OIML E 6 • Guidance on the selection and implementation of performance requirements for utility meters containing additional functionalities

Foreword by the Author

The OIML Seminar on Smart Meters, which took place in Brijuni, Croatia on 2-5 June 2009, was organized to bring together relevant stakeholders in the legal metrological aspects of smart metering: manufacturers, users (utilities and consumers), authorities (regulators, inspectorates), and conformity assessment bodies, together with the Secretariats of the relevant OIML Technical Committees and Subcommittees.

The Seminar was hosted by the Croatian State Office for Metrology, and its main purpose was to enable the OIML to take note of recent developments in smart metering (technologies and regulations, experiences and lessons learned) and to investigate the impact on the international harmonization of legal requirements for utility meters.

Fifty experts from 23 countries participated, representing national authorities, the European Commission, industry, standardization bodies, OIML Technical Committees and Subcommittees, and the BIML.

After a series of presentations and discussions, the following two main conclusions were drawn:

  1. For utility meters, it is the opinion of the participants that metrological control extends to the point where the consumer can verify that the measurement results used for billing are consistent with the reading of the meter.

  2. As a follow-up to this Seminar, it would be appropriate for the OIML to develop some kind of guidance paper for those OIML Technical Committees and Subcommittees that deal with utility meters, containing suggestions for the application of OIML Documents D 11:2004 General requirements for electronic measuring instruments and D 31:2008 General requirements for software controlled measuring instruments to utility meters and for additional requirements and (immunity) tests to be considered.

It was suggested that the task of developing such a guidance paper could be performed by an ad-hoc working group. Considering the time constraints and the limited ‘shelf life’ of such a guidance paper, it was considered more efficient to publish it as an OIML Expert Report rather than to allocate this task to an existing OIML TC/SC as a new work item.

CIML Members were therefore invited to nominate experts to participate in the WGSM (Working Group on Smart Meters); experts were required to have appropriate experience relevant to the subject (i.e. legal metrological requirements for, and testing of, utility meters).

The outcome of the work of the WGSM is hereby published in the form of this Expert Report, which should be considered as the expression of expert opinion to provide guidance to the relevant OIML Technical Committees and Subcommittees in implementing requirements for measuring instruments having remote control and/or reading of data. The content of this Report is not specifically restricted to utility meters but should be especially helpful in the development of new Recommendations or the revision of existing Recommendations on such measuring instruments. It provides the necessary information on how to accomplish the relevant OIML objectives and explains how to decide whether to include additional performance requirements.

In Chapter 5 a rationale containing considerations, assumptions, restrictions, and statements is presented containing the current approaches presented in OIML publications that are considered applicable to smart meters and smart meter systems.

Chapter 6 describes a further legal metrology approach in general terms of the smart meter system as a whole, taking into account its environment of use.

Chapter 7 further focuses on the more practical evaluation by subdividing the system into a number of “black boxes” and discusses the practical way of evaluating and establishing the required tests.

This first edition of the Expert Report is intended to give some initial guidance. Readers are requested to collect comments and experiences when implementing legal requirements for these complex interconnected measurement systems. Feedback will be of great value for future editions of this Report and should be addressed to the author Mr. George Teunisse (mailto:gteunisse@verispect.nl) with a copy to the BIML (mailto:willem.kool@oiml.org).