Revisions to Implementation Schedule for the Recommendations on Volt-amperes and Legal Units of Measure (Bulletin E-31)

2012-06-22

Background

Measurement Canada issued Bulletin E-31 in October 2011 to outline the schedule of implementation for the recommendations on volt-amperes (VA) and legal units of measure (LUM) outside a meter, as well as associated grandfathering policies for existing meters/installations as established in those recommendations. Measurement Canada has also recently published draft specifications pertaining to the VA and LUM recommendations for public consultation (the consultation period closed on March 30, 2012).

Following comments received from the electricity sector in the past year regarding the potential impact of the implementation schedule outlined in Bulletin E-31 and the draft specifications, new considerations and issues have been identified with respect to proposed requirements that will require further review and will result in changes to the LUM/VA implementation schedule. In particular, the recommendation to consider the proposal to exempt certain complex metering installations from all statutory requirements has raised some potentially significant inequity concerns, as the number of meters that could potentially be impacted is deemed to be much higher than first anticipated.

Measurement Canada has now confirmed that a new Agency/electricity industry joint working group (JWG) will be established with the mandate of reviewing the new considerations and issues regarding VA/LUM recommendations, as well as making additional recommendations regarding the standardization (for the purposes of trade measurement in Canada) of active and reactive energy/power.

Outcomes

It is anticipated that some of the recommendations of the new JWG may have an impact on certain technical requirements contained in the approval, verification and installation and use sections of the recently issued VA/LUM draft specifications published for consultation. In addition, Measurement Canada and the Canadian Electricity Association (CEA) have been reviewing specific issues related to the VA recommendations which pertain to VA directionality, demand response characteristics, and concerns pertaining to totalization, watthours measured at the fundamental frequency, and interval metering.

In this regard, Measurement Canada has reviewed proposals with the CEA which the Agency believes will resolve a majority of the concerns surrounding these issues. Regarding demand response characteristics, Measurement Canada will seek to develop a standardized approach to block demand options to obtain a consistent treatment in the future. For some provinces, the Agency recognizes there may be a need to consider transition periods for implementation that are consistent with the grandfathering provisions detailed in the original LUM and VA reports.

Measurement Canada has also made a proposal whereby VA/VA-h (determined in accordance with the VA recommendations) can be allocated to various individual registers correlating with active power delivered and received as well as reactive power delivered and received. This will result in utilities being provided with the LUM values required for the purposes of establishing electricity billing (as they see fit) for their specific jurisdictions. This also satisfies Measurement Canada's fundamental requirement that LUM values provided by meters not be manipulated or combined in any fashion to result in a new (adjusted) measurement quantity declaration. It is anticipated that this proposal will also mitigate concerns surrounding totalization by facilitating a de facto totalization to occur in billing and not in measurement.

Measurement Canada has received agreement in principle from the CEA on these proposals, which will again lead to modifications of certain sections of the draft specifications recently published for consultation.

Revised Implementation Schedule

Given the above outcomes, Measurement Canada hereby announces the postponement of the implementation schedule timelines communicated in Bulletin E-31, which will be amended once specific details of the implementation are concluded. Measurement Canada is currently reviewing an implementation proposal from the CEA which considers a phased-in approach based on the class of metering employed for a given customer base. This means that the implementation requirements which were to come into force January 1, 2013 will be delayed and other dates specified in Bulletin E-31 are hereby suspended until it is revised.

For additional information regarding this information bulletin, please contact Michael Abraham, Senior Program Officer, Measurement Canada.

Guy Dacquay
Manager, Utility Metering Division
Program Development Directorate