Chapter PSC 113

PSC 113.0901 History History: Cr. Register, July, 2000, No. 535, eff. 8-1-00.

PSC 113.0902 PSC 113.0902 Testing equipment.

PSC 113.0902(1) (1) Each utility shall maintain sufficient laboratories, meter testing shops, secondary standards, instruments and facilities to determine the accuracy of all types of meters and measuring devices used by the utility. A utility may, however, with the approval of the commission, have all or part of the required tests made or its portable testing equipment checked by the original equipment manufacturers, another utility, or testing agency having adequate and sufficient testing equipment to comply with these rules.

PSC 113.0902(2) (2) Each utility shall have the following minimum testing equipment available:

PSC 113.0902(2)(a) (a) One or more portable standard watthour meters of capacity and voltage range adequate to test all watthour meters used by the utility.

PSC 113.0902(2)(b) (b) Portable indicating instruments of such various types as are required to determine the accuracy of all instruments used by the utility.

PSC 113.0902(2)(c) (c) One or more secondary standards to check each of the various types of portable standard watthour meters used for testing watthour meters. Each secondary standard shall consist of either an approved portable standard watthour meter kept permanently at one point and not used for field work, or not less than three approved watthour meters connected with current coils in series and voltage coils in parallel and kept running by connecting a 10-watt load. These meters must be well compensated for both classes of temperature errors, practically free from errors due to ordinary voltage variations and free from erratic registration due to any cause.

PSC 113.0902(2)(d) (d) Suitable standards which are not used for field work to check portable instruments used in testing.

PSC 113.0902(3) (3) Any utility having more than 10,000 customers, or any other utility upon approval of the commission, may provide and use primary standards consisting of precision instruments, timing devices, potentiometers, standard cells, etc.

PSC 113.0902 History History: Cr. Register, July, 2000, No. 535, eff. 8-1-00.

PSC 113.0903 PSC 113.0903 Accuracy and calibration of test standards.

PSC 113.0903(1) (1) 

PSC 113.0903(1)(a) (a) Utilities maintaining primary standards such as precision wattmeters, volt boxes, resistances, standard cells and timing devices shall have such standards certified at the time of purchase as to accuracy by a recognized laboratory other than that of the manufacturer of the standard.

PSC 113.0903(1)(b) (b) Utilities having standard cells shall intercompare them regularly and shall have at least one of them checked by a standardizing laboratory at intervals of not more than 2 years. Reference standards of resistance, potentiometers and volt boxes shall be checked at intervals of not more than 3 years.

PSC 113.0903(2) (2) 

PSC 113.0903(2)(a) (a) Secondary watthour-meter standards shall not be in error by more than plus or minus 0.3% at loads and voltages at which they are to be used and shall not be used to check or calibrate working standards unless the secondary standard has been checked and adjusted, if necessary, to such accuracy within the preceding 12 months. Each secondary standard watthour meter shall have a calibration curve available and a history card.

PSC 113.0903(2)(b) (b) Any 2 or more of at least 3 watthour meters may be used as a secondary standard to check portable rotating standards provided there is no discrepancy in accuracy between any 2 of the watthour meters used of more than 0.2% at standard test loads. Calibration and history records shall be maintained for each of the meters used as secondary standards.

PSC 113.0903(3) (3) Secondary standards indicating instruments shall not be in error by more than plus or minus 0.5% of indication at commonly used scale deflection and shall not be used to check or calibrate portable indicating instruments unless the secondary standard has been checked and adjusted, if necessary, within the preceding 12 months. A calibration record shall be maintained for each standard.

PSC 113.0903(4) (4) All working portable standard watthour meters shall be calibrated annually (see ss. PSC 113.0706 and 113.0904) and shall be adjusted, if necessary, so that their accuracy will be within 99.7% and 100.3% at 100% power factor and for polyphase applications, within 99.5% and 100.5% at 50% lagging power factor at all voltages and loads at which the standard may be used. A history and calibration record shall be kept for each working portable standard watthour meter.

PSC 113.0903(5) (5) The meter accuracies herein required as to all primary, secondary and portable standards and service measuring equipment shall be referred to 100%.

PSC 113.0903 History History: Cr. Register, July, 2000, No. 535, eff. 8-1-00.

