ERDA’s state-of-the-art facilities for smart energy meters

At present, the major focus of smart electricity seems to be on smart energy meters. The government of India has a plan to purchase and install 250 million of smart energy meters in the distribution system in India. EESL has so far completed the installation of 10 lakh units of Smart Meter till February 2020. This huge scale of the market has brought down the price of Smart meters to unbelievably low levels. However, one needs to be very careful about the quality of such meters being produced. Otherwise, the customer may lose confidence in these meters and the adoptability of the scheme would be under doubt. For ERDA, this creates a unique challenge of testing various smart energy meters accurately within the shortest possible time. So far ERDA has been able to meet these challenges successfully and has become a preferred laboratory for smart meters in India. Global manufacturers of smart meters are coming to them for evaluation of their products.

ERDA’s state-of-the-art energy meters evaluation laboratory is providing crucial energy meter reliability assessment services to the nation, for more than two decades. It is a laboratory accredited by NABL and BIS for smart meters. ERDA provides services under three business verticals of: Testing & Evaluation; Field Services & R&D; and Expert Services as per the following details:

Evaluation of smart meters:

• Communication Protocol Verification as per IS: 15959 using CTT 3.1extended edition from DLMS User Association and Meter Explorer software tool
• Smart Meter testing facility, IS:16444 (BIS & NABL approved)
• Prepayment Energy Meter Evaluation Facility (NABL Accredited & BIS Approved)

Testing and Evaluation (NABL Accredited)

•  Complete type test facilities for testing of energy.
• Load switch test for utilization categories UC1, UC2 and UC3
• Energy meter components (terminals/gaskets/frame/wires/ laminations, etc.)
• Calibration of 0.01 class reference energy meters using 0.005 class reference energy meter
• Special and tampertests according to requirements of utilities
• Short time overcurrent tests up to 10kA for half cycle as well 0.5 sec.

Field Services

•  Independent third party inspection agency for disputed energy meters (Approved independent third party inspection agency for Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission (GERC), RERC, MPERC, DERC, CSERC, and JSERC)
• Calibration of energy meters at site/mobile laboratory using 0.02 class reference meter
• Calibration of 0.02 class reference energy meters using 0.005 class reference energy meter. Expert Services and R&D
• Consultancy for design modification of CT/PTs and Energy Meters for meeting EMI/EMC compliance requirements
• Evaluation of energy meters as per the requirements of electricity boards and meter ranking according to various quality measures.

Contact:
Rajib Chattopadhyay Head BD & CRM
Tele: +91-265-3021505,
Mobile: +91-9978940954
E-mail: rajib.chattopadhyay@erda.org