IS THERE A NEED FOR A

SINGLE-POSITION TEST
Just a few years ago, the utility companies have their own verification labs for
By Detlef Ebel, Marketing
Manager, MTE Meter Test
Equipment AG
SET IN THE LAB?
the calibration of electricity meters. This used to be standard practice.
Experienced personnel at this laboratory had been completing complicated
tasks connected with the testing and calibration of meters for decades.
Because of their expertise these specialists also took responsibility for the
installation and servicing of meters in the network. All utility companies are
experiencing rising costs due to liberalization of the supply of energy. This
means that ways of reducing expenses have to be considered.

Test laboratories are a major target for cost
reduction. Small utility companies with a
relatively low number of meters to service
can find many reasons to close their own
verification labs. On the one hand, sufficient
investment has been made in the
laboratories of some larger utilities to give
them high productivity potential enabling
them to take over the tasks of others.
Alternatively, there are independent
laboratories, which offer an overall service.
Additionally international standards, such as
the metrological guidelines of the European
Union, allow the first verification of new
meters by the manufacturer. There is,
therefore, no need to calibrate new meters
before installing them in a different
European country.
measurement set consisting of active power
and reactive power meters including time
switch. It is necessary to have accurate
knowledge as well as experience to program
a multi-functional meter to be sure of receiving
the required information as the various energy
and maximum demand tariffs have to be
adjusted and released in the desired
configuration. The personnel installing the
meter at the consumer’s site must also
connect it correctly. Manufactures use
different procedures to represent data on the
display and position of the connections for
input and output signals. The potential for
making mistakes is quite high and can lead to
significant errors in billing.
A SUGGESTED SOLUTION

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Detlef Ebel is Marketing
Manager at the Swiss
company MTE Meter Test
Equipment AG, a position
he has held since 1996. He
is a member of the
Metering International
Global Advisory Panel.
He gradduated with the
degree of diploma engineer
from Polytechnical
University of Leningrad in
1971. He worked as a
meter service pant of the
Regional Energy Supply
Utility Potsdam. In 1990 he
obtained aDEng at the
Technical University
Dresden with a dissertation
on meter testing. From
1991 to 1995 he was
employed as head of
foreign sales at EMH
Energie-Messtechnick
GmbH in Brackel Germany.
THE SITUATION OF SOME UTILITY
COMPANIES
Countries in the European Union have been
experiencing a continuous reduction of
verification labs over several years. At the
same time the number of specialists in the
area of electricity metering is rapidly
decreasing. Specialists with in-depth
knowledge of modern electronic meters are
rare in some utilities. As a result, such
utilities are not able to fully utilise the
advantages of electronic tariff meters. Their
billing departments are not advised by
technicians about the functions of installed
meters and the functions with which new
meters should be equipped.
As an example a four-quadrant meter with
integrated load profile, internally controlled
by a real time clock is able to give quite
easily the same information which, in the
past, was only available with a great deal of
effort. It would have required a complete
Some utilities have decided to equip the
department responsible for metering
services with small test systems to
overcome the problems described above.
A modern multifunctional meter can be
connected to this system and can be
completely checked. Such a system is
intended to acquaint staff with new
models and scrutinize the precise
configuration of a specific meter before it
is installed.
Such a system in Figure 1. It consists of a
three-phase current and voltage source
(phantom load) and a class 0.05 three-phase
electronic reference standard integrated in the
same cabinet. The main features are the
extensive measuring ranges, high accuracy,
and very low susceptibility to disturbance by
external influences.
This instrument, the PTS 3.3, fulfils all
requirements for control of the meter
installation as well as analysis of the load
parameters at the network point.
 Its advantages are:
• Easy verification of
meters under precise
load conditions, using
the built-in, compact,
current and voltage
source
• Automatic operation
using predefined load
points without the
need for an external
PC
• Internal memory for
storage of
Figure 1. PTS 3.3 portable test system
measurement results
and customer data
• Displays of vector diagram and phase
sequence for analysis of supply
conditions
• User-friendly system for data input and
operation of source and reference meter
• The system may be used either as a
The software package, CAMCAL for
WINDOWS, is installed on the control PC of
this single-position test system enabling
automatic test of complex meters. It also
allows the reading out of various tariff registers
of the meter under test and evaluation of their
content.
FURTHER APPLICATIONS
The single-position system described above
can also be used in accredited laboratories.
The ranges of current, voltage, phase
displacement and frequency allow generation
of all values prescribed by international rules
for the verification of meters. The accuracy of
the integrated reference standard, 0.05 %, is
sufficient for verification of meters up to class
0.2S.

The instrument provides the following

ABOUT THE COMPANY
From its global headquarters
in Zug, Switzerland, MTE
Meter Test Equipment offers
more than 50 years of
excellence, experience and
innovation in state of the art
products for electricity meter
testing and measurement,
ranging from power sources,
comparators, reference and
working standards for meter
testing over a range of
accuracy classes, to
sophisticated, customised
electronic meter test
systems. MTE was formed in
1995 from the spun-off meter
test division of Landis and
Gyr and EMH Energie
Messtechnik GmbH, and now
consists of six companies,
including newly acquired EDI
Electronic Engineering Ltd
and Hamburger Elektronik
(HEG) and subsidiaries in
New Delhi and Beijing, that
between them have more
than 1,500 substantial meter
test systems world-wide.
www.mte.ch
functions:
• Independent generation of single or
three-phase current loading conditions for
verification of meters using the incoming
supply voltage
• Active, reactive and apparent energy
measurement for three-phase, 3 or 4-wire
systems with integrated error calculator
and pulse output
• Voltage measurement
• Current measurement directly or with clip-
on CTs
• Power measurement per phase and
combined phases
• Phase angle, power factor and frequency
measurement
The PTS 3.3 may be enhanced with several
components to upgrade it for use as a PTS
3.3-2 single-position test system. In this
case, it is installed on a meter test table. This
table serves as a meter suspension rack that
allows quick and easy mounting of the meter
under test. A scanning head (type SH 2003)
Figure 2. PTS 3.3-2 stationary test system
for testing of Ferraris or electronic meters is
attached to a fixing device, allowing lateral
Labs equipped with productive automatic
adjustment. The scanning head is adjustable
meter test benches often verify large batches
in depth and height as required to align with
of meters over more than one shift. It may not
all normal configurations of meters. The
be possible to interrupt the normal process for
measuring module, located in a channel
a special test on a single meter, especially
underneath the suspension rack, serves as a
where testing and verification of multifunctional
meter error display and has inputs for output
meters takes a considerable amount of time. In
contact testing and a serial interface for tariff
such instances use of the single-position
device communication.
system described above will increase the
efficiency of the verification lab and will lead to
significant cost savings.