin requirements, and the serving utility publishes connection and metering specifications. Keep those sources separate. A utility specification does not become a statewide SPS rule merely because several utilities use a similar drawing.
Overhead clearances and openings
Use the assigned NEC tables and paragraphs for the exact conductor type, voltage to ground, and area below the conductors. Common exam values include clearances over pedestrian areas, residential property and driveways, and public streets or truck-traffic areas, but the correct row depends on all stated conditions.
Open service conductors and certain cables near building openings must maintain the clearance specified by Article 230. Determine whether the window opens, whether the conductor is above the upper level of the opening, and whether a building surface is readily accessible. Do not convert a conditional exception into a blanket “three feet from every window” rule.
For underground services, apply burial, protection, and service-lateral provisions from the assigned edition and coordinate the demarcation between utility-controlled and premises wiring.
Location of the service disconnect
The NEC requires the service disconnecting means at a readily accessible location outside or inside nearest the point of entrance of the service conductors. Wisconsin adds a measurable inside limit. Current SPS 316.230(3)(b) provides that raceways containing service conductors, service cables, or service-entrance cable not in a raceway may not extend more than 8 ft into the building before reaching the service disconnect or the first disconnect of a permitted group.
Measure entry at the outer surface of the building exterior, subject to the adopted NEC treatment for conductors considered outside the building. The eight-foot allowance is a maximum, not a default design target. The disconnect still must satisfy accessibility, grouping, identification, and service-equipment rules.
Outside service disconnects
Current SPS 316.230(3)(c) says that an outside service disconnect must be:
- within sight of the building or structure served, and
- not more than 30 ft from it.
Both conditions apply. “Within sight” does not erase the distance maximum, and a disconnect 20 ft away behind an opaque wall does not satisfy the sight condition.
Emergency disconnect omission
The 2023 NEC contains a dwelling emergency-disconnect rule in 230.85. Current SPS 316.230(4) expressly says that the requirements of NEC 230.85 are not included as part of the Wisconsin chapter. Therefore, do not select an answer asserting that SPS 316 universally mandates the national 230.85 dwelling emergency disconnect.
An outdoor disconnect may still be installed or required for another reason—the service design, utility equipment, local facts, or another adopted provision. The point is narrower: the omitted NEC paragraph is not itself a Wisconsin SPS 316 requirement.
Wisconsin makes a parallel omission for the NEC 225.41 emergency disconnect at outside branch-circuit and feeder supplies. Keep Article 225 and Article 230 scopes distinct.
Multiple service disconnects
The assigned NEC controls the permitted number, grouping, and construction of service disconnects. Modern editions restrict how multiple disconnects share enclosures or compartments. For a transition-year exam, read the version in the assigned book; do not answer a 2017 question only from a 2023 memory aid.
Each service disconnect must be suitable for use as service equipment where required, properly rated, and identified. Grounded-conductor bonding and the grounding electrode connection belong at the locations permitted by Article 250. A meter disconnect that is not service equipment is not automatically the point for the main bonding jumper.
Metering and utility coordination
The current SPS 316 final order repealed older portions of SPS 316.230, including text that supported obsolete statewide study notes. Do not claim that current SPS 316.230 imposes a universal cold-sequence rule above 300V to ground. Instead, contact the serving utility before installing service and metering equipment and follow its current service manual in addition to the electrical code.
Likewise, meter height, working space around a meter, separation from gas equipment, approved sockets, bypasses, and cut-in procedures may be utility- and installation-specific. They should not be presented as uniform statewide exam facts without a current statewide citation.
Service-question checklist
- Identify overhead or underground supply and the ownership boundary.
- Apply conductor ampacity, clearances, and physical protection from the assigned NEC.
- Locate the service disconnect using the NEC plus Wisconsin's 8-ft inside maximum.
- For an outdoor disconnect, test both “within sight” and “30 ft maximum.”
- Check SPS 316 for an exclusion before applying 230.85.
- Treat utility metering rules as separate coordination requirements.
That sequence produces a current Wisconsin answer without importing repealed state language.
Under current SPS 316.230, how far may service conductors generally extend inside a building before the service disconnect or first disconnect of a permitted group?
What two conditions apply when the Wisconsin service disconnect is installed outside the served building?
How does current SPS 316 treat NEC 230.85?
Which source should be used for a serving utility’s meter-socket model, bypass, and connection details?