What’s green, roundish and sticks out of the ground?
A shrub? A giant emu egg? A chubby garden gnome?
It’s a green dome, and while it might look pretty low-key, it actually keeping your home and those around you connected to the grid.
What is it and why is it on my front lawn?
Just like power poles, these domes, also known as a green electrical box or pillar, help provide electricity by connecting homes to the grid.
You’ll usually find them on front verges or in parks where there is underground power. Not all front verges will have a dome, as one power box can serve multiple properties.
The dome shells protect the live electrical wires found inside. In the same way you would treat any electrical equipment with caution, you need to be careful around them.
Dome types
There are two types of pillars – a mini pillar and a universal pillar. Both pillar types can connect up to four households, but a universal pillar also helps connect the underground network. This includes switching, interconnecting underground lines and maintenance work for high voltage underground cables.
Most pillars are dome shaped, but the new pillars look like a green square. Regardless of how they look, they all do the same thing and carry anywhere from 240 V to 415 V.
Which means they pack a punch when it comes to power.
Keep your distance
Touching an intact green dome won’t hurt you, but if it is damaged and you don’t realise, an exposed wire from a green dome is just as dangerous as a fallen power line.
And many get damaged. We get around 200 reports of damaged domes every month, often resulting from vehicles running over them, or being hit by lawn mowers. But we’ve also seen instances of kids jumping on them, and people using them as cricket stumps.
Reporting a damaged green dome is the right thing to do – just don’t touch it or look inside. Keep a safe distance, around eight metres, and make the safe call by reporting it to us straight away.