THE Bureau of Standards Jamaica (BSJ) said yesterday that new Jamaica Public Service meters submitted last month for testing were passed.

“…JPS has submitted to BSJ several new models of meters (both electromechanical and digital) for pattern approval testing. These were tested in accordance with the requirements of the American National Standard ANSI C12.1-2001 and the test results of these models of meters were satisfactory,” the bureau said in a statement.

The bureau was responding to what it said were “the many concerns of consumers regarding electricity billing, and particularly the concerns about the role of the BSJ in the testing of watt-hour meters for the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS)”.

Said the bureau: “In 2006, the BSJ and the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) signed an agreement to guide the implementation of a protocol which puts into effect the OUR’s directive to the JPS, prescribing the procedures for the testing of electricity meters used by JPS in measuring electricity consumption of its customers. The primary purpose of this agreement is to facilitate and maintain an efficient meter testing programme which also seeks to secure an environment wherein customers have confidence in the integrity of the meters used by JPS.”

According to the bureau, under the protocol it is responsible for carrying out the following tests and services:

* pattern approval of new models of electricity meters and associated accessories;

* acceptance testing of imported type approved meters shipments as well as JPS repaired meters;

* electricity consumers requests for verifying meter accuracy (via the OUR); and

* accreditation of JPS meter calibration/repair facilities and meter field testing programme.

Added the bureau: “Since the inception of the programme the BSJ has performed acceptance testing on approximately 8,054 meters taken from 131 batches. Of the 131 batches seven batches failed the Acceptance Tests. It should be noted that JPS conducted 100 per cent accuracy checks and made adjustments where necessary to all meters from the batches that failed the acceptance tests. BSJ then sampled and re-tested meters from all seven batches. The test results were satisfactory.

“Electricity consumers’ requests for verification of meter accuracy hinges heavily on the accreditation of JPS testing facilities. Based on the testing protocol, if a consumer is in doubt as to the accuracy of his/her meter, the first step in trying to resolve the issue is to have JPS test the meter to determine if its accuracy is acceptable. If the consumer is still in doubt, the BSJ may then be contacted by the OUR to perform an independent verification.”

It said that of the 54 meters verified upon consumers’ requests, 38 were found to be inaccurate in registration. Of that number, 35 meters registered approximately 50 per cent of the applied energy and meters registered only 25 per cent of the applied energy. Of the 38 inaccurate meters, five were found to also exceed the calibration accuracy tolerance of ± 2% specified by the OUR protocol.

“Five of the meters tested were of the new digital (electronic) type, all of which were among the 14 accurate meters. Another two meters were defective and failed to produce any test result,” said the bureau.