GEN-25 — Policy on the Approval, Initial Verification, and Reverification for Electricity and Gas Meters: Legal units of measurement and functions used for billing

GEN-25—Policy on the Approval, Initial Verification, and Reverification for Electricity and Gas Meters: Legal Units of Measurement and Functions used for Billing (PDF, 63 KB, 4 pages)

Date: 2000-06-26
Bulletin: GEN-25-E
Category: General
Supersedes: GEN-17 (rev. 1) section 3
Document(s): GEN-17 (rev. 2)

Table of Contents

1.0 Purpose

The purpose of this bulletin is to set out Measurement Canada's policy for the approval, initial verification, and reverification of electricity and gas meters with regard to the legal units of measurement and functions used for billing.

2.0 Definitions

The following definitions apply to this bulletin:

Function

An operation within a device which provides for the operational parameters for which a specific meter has been designed for. These operations may include measurement and/or calculation functions or operational functions (e.g. time clock or calendar, etc.).

Legal units of measurement

Any units of measurement stated in Section 3 of the Electricity and Gas Inspection Act (Act) and subsection 5(1) of the Electricity and Gas Inspection Regulations (Regulations), and any other units of measurement that are used to establish the value of a legal unit of measurement (e.g. Q·h for establishing the value of VA·h).

Verification

Verification means all the operations carried out by an inspector or accredited meter verifier having the object of ascertaining and confirming that a meter entirely satisfies specified requirements. Any reference to "verification" includes both the initial verification and reverification of meters, whether by 100% inspection or though the use of statistical sampling methods authorized by Measurement Canada.

3.0 Background

The verification requirements for legal units of measurement and functions of electricity and gas meters were previously contained in section 3 of bulletin GEN-17 (rev. 1). The purpose of that bulletin was to provide interpretation on the assessment of fees and not to establish verification requirements as such. The verification requirements had been included to facilitate the application of the fees. The transfer of these requirements to a new bulletin will permit for the inclusion of a new policy on the use of legal units of measurement and functions which have not been approved for billing purposes.

4.0 Gas Meter Approval and Verification

4.1 Legal units of measurement

Pursuant to subsection 3(1)(b) of the Act, the following units of measurement, if enabled, shall be approved and verified,

  1. by volume: cubic foot or cubic metre
  2. by energy: joule or British Thermal Unit (BTU)
  3. by mass: kilogram

4.2 Calculation of the legal quantity of gas sold by volume

Pursuant to subsection 6(1) of the Regulations, the quantity of gas sold by volume shall be calculated at standard temperature and pressure as stated in Section 2 of the Regulations.

4.3 Integral parameters used for the calculation of legal units of measurement

The following parameters shall be approved and verified where such quantities are integral in the calculation of the units of measurement delineated in 4.1 and 4.2 above: temperature, pressure (static, differential, line, etc), supercompressibility, relative density and gas content.

4.4 Functions

The following functions shall be approved and verified, when enabled and integral to the functioning of the device: multi-rate register, Time of Use (TOU) function, mechanical and electronic switch mechanisms (e.g. clock, calendar etc.), pulse generator and accumulator, remote reading system, prepayment devices, and event loggers.

4.5 Meters subject to sealing moratorium

Should the meter under test fall under a type of device for which a moratorium on hard sealing has been granted, sections 4.1 to 4.4 above shall be applicable regardless of whether or not the client intends to use the available units of measurement, since the units of measurement can be enabled at a later date because of the accessibility to the client.

5.0 Electricity Meter Approval, Initial Verification, and Reverification

5.1 Background

With the advent of electronic meters, over the past years, manufacturers of electricity meters have been designing and manufacturing complex meters capable of measuring, monitoring, storing and transmitting an ever increasing amount of information. Measurement Canada policy up until recently was that all legal units of measurement and functions contained in a meter had to be assessed (unless suppressed from the meter) and approved by Measurement Canada. Once approved for use, a meter presented for verification would be verified for all the approved legal units of measurement and functions used for billing purposes.

Manufacturers as well as owners of electronic meters have made representation to Measurement Canada to the effect that the end users of those meters were often using only a subset of the approved legal units of measurement and functions for billing purposes. Therefore, the policy was considered too rigid as it resulted in the verification of units of measurement and functions that were not needed for billing purposes.

