One million electricity meters certified in compliance with the European EEC directive

The millionth electricity meter was certified in compliance with the European directive at the beginning of March. When Slovenia entered the European Union on 1 May 2004, it was given the right to perform the first certification in compliance with the EEC directive (82/621/EEC). We immediately took that opportunity, and have already saved half a million euros or more than five million tolars a month.

Even when the first certifications of electricity meters were performed according to the contracts concluded with different national institutions (LMET – Germany, BEV – Austria, NMi – Belgium and Netherlands, IMQ – Italy, Ofgem – Great Britain and Ireland, GC (Generalitat de Catalunya) – Spain as well as several national institutes of metrology from the former Yugoslavia and East European countries), the procedures and documentation as well as training of the personnel were prepared for a new verification procedure. Some most important novelties or differences between the national and European verification are:

• Verification is performed according to the agreement with The Metrology Institute of the Republic of Slovenia (MIRS).

• We have our own uniform stamp (SI 343).

• Only one approval of the meter type suffices (PTB for T3 and E7, NMi for D3, GC for E8 and ST3).

• We exercise supervision of the testing equipment (accredited measuring laboratory in R&D).

• We have introduced the verification process acceptance, i.e. testing of the first pieces for each order, taking a photo of the first meter with the emphasis on data stated on the front plate, giving corresponding instructions to performers (tolerance sheets, labels, stamps) and keeping records in the data base table.

• We have introduced confirmation of the verification process compliance, i.e. checking of the last pieces with the emphasis on the meter compliance verification marks (a sealing, a label) with the requirements stated in the directive and the order, data processing, measurements including elimination of errors, and user-friendly filing, record-keeping for MIRS.

We will have a new opportunity since a new MID directive (2004/22/ES) will come into force at the end of October. It allows the so-called sample verification, and thus extra savings. If will be valid for all active energy meters, i.e. also for transformer operated and electronic meters for which the former EEC directive was not in force. However, certain conditions should be fulfilled, of which reproducibility of measurements should be improved, and compliance of the meters with the latest, the most rigorous EN 50470 standard instead of IEC 62053 (replacing IEC 521 and IEC 1036) should be assured. A special agency appointed by the national institute (MIRS for Slovenia) will provide for the compliance with regulations. It will supervise the quality system and implementation of the first verification. There is no doubt that all employees will respect new regulations and instructions even more than before.