Joint Working Group on the Establishment of Legal Units of Measure Outside an Approved Electricity Meter (LUM)

In the fall of 2005, the Legal Units of Measurement (LUM) Joint Working Group (JWG) was launched by Measurement Canada to review and discuss the issues associated with the establishment of legal units of measurement for time-related electricity demand outside approved electricity meters. This initiative resulted from a larger public consultation that was carried out by the Agency in 2003 entitled New Directions in the Regulation of Electricity and Gas Meters.

The Electricity and Gas Inspection Regulations (EGIR) did not, at that time, include provisions that recognize the establishment of time-related electricity demand outside an approved meter. As a result of the New Directions consultations, MC recommended that the establishment of regulatory requirements be pursued under the authority of paragraph 28(1)(l) of the Electricity and Gas Inspection Act (EGIA) to permit the establishment of time-related demand in this manner, subject to certain conditions.

While the scope of LUM JWG initially focussed on LUMs pertaining to electricity demand metering, it was determined that other variations of the establishment of LUMs outside an approved meter were possible (e.g., totalization, establishing volt-amperes). Consequently the scope of review was expanded to include those variations of LUM. The JWG was mandated to make recommendations pertaining to the security and integrity of transported consumption data, and specified method for processing source LUMs outside of an approved meter. The work of the LUM JWG is now completed and the final recommendations will be published by Measurement Canada in early 2009 with implementation to follow.

The LUM JWG was comprised of a balanced representation from utilities, manufacturers and Measurement Canada and was led by Guy Dacquay, Manager - Utility Metering Division.

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