What’s this thing on the power pole?

[Yikes]

The municipal electric power utility installed this on the pole behind my friend’s house. I’ve never seen one before. Hard to get a sense of scale from the photo, but it’s about the size of a guard shack or outhouse, almost 3’x3’x6’ high. It is not a cellular antenna.
I’m guessing it has something to do with stabilizing voltage, and may even have batteries inside it. This pole is the 2nd to last, on th wedge of the service area. A few houses down (and also the neighbors behind the house) are served by a different utility company.

 

[fatboy]

Cell service booster? Looks like only power going in.

 

[Yankee Chronicler]

New style of transformer?

 

[Yikes]

Btw, this is a legit question. I don’t know the answer, except that when it was installed the installer told my friend it was NOT a cel phone tower, and it has something to do with power conditioning.

 

[wwhitney]

Switched capacitor bank? Total guess. Might have more luck at the mikeholt.com forums.

Cheers, Wayne

 

[jar546]

5G

 

[Paul Sweet]

"Power conditioning" sounds like capacitors to me.

 

[jar546]

"Power conditioning" sounds like capacitors to me.

5G

 

[Yankee Chronicler]

5G

One a pole shared by the power company, the telephone company, one or more cable providers, AND a cellular phone provider? And mounted ABOVE the power lines?

Seems unlikely. Around here, nothing goes above the power wires.

 

[Yankee Chronicler]

The municipal electric power utility installed this on the pole behind my friend’s house. I’ve never seen one before. Hard to get a sense of scale from the photo, but it’s about the size of a guard shack or outhouse, almost 3’x3’x6’ high. It is not a cellular antenna.

Maybe it's a rest stop, so when all those little electrons get tired after a long day of running back and forth through the wires they have a place to take a rest break and have a snooze for a few hours. New electron union rules say they can't be required to sleep outdoors any more. Rain and snow are bad -- soggy electrons are bad ju-ju.

 

[jar546]

One a pole shared by the power company, the telephone company, one or more cable providers, AND a cellular phone provider? And mounted ABOVE the power lines?

Seems unlikely. Around here, nothing goes above the power wires.

Its a 5G cabinet.

 

[Yikes]

Its a 5G cabinet.

That's what I wondered at first. But I've been doing google image searches for 5G pole mounted cabinets, already mounted on poles, and so far nothing looks like it, at least not that size.

When my friend gets back from vacation, I'll have him send me more photos.

 

[SCBO1]

Seems unlikely. Around here, nothing goes above the power wires.

Same here, nothing should be above the power company unless approved by the POCO.

 

[jar546]

Same here, nothing should be above the power company unless approved by the POCO.

Nothing should be above the high voltage lines but a piece of equipment using POCO power can be above the house voltage lines.