On Monday, the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) in partnership with power distributor Umeme and regulator the Electricity Regulatory Authority, embarked on a prepaid power meters verification exercise to determine the accuracy of meters.
UNBS engineers carrying out field verification of electricity meters in a mobile laboratory. UNBS has begun field verification of electricity meters focusing on domestic consumers. So far about 150 meters have been verified. @newvisionwire @DailyMonitor @933kfm @UgandaMediaCent pic.twitter.com/5ezr1emJk6
— UNBS (@UNBSug) June 11, 2018
The verification exercise is aimed at protecting power consumers and also the power distributor from making losses through fault meters. Read more: Power Africa launches initiative to boost energy access in Uganda
Speaking to media, Edward Ekuru a legal metrologist at UNBS said UNBS has been receiving complaints from the public concerning faults among some prepaid meters.
“In our meter verification exercise, we are aiming at protecting the consumer and the utility company so as to promote fair trade. As UNBS, we are acting as the arbitrators; we want to check the meters to see that both parties are not cheating each other. So the exercise is about verification of meters that have served in the field for long time to see if they still retain the accuracy in unit reading,” he said.
Ekuru noted that when meters over serve in the field, they develop technical faults which may end up either benefiting the consumers or the power distributor.
Verifying meters
According to the Business Week, under the verification exercise, UNBS and Umeme are targeting to verify at least 10,000 meters country wide, starting with Kampala city which has the biggest number of customers already connected on the prepaid system.
“We have started with Kampala because of the large population but the exercise will cover the whole country and those meters found with technical faultiness will be retained because they are not fit for the purpose they are supposed do so” Ekuru stated.