PSC 113.0904 PSC 113.0904 Watthour calibration. Each utility which normally checks its own working portable standard watthour meters or instruments against primary or secondary standards shall calibrate these standards or instruments before they are submitted to a commission-approved test facility annually and attach to them a record of such calibration.

PSC 113.0904 Note Note: Previously s. PSC 113.46 (2), with changes.

PSC 113.0904 History History: Cr. Register, July, 2000, No. 535, eff. 8-1-00.

PSC 113.0905 PSC 113.0905 Methods of testing watthour meters.

PSC 113.0905(1) (1) In all tests of watthour meters where comparison of revolutions is made, at least 2 revolutions of the meter under test shall be taken at light load and at least 9 revolutions at heavy load. At least 2 checks shall be made at each load. The accuracy of the meter under test at each load shall be the average accuracy determined from 2 checks taken at the same load which must agree within 0.2 of 1%. However, if an electro-optical testing device is used, the test procedure may be modified, provided equal accuracy of the method is maintained.

PSC 113.0905(2) (2) If the watthour meter has a contact device which operates a demand mechanism, the disk revolutions when testing should be multiples of the number of revolutions per contact in order to take account of the varying friction which may be present during the movement of the contact cam from one contact to the next.

PSC 113.0905(3) (3) Polyphase meters shall be tested by one of the following 4 methods:

PSC 113.0905(3)(a) (a) Single-phase test with the potential circuits connected in parallel and all current circuits connected in series. Three-stator, 4-wire delta meters must have correct values of current and potential applied to the differently rated circuits. The normal test loads apply. (See s. PSC 113.0811 (1) (c).)

PSC 113.0905(3)(b) (b) Individual stator test with the potential circuits connected in parallel and each current circuit tested separately. (For 2-stator, 4-wire delta meters, the current circuits of the 3-wire stator should be connected in series and treated as a single circuit. Three-stator, 4-wire delta meters must have correct values of potential applied to the differently rated circuits.) The light load test current shall be one-tenth N times the reference test current and the heavy load test current shall be between one-half and one N times the reference test current but not more than twice the test ampere rating of the meter. (N equals the number of stators in the meter except for 2-stator, 3-phase, 4-wire wye meters. For the latter, N shall be 4 for the current circuits which are not common to both stators and N shall be 2 for the current circuit common to both stators.)

PSC 113.0905(3)(c) (c) Individual stator test with the potential circuits connected to the polyphase circuit in the same manner as in service. (For 2-stator, 4-wire delta meters the current circuits of the 3-wire stator shall be connected in series and treated as a single circuit.) The light load test current shall be one-tenth N times the reference test current and the heavy load test current shall be between one-half and one N times the reference test current but not more than twice the test ampere rating of the meter. (N equals the number of stators in the meter except for 2-stator, 3-phase, 4-wire meters. For the latter N shall be 3 for each current circuit.)

PSC 113.0905(3)(d) (d) Polyphase test with the meter connected to a polyphase circuit in the same manner as in service, with balanced polyphase currents on the current circuits. This requires the use of a polyphase standard watt-hour meter or as many single-phase standards as there are current circuits under test.

PSC 113.0905(4) (4) Instrument transformers shall be tested with a burden equivalent to that with which they are to be used or with burdens from which curves showing the accuracy of the transformer can be derived. Any approved method may be used for testing instrument transformers. Also see s. PSC 113.0916.

PSC 113.0905 History History: Cr. Register, July, 2000, No. 535, eff. 8-1-00.

PSC 113.0906 PSC 113.0906 Methods of testing block-interval demand registers.

PSC 113.0906(1) (1) For meters with block-interval demand registers, demand interval timing check shall be performed and a determination made that the pointer pusher or test dial pointer has reset to zero at the end of the billing period demand interval.

PSC 113.0906(2) (2) Demand registers used with instrument transformer rated watthour meters shall be tested with the demand register mounted in a normal operating position on the watthour meter. The demand registered on the demand meter during the test shall be at least 30% of full scale with the demand test interval varying from a fraction of an interval up to a full interval.

