Many gas contractors are undertaking a mass deployment of new advanced metering technologies to improve the reliability, monitoring and management of their systems and provide added benefits to their customers. The extraordinary number of meters to be replaced under the implementation schedule has significantly challenged the capability of gas contractors to replace all these meters while ensuring compliance with the legal requirements of the Electricity and Gas Inspection Act.
In consideration of these circumstances, Measurement Canada (MC) is working to assist gas contractors in their efforts to implement new advanced metering technologies within a short time frame while mitigating costs and the potential impact on measurement accuracy.
MC has established a policy for granting a temporary permission allowing certain meters to remain in service without requiring reverification under exceptional circumstances. The temporary permission is effective for the specified implementation period. Under this policy, gas contractors must:
- ensure that the integrity and accuracy of subject meters are maintained;
- provide objective evidence to support the decision to allow the subject meter types, models and/or groups of meters to remain in service without being reverified;
- provide a plan that includes conditions to mitigate the risk of inaccurate meters remaining in service.
It should be noted that this policy does not apply to meters whose verification is currently overdue.
Gas contractors interested in applying for a temporary dispensation from reverification may contact MC to obtain further information on the specific requirements and conditions of this policy.