How Many Feet of Power Line Will the Utility Run for Free?

It depends entirely on your utility’s line extension tariff, and the range is wide. Pioneer Electric Cooperative in Kansas builds the first quarter mile (1,320 feet) of single-phase line at no charge. Kentucky’s utility regulation requires 1,000 free feet for a single-phase customer. Oncor in Texas builds 300 feet of overhead line free for a typical home, while NorthWestern Energy in South Dakota builds 500. Others don’t count feet at all. Arizona Public Service gives a $10,000 credit per home. Cherryland Electric Cooperative in Michigan charges $6.00 per foot from the first foot, and Versant Power in Maine bills the full cost.

This article covers the allowance rules themselves. For total budgets at 200, 500 and 1,000 feet, poles and meter bases, see cost to run power to a property. For who pays for the transformer, see who pays for a new home’s transformer.

Free footage and allowances, utility by utility

Residential, single-phase, permanent service. Figures as printed in each tariff or rule; wording paraphrased. Documents checked September 24, 2026.

Allowances assume a permanent home with an ordinary single-phase load: Kentucky’s rule stops at 25 kVA of transformer capacity, Oncor’s at 20 kW of demand. A barn, RV pad or three-phase shop usually falls under a less generous rule.

Three ways utilities measure “free”

Footage

Footage is the easiest allowance to check yourself, but read the measurement rule first. Oncor counts primary, secondary and the service drop together, along the route the company chooses. Kentucky’s rule leaves the drop out, and NorthWestern measures along the shortest feasible route. Holy Cross says the route’s origin need not be the nearest point on its system, so a tape-measure estimate can come up short.

Footage allowances also stack. Oncor gives two applicants who sign up before construction 600 free feet, and APS lets a group combine its $10,000 caps. If neighbors are building too, apply together.

Dollar allowances and credits

A dollar allowance comes off the utility’s cost estimate, so it is worth more on cheap overhead construction than on underground work or rock. Holy Cross applies $1,000. APS covers up to $10,000. Xcel Colorado now uses a percentage: it takes 35% off the construction cost of a line extension to reach your property, and gives a $150 allowance on the service lateral. On Xcel’s standard lateral cost of $517 for the first 100 feet, you pay $517 − $150 = $367. At 250 feet you pay $367 + (150 × $5.87) = $1,247.50.

Revenue- or investment-based allowances

Some utilities tie the allowance to what they expect to earn from you, or to their average investment per customer. Liberty’s December 2024 filing shows the math: an average annual residential bill of $2,261.62 divided by a cost-of-service factor of about 0.7739 (the filing’s expenses divided by its revenue) gives $2,922.53, rounded to a $2,923 allowance per meter. The filing asked for a January 1, 2025 effective date; the older Rule 15 sheet on Liberty’s site describes the allowance as 2.5 times annual revenue. Claiborne Electric divides its net plant by its number of meters each year and does not print the result, so ask for the current figure.

Worked examples

Line extension charge only, using each tariff’s published numbers. Excludes the meter base, panel, permit and any transformer charge.

Pioneer’s published examples bill 80% of the computed cost as a lump sum or 90% over 60 months: on the 1,800-foot example, $3,120 × 0.8 = $2,496 up front, or $3,120 × 0.9 = $2,808 spread over 60 months, which is $46.80 a month. Timing matters at Cherryland: work between December 15 and March 31 adds $3.00 per foot unless the job was inspected, paid and ready before November 1, which would add 800 × $3.00 = $2,400 to the 800-foot example.

Refunds when neighbors connect

If a neighbor later taps a line you paid for, some tariffs send part of your money back.

• Kentucky: 1,000 feet per new customer. For at least 10 years, the utility refunds the cost of 1,000 feet for each new customer whose service connects directly to your extension. Refunds never exceed what you paid. In practice, if you deposited for 600 excess feet, one neighbor connecting directly to your line returns your whole deposit.
• Holy Cross: a shrinking share, collected from the newcomer. The co-op takes the per-foot cost of your line up to the point where the new member taps it and multiplies it by 0.1 for each whole year left in the 10-year agreement period. The amount is split among users, collected from the new member and passed to you, so a neighbor who connects in year eight returns far less than one who connects in year two.
• Liberty CalPeco: refunds based on revenue from connected customers, over up to 10 years.
• Versant Power: cost sharing under Maine rules. Payments are non-refundable, but Maine’s Chapter 395 requires a new customer on an existing extension to pay a proportionate share of the original cost. In an example printed in Versant’s tariff, a second customer at the same spot on a 1,000-foot line paid half the original cost, $2,593.50, which was credited to the first customer.
• Xcel Colorado: none under the current policy. Payments under the 2019 distribution extension policy are non-refundable. The older policy, which still covers grandfathered agreements, allowed refunds over 10 years.

Keep your extension agreement and tell the utility when a neighbor applies; refunds are rarely automatic.

How to ask for a quote

1. Confirm the provider. Co-op and investor-owned territories can split along a road.
2. Ask for the tariff section by name. At APS a single home falls under Schedule 3, section 3, not the subdivision or lot-sale sections.
3. Submit a site plan and load list. Include panel size and large loads such as electric heat or EV charging; load decides thresholds like Oncor’s 20 kW.
4. Get the estimate itemized. Total, free and billable feet, rate, credit applied, trimming, rock, tax, and refundability.
5. Ask about payment plans and timing. Pioneer and Claiborne offer 60-month options, and Cherryland charges more for winter work.
6. Line up easements early. Versant, Cherryland and Holy Cross all require rights-of-way acceptable to the utility before they build. See how utility easements work for a new home.
7. Plan for power during construction. The permanent extension is often not energized when building starts, so price temporary construction power for the job site separately.

Then add the customer-side costs and compare lots with the utility connection cost calculator. Related reading: utility extension cost, utility trenching cost, cost to bring utilities to land, gas service line free footage, mobile home utility hookup cost, and the state guides for Texas, Arizona and Colorado.

Frequently asked questions