PSC 113.0906(3) (3) Demand registers used with self contained watthour meters shall be tested with the demand register mounted in a normal operating position on the watthour meter. The demand registered on the demand meter during the test shall be equivalent to the test ampere rating of the watthour meter with the demand test interval varying from a fraction of an interval up to a full interval.

PSC 113.0906 History History: Cr. Register, July, 2000, No. 535, eff. 8-1-00.

PSC 113.0907 PSC 113.0907 Methods of testing block-interval pulse-operated demand meters and pulse recorders.

PSC 113.0907(1) (1) The test of block-interval pulse-operated demand meters and pulse recorders shall include a check of the electrical and mechanical operation of the demand register or pulse recorder, an inspection of the pulse initiator and a check to determine that the demand meter resets properly.

PSC 113.0907(2) (2) A demand meter or pulse recorder, its associated pulse initiators, relay and circuitry may be considered to be operating properly when a kilowatthour check indicates that the demand meter kilowatthours are within the required accuracy limits of the watthour meter kilowatthours.

PSC 113.0907 History History: Cr. Register, July, 2000, No. 535, eff. 8-1-00.

PSC 113.0908 PSC 113.0908 Methods of testing electronic (solid state) meters.

PSC 113.0908(1) (1) Each measurement circuit of an electronic meter shall be tested in accordance with the requirements of s. PSC 113.0905. Internally calculated quantities, such as in a multifunctional meter, are not normally subject to test.

PSC 113.0908(2) (2) Electronic meters designed to operate over an extended voltage range may be tested at a single test voltage point to determine meter accuracy.

PSC 113.0908 History History: Cr. Register, July, 2000, No. 535, eff. 8-1-00.

PSC 113.0909 PSC 113.0909 Methods of testing electronic registers. Necessary tests or checks shall be made to determine that the correct program is in the meter, that the correct register is active as determined from the program, that the meter is displaying the correct date and time and that the meter’s battery mode is working and will retain register programs and recorded data during loss of power.

PSC 113.0909 History History: Cr. Register, July, 2000, No. 535, eff. 8-1-00.

PSC 113.0910 PSC 113.0910 Methods of testing electronic demand registers. Electronic demand registers shall be tested or checked for accuracy. The operation and accuracy of the timing circuit shall be verified. The accuracy must meet manufacturer’s published specifications. The register shall also be checked to verify that the program resets the demand period at the end of the testing demand interval.

PSC 113.0910 History History: Cr. Register, July, 2000, No. 535, eff. 8-1-00.

PSC 113.0911 PSC 113.0911 Testing of self-contained single-phase meters and 3-wire network meters at fixed periodic intervals. In this section, “meter” or “meters” may refer to metering system(s).

PSC 113.0911(1) (1) Self-contained single-phase meters and 3-wire network meters, together with associated equipment such as demand devices, control devices, etc., shall be tested for accuracy at unity power factor at the point where they are installed or at a central testing point or in a mobile testing laboratory under any of the following circumstances:

PSC 113.0911(1)(a) (a) Before being placed in service. For new meters given a prior test by the manufacturer, a sample test program meeting the requirements of s. PSC 113.0920 or use of the manufacturer’s certified test results for all meters tested under the provisions of s. PSC 113.0921, may be substituted for this requirement.

PSC 113.0911(1)(b) (b) When they are suspected of being inaccurate or damaged.

PSC 113.0911(1)(c) (c) When the accuracy is questioned by a customer. See s. PSC 113.0922.

PSC 113.0911(1)(d) (d) When they are removed from service.

PSC 113.0911(1)(e) (e) Within a period of 6 months before to 6 months after 5 years of service for non-magnetic-bearing meters and 20 years of service for magnetic-bearing surge-proof meters or in accordance with the plan outlined in s. PSC 113.0921.

PSC 113.0911 History History: Cr. Register, July, 2000, No. 535, eff. 8-1-00.

PSC 113.0912 PSC 113.0912 Testing of self-contained polyphase meters. In this section, “meter” or “meters” may refer to metering system(s).

PSC 113.0912(1) (1) Self-contained polyphase meters together with associated equipment such as demand equipment, control devices, etc., shall be tested on the customer’s premises, a central testing facility or in a mobile test facility, except pars. (a) and (d), for accuracy at unity and 50% power factor under the following circumstances:

PSC 113.0912(1)(a) (a) Before being placed in service. For new meters given a prior test by the manufacturer, the manufacturer’s certified test results may be substituted for this requirement.

