Guidance

Nationally approved gas and electricity meters

Approval process for gas and electricity meters under GB national legislation.

From:
Office for Product Safety and Standards
Published
13 March 2014

Applies to England, Scotland and Wales

Approval process

Prototype meters are tested by laboratories that have been accredited against relevant international standards and their test reports may be accepted as demonstration of compliance with certain aspects of the standards. The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) will analyse the test report from the accredited laboratory and, if satisfied, complete the process for approving a specific meter type, including issuing a formal approval certificate to the manufacturer.

Meters that can be approved in GB

  • diaphragm (often denoted by U6 or G4) or electronic design (denoted by E6) domestic gas meters
  • induction (electro-mechanical) and static (electronic) electricity meters

Schedule 4

For electricity meters only, after a formal approval certificate has been issued, the meter will then be listed in Schedule 4 of the Meters (Certification) Regulations (SI 1998/1566). This is a statutory register of all pattern approved electricity meters suitable for billing purposes in GB.

Modifications

All subsequent modifications to approved meters are also subject to further examination and approval. It is important to note that unless a meter is approved by OPSS (or in the case of induction electricity meters, approved by another EU member state) it cannot be used for billing purposes in GB.

Since the European Measuring Instruments Directive (MID) was fully implemented on 30 October 2006, there can be no new GB national approvals of meter types within the scope of the Directive. However the MID provided a 10 year transitional period and minor modifications to existing GB nationally approved meter types were approved by OPSS until 30 October 2016. Since this date, no GB nationally approved gas or electricity meters have been allowed to be placed on the market, although those meters already ‘on the wall’ may remain in use for as long as they meet the legal requirements.

The regulations

Under GB national legislation gas and electricity meters are approved under the Gas Act 1986 and the Electricity Act 1989 respectively. The pattern or construction of your meter type must conform to the requirements specified in the accompanying regulations:

Gas regulations

These regulations prescribe the standards to which gas meters must perform before they can be stamped. In addition the meters must not leak gas or air.

Electricity regulations

The pattern or construction of a gas or electricity meter is approved by ensuring that the meter type conforms to the requirements covered in the regulations. This is achieved by testing a representative sample of meters in a specialist laboratory against the appropriate harmonised national or international technical standard.

Contact us

If you have a specific enquiry regarding the accuracy of your gas and/or electricity meter, please email OPSS.enquiries@businessandtrade.gov.uk.

Alternatively you can contact the OPSS helpdesk on 0121 345 1201, open Monday to Friday 09.00 to 17.00.

Or in writing to:

Office for Product Safety and Standards
4th Floor Cannon House
18 The Priory Queensway
Birmingham
B4 6BS

Updates to this page

Published 13 March 2014

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