5.2 General Policy

Electricity meters submitted for approval are subject to the requirements of section 5.3. The requirements for the verification of electricity meters approved after 1999-09-01 are listed in section 5.4. The requirements for the verification of electricity meters approved before 1999-09-01 are listed in section 5.5.

5.3 Electricity Meter Approval

5.3.1 Legal units of measurement and functions assessed for approval purposes

The applicant may specify the legal units of measurement and functions to be assessed for approval purposes: only those units of measurement and functions will be assessed and only those meeting the requirements will be listed in the Notice of Approval as being approved for billing purposes for that specific meter type. All other units of measurement and functions (being legal or not) would not be approved for that particular meter type for billing purposes and therefore would not be subjected to verification and sealing.

5.3.2 Displays and accessibility of non-approved units of measurement and functions

The register(s) containing the non-approved units of measurement and functions will remain accessible and the content may be modified when desired by the owner as long as the modifications do not affect the approved and verified legal units of measurements and functions, and their values contained in the register(s) where they are stored.

5.3.3 Modification of approved legal units of measurement and functions

Event loggers, when approved, will permit modifications to some parameters of the legal units of measurement and functions approved for billing purposes without requiring the meter seal to be broken, nor the reverification of the meter when done in compliance with the requirements stated in, or referenced by, the Notice of Approval.

5.4 Verification of Electricity Meters approved after 1999-09-01

5.4.1 General

The Notice of Approval issued under the new policy will list the approved legal units of measurement and functions: only those units of measurement and functions will be subject to the verification requirements

5.4.2 Programming of approved legal units of measurement and functions for a particular application

Notwithstanding section 5.4.1, the meter owner may also select a subset of the legal units of measurement and functions approved for billing purposes for its particular application, and have the meter verified and sealed for those selected approved units of measurement and functions on condition that all the other legal units of measurement and functions approved for billing purposes are deactivated at the time of the verification. The deactivation of the units of measurement and functions shall be done in such a way as to prevent access to those units of measurement and functions through the meter display or through the meter communication port(s). Reactivation of those legal units of measurement and functions would require the breaking of the seal and therefore a reverification of the meter.

5.5 Verification of Electricity Meters approved before 1999-09-01

5.5.1 Legal units of measurement - energy

Pursuant to subsection 3(1)(a) of the Act, the following units of measurement, if enabled shall be verified: W·h, var·h, VA·h, joule.

5.5.2 Legal units of measurement - demand

Pursuant to subsection 5(1) of the Regulations, the following time-related demand units of measurement and the cumulative maximum, if enabled shall be verified: W, VA, var.

5.5.3 Others units of measurement

The following units of measurement shall be verified where the units of measurement is integral in the calculation of, or a factor in, a final resultant billing units of measurement delineated in sections 5.5.1 and 5.5.2 above: Q·h, Q, V2·h, A2·h.

5.5.4 Functions

The following functions shall be approved and verified, when enabled and integral to the functioning of the device: multi-rate register, Time of Use (TOU) function, mechanical and electronic switch mechanisms (e.g. clock, calendar etc.), pulse generator and accumulator, remote reading system, prepayment devices and event loggers.

5.5.5 Legal units of measurement measured in two directions

When legal units of measurement are measured in two directions ( e.g., import/export, delivered/received), the units of measurement shall be verified in each direction.

5.5.6 Units of measurement and functions not subject to verification

The following units of measurement and functions are not deemed to be subject to verification testing: volts, amperes, power factor, watts @VA peak, VA @ watts peak, PF @ watts peak, PF @ VA Peak, End of Interval (EOI) annunciator, optical ports, serial ports, and modems.

5.5.7 Meters subject to sealing moratorium

Should the meter under test fall under a type of device for which a moratorium on hard sealing has been granted, sections 5.5.1 to 5.5.6 shall be applicable regardless of whether or not the client intends to use the available units of measurement, since the units of measurement can be enabled at a later date because of the accessibility to the client.

6.0 Additional Information

For additional information regarding this bulletin, please contact the Senior Program Officer responsible for either the electricity or gas measurement disciplines.

Gilles Vinet
Vice-President Program Development