PSC 113.0912(1)(b) (b) When they are suspected of being inaccurate or damaged.

PSC 113.0912(1)(c) (c) When the accuracy is questioned by a customer. (See s. PSC 113.0922.)

PSC 113.0912(1)(d) (d) Within 60 days after they are removed from service.

PSC 113.0912(1)(e) (e) Within a period of 6 months before or 6 months after 8 years of service for non-surge-proof and 12 years for surge-proof meters. Exception: Thermal and mechanical lagged-demand meters shall be tested every 8 years. Electronic (solid state) meters may be tested instead in accordance with the plan outlined in s. PSC 113.0921.

PSC 113.0912(2) (2) A stator balance test shall be performed on all new meters before being placed in service.

PSC 113.0912(3) (3) Meters with electronic programmable registers may be shop tested on a periodic basis.

PSC 113.0912 History History: Cr. Register, July, 2000, No. 535, eff. 8-1-00; CR 02-027: am. (1) (intro.) and (a), Register December 2002 No. 564, eff. 1-1-03.

PSC 113.0913 PSC 113.0913 Testing of meters used with instrument transformers on single-phase service. In this section, “meter” or “meters” may refer to metering system(s).

PSC 113.0913(1) (1) Meters used with instrument transformers on single-phase service, together with associated equipment such as demand equipment, control devices, etc., shall be tested on the customer’s premises, a central testing facility or in a mobile test facility, except pars. (a) and (d), for accuracy at unity power factor under the following circumstances:

PSC 113.0913(1)(a) (a) Before being placed in service. For new meters given a prior test by the manufacturer, the manufacturer’s certified test results may be substituted for this requirement.

PSC 113.0913(1)(b) (b) When they are suspected of being inaccurate or damaged.

PSC 113.0913(1)(c) (c) When the accuracy is questioned by a customer. (See s. PSC 113.0922.)

PSC 113.0913(1)(d) (d) When they are removed from service.

PSC 113.0913(1)(e) (e) Within a period of 6 months before or 6 months after 8 years of service for non-surge-proof and 12 years for surge-proof meters. Exception: Lagged-demand meters shall be tested every 8 years. Electronic (solid state) meters may be tested instead in accordance with the plan outlined in s. PSC 113.0921.

PSC 113.0913(2) (2) Meters equipped with electronic programmable registers may be shop tested on a periodic basis.

PSC 113.0913 History History: Cr. Register, July, 2000, No. 535, eff. 8-1-00; CR 02-027: am. (1) (intro.) and (a), Register December 2002 No. 564, eff. 1-1-03.

PSC 113.0914 PSC 113.0914 Testing of polyphase electromechanical and completely solid state electronic meters used with instrument transformers at fixed periodic intervals. In this section, “meter” or “meters” may refer to metering system(s).

PSC 113.0914(1) (1) Polyphase meters used with instrument transformers, together with associated equipment such as demand equipment, pulsing devices, phase-shifting transformers, control devices, etc., shall be tested on the customer’s premises, a central testing facility or in a mobile test facility, except for pars. (a) and (d), for accuracy at unity and 50% power factor under the following circumstances.

PSC 113.0914(1)(a) (a) Before being placed in service. For new meters given a prior test by the manufacturer, the manufacturer’s certified test results may be substituted for this requirement.

PSC 113.0914(1)(b) (b) When they are suspected of being inaccurate or damaged.

PSC 113.0914(1)(c) (c) When the accuracy is questioned by a customer. (See s. PSC 113.0922.)

PSC 113.0914(1)(d) (d) When they are removed from service.

PSC 113.0914(1)(e) (e) Within a period of 4 months before or 4 months after 2 years of service for non-magnetic-bearing electromechanical meters, 4 years of service for electromechanical magnetic-bearing surge-proof meters and 6 years of service for completely solid state electronic meters with electronic registers capable of down-loading voltage and current monitoring readings from the instrument transformers to digital meter reading devices at meter reading intervals. Exception: Electronic (solid state) meters may be tested instead