Okay this is really specific, but I feel like I'm gonna go insane so I wanna know if anyone else went through this and has tips for how to get out of this circus.
A while ago, we bought an apartment, and shortly after moving in hired an electrictian to change the dingy old breaker to a new one that supports 40A. We wanted to upgrade our electricity contract to 40A accodingly (currently 30A)… and that's where the nightmare began.
First, we asked our building management if it's generally possible, which they confirmed (the building is modernized enough to support it and many people have already upgraded, some even to 50A).
Then, we called our provider, who is unfortunately not the main provider of the region, but a reseller (technically they're just a gas company). They said it's not possible because we only have 2 lines to connect the breaker to the grid according to the database, but we need to have 3. We, staring right at our breaker, told them there is 3 cables running to the breaker. Also told them we already talked to building management and know it should be possible. They called Kyuden (the main provider of the region), and got back to us saying they can't do anything because computer says no. We asked if we can send photos, which is apparently not possible. We even had them call the electrician who upgraded our breaker to confirm we had 3 cables, but alas, nothing they could do. Dead end.
We then called Kyuden ourselves, who told us they can't deal with us because we're not their customers, and that we have to go through our provider. But our provider can't help us because of Kyuden's database.
So we went to a Kyuden office in person, and after a lot of pressing for a real human (they had computer screens with vtuber models set up instead of real people, which was comedic in itself), got someone to come down and talk to us. We showed them photos and finally found out the root of the problem: While we do have the necessary 3 cables, our METER (the thing outside our apartment) only connects to two of those cables, and thus doesn't support 40A. Basically it's because of the meter that the database is wrong – we could techncially have 40A if we got a new meter, but the database doesn't even know about the third cable that is technically there, thus simply says "40A is not possible".
We asked if they can't just send someone over and.. rectify the database? So that we can get a new meter, and after that a new limiter in our breaker? They said we'd have to hire a specially licensed electrician to do an "inspection", which would apparently cost around 40000 yen (just to correct the database).
Weird, but okay. They gave us the number of a guy they use. We called and guess what he said? We can't hire him directly.. Kyuden has to do it. Usually Kyuden would have to be the one contacting him and sending him to places since it's their database. I was about to flip tables at that point.
Now the funniest thing about all this is that the meter, which is the main issue here that needs to be "fixed" before we can upgrade our contract, is the responsiblity of the network operator (not the provider)… which is also Kyuden, but Kyuden Power Distribution something something company, which is technically different from the regular Kyuden. However, those guys obviously don't deal with customers directly.
Any customer issues have to go through the provider. But in our case, our provider can't do anything because of a database that they have no jurisdiction over, Kyuden refuses to send someone out because we're not their customer, and Kyuden Network Operator needs us to communicate through our provider.
I never expected to have a catch 22 with my electricity contract…
Also, from my research, exchanging a meter usually shouldn't cost us anything since it's the property of the network operator. So I feel if we could just get the network operator to come out directly to exchange the meter… we also wouldn't have to hire a guy for 40000 yen just to confirm we have 3 lines, yknow?
Has anyone been in this situation before? All this happened 2 years ago and I had given up for the time being, but since we're planning a new kitchen and wanna have IH instead of gas, we really need those 40A. My only hope is this: the stamp on our meter says it's actually due this year, so they will have to exchange it anyway. Maybe if we can contact the right person beforehand, we can get them to change it to a meter that supports 3 lines (and that way, correct the database?). But since Kyuden doesn't wanna deal with us and our provider has no jurisdiction, the only option I see right now is to switch to Kyuden as a provider and try the whole thing again, this time with only 2(?) middle men instead of 3. But I really don't feel like doing that after everything we've been through… Really didn't think it was gonna be such a problem to upgrade, seems to be easy for most people :'(
by ReiPhee