Dan Hartung wrote:

Lost-In-Translation wrote:
Don't discount the power company either. We found, in our area, that we
were experiencing "meter jumping" which was power surges that made the
meters spin like a whirling dervish for a few seconds!! Sure, it made for
some higher power bills too.

Come to find out, the power company will "surge" the lines as those quick
surges will help burn off small branches that may be laying across wires.
It's a dirty trick, but they do it.

Sounds like an urban legend to me. Power surges will stress the line
itself; at the right level it will heat up and stretch. A stretched
power line is more dangerous.

I don't think it is a legend, that means several people believe it and
nobody that knows anything about utilities would believe this. Any
power company that did this would quickly go out of business from
lawsuits.