Just before the new year, the Slovene Institute of Quality and Metrology (SIQ) awarded the first design examination certificate to the MT17X active energy electricity meter. The certificate was granted on the basis of the TQM System for electricity meters, covering development, production and verification of manufactured products.

The new EU legislation for measuring instruments (MID) was legally adopted in Slovenia with Rules on measuring instruments, on 19 April 2006. The national regulation had to be adopted six months before its effective date, and it brought into force the MID, designated 2004/22/EC, in full. It is elaborated in compliance with the new approach for product conformity evaluation for ten types of measuring instruments, including active energy electricity meters.

The new approach is based on the principles:
• harmonisation is limited to essential requirements
• it implements harmonised standards (EN50470) as the basis for assessing conformity, and enables measuring instrument manufacturers the choice of various procedures (modules)

The new EU legislation has been in force since 30 October 2006. SIQ was accredited in compliance with the requirements stated in standards for assessing conformity according to the H1 module. The Metrology Institute of the Republic of Slovenia (MIRS) notified SIQ to the EU in cooperation with the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology. The notification was officially confirmed by the EU on 6 December 2006. Immediately after the notification, and based on previous certification of the quality system in Iskraemeco, SIQ performed the first design examination of the static electricity meter – model MT17X. We were granted the certificate on 22 December 2006.

On the basis of the results of assessment of conformity, the manufacturer marks the measuring instrument with:

• the CE-mark
• an additional metrology mark and
• the number of the selected Notified Body.

MT17X meters complying with MID are already available to our customers in the EU and can be mounted without any additional certification, which used to be compulsory in most EU countries.

The first products manufactured and marked in compliance with MID, were sent to a Swedish customer on 11 January 2007.