ACTOM Protection & Control (P&C) was successful in winning a contract from Johannesburg’s City Power in September last year to supply and install a specially customised automated test bench for the testing of meters.
The automated bench, designed and manufactured by P&C’s Slovenia-based international metering technology partner Iskra Automation & Management Systems, was delivered and installed at City Power’s meter test department’s premises in February this year.
City Power staff-members, including Mokgadi Kahumba (second from left), Project Planner for the test department, pose in front of the automated test bench shortly after its installation in February this year.
City Power purchased the state-of-the-art test bench to upgrade its capability for testing meters. The bench supplements and greatly enhances the capabilities of portable meter testing equipment that the test department was previously reliant upon for all testing of meters.
“The test bench ensures that our meters are verified to measure within the correct accuracy limits as per approved standards.
Our aim is to improve the accuracy of all meters for the sake of both City Power and its customers. We want to avoid losing revenue due to undercharging and at the same time ensure that consumers are not unfairly overcharged,” said Mokgadi Kahumba, Project Planner for City Power’s test department.
The bench is designed to perform tests on up to 20 meters of similar type simultaneously in a controlled environment. Tests on conventional (post-paid) and pre-paid meters of various accuracies can be conducted, ranging from Class 2.0 through to precision Class 0.2.
Active, reactive and apparent energy parameters from both direct connected (rated up to 100A) or instrument transformer connected meters, in both solid-state and electro-mechanical meter design, may be tested on the bench.