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As anyone, I have to pay for the electricity, the gas or the water I am consuming in my house. As anyone, I would be very angry if I am overcharged and very happy if I am undercharged, and it would be the opposite for my energy provider.
This is why the instruments measuring all this for billing purposes are covered by regulations.
The term grid-level billing is related to commercial transactions between utilities, energy providers, or states. The simpler term billing is related to a commercial transaction between an energy provider and an energy consumer (customer). Grid-level billing and billing are both related to legal metrology. Sub-billing is a somewhat different topic that I have described in a post related to the management of energy costs.
IEC TR 63213 is defining the meaning of “billing” application as shown in the below Table 1:
Legal metrology usually applies to measuring instruments used in:
- Commercial transactions (e.g., weight-price scales for retail stores, petrol pumps, water meters, etc.) when there is a need to protect both the buyer and the seller.
- Operations concerning public health or safety (e.g., gas analyzers, tachographs, radar speed detectors, breathalyzers, etc.).
For more detailed information on legal metrology applications, refer to the following resources:
Billing meters (also known as revenue meters or utility meters) are covered by regulations such as MID (Measuring Instruments Directive, Directive 2014/32/UE) in Europe. See the blog related to MID.
Standards and regulations applicable to billing are shown in Table 2.
| Application Assessment Standards or Rules | Methods Standards | Product Standards |
| Any countries can define its own regulation and/or can refer to international documents, such as the IEC International standards or OIML guide | — |
IEC 62052-xx IEC62053-xx |
| OIML MAA (1) |
OIML R46 (Organisation Internationale de la Métrologie Légale) (1) Participating in the OIML MAA commits the Participants in principle to accepting and using MAA Evaluation Reports issued by Issuing Participants. |
|
|
European regulation (MID = Measuring Instruments Directive 2014/32/UE See the blog related to MID. |
WELMEC guides |
EN 50470-1 EN 50470-3 |
| US regulation | — | ANSI C12.1, ANSI C12.20 |
| Australian regulation (NMI) | — | NMI M-6 |
| Indian regulation | — | IS 16244, IS 15884, IS 13779, IS 14697 |
| Chinese regulation | — | JJG 596 |
| Canadian regulation | — | LBM-EG-07 |
| Russian regulation No.4871-1 issued in 1993 and No.102-FZ issued in 2009 | — | Pattern approval certificate (PAC) |
Table 2 – Documents related to Legal metrology
If you are looking for more details, you can check out the following documents:
| Theme | Type | Link |
| IEC TR 63213 | Post | Guide to energy measurement applications on the supply and demand side |
| MID | Post | European regulation MID related to legal metrology |
| ANSI C12 | White Paper | Regulating accuracy: impacts of changes in ANSI C12.1 and ANSI C12.20 |
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