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<br />buried or not.
<br />Anoka officials said their customers are
<br />typically jolted when they discover the
<br />difference.
<br />"They're really not aware that they own the
<br />electric service, unless they were to actually
<br />ask about it," Voss said. "Of course, no one is
<br />going to normally ask about it."
<br />Twice before, deck has lived in houses where
<br />the main electric line went bad. Once, an
<br />overhead wire rubbed raw by a tree was
<br />replaced by the utility. Another home had a
<br />buried cable that went bad, but ~cel Energy
<br />replaced it at no charge.
<br />Xcel Energy's 300,000 customers with
<br />underground electric lines pay an extra ~~
<br />per month to cover the cost of any repairs or
<br />replacement of those lines, said Patti
<br />Nystuen, an ~cel spokeswoman.
<br />The rules are different for the 350,000
<br />electric customers who get their power from
<br />municipal utilities that aren't regulated by the
<br />Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. In
<br />Dayton alone, three electricity providers ~~
<br />~cel, Anoka Municipal Utility and Connexus
<br />~a serve different areas of the city.
<br />Anoka Municipal Utility serves about 10,000
<br />customers in Anoka and Hennepin counties.
<br />Underground residential cables break down
<br />about 20 to 30 times a year, Voss said.
<br />If a probe shaves the electricity is escaping in
<br />several places, that's the calling card of
<br />gophers, Voss said, The animals need to
<br />gnaw an something all the time, to keep their
<br />teeth from growing too long, and small
<br />diameter electric lines are "the perfect size
<br />for them," Voss said. "They love it."
<br />The absence of electrocuted gophers
<br />wouldn't rule out his theory, Noss said.
<br />"They're usually smart enough," he said.
<br />"ante they start getting tingled, then they'll
<br />stop eating there."
<br />Eeck doesn't buy it. "Nobody's ever seen a
<br />gopher or a gopher mound in this
<br />neighborhood," he said.
<br />
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