New Delhi

Question mark over error margin of new electric meters

NEW DELHI: As the Capital’s citizens continue to pay more for the electricity they consume because of fast-running meters, there seems no consensus over what the permissible error margin for all electronic meters in the domestic category is. The Government claims that the error percentage is 0.5 per cent, while the power distribution companies insist that the figure is up to 2.5 per cent. On the other hand, the Central Electricity Authority has notified that the figure should not exceed 1 per cent.

Even as the city has been witness to a prolonged debate over installation of faulty meters, what has been overlooked by the discoms as well as the regulator is the CEA’s notification published in the Gazette of India that specifies that the error margin in all installed meters will not be more than 1 per cent.

According to the Central Electricity Authority (Installation and Operation of Meters) Regulation-2006, all interface meters, consumer meters and energy accounting and audit meters will be of static type (electronic).

While this clause is being followed, the discoms have conveniently disregarded the specification that all consumer meters up to 650 volts -- a category in which 90 per cent of the domestic consumers fall -- will be 1 per cent.

The discoms’ excuse that the specification is limited to meters placed in laboratory conditions is trounced in the notification itself. In the section titled “Part I: Standards Common to All Types of Meters”, the CEA has mentioned: “These standards provide for specifications of meters, immunity to external factors, sealing points and functional requirements that are required from regulatory perspective.”

According to an expert in the power sector, the error margin of 1 per cent for all domestic category meters up to 650 volts is also in accordance with the Indian Standard. “The Indian Standard has also mentioned 1 and 2 per cent error margin for Class I and II meters. Nowhere has it been mentioned that the meters will be used in laboratory or field conditions. In any case, the Indian Standard is for the manufacturers and not for the end users,” the expert points out.

Acknowledging that the error margin needs to be reduced, Central Power Secretary Rajinder Kumar said: “We have already written to the Bureau of Indian Standards to examine the prevalent error margin because the limit has been set when the electromechanical meters were in use. We need to have a better accuracy in the electronic meters.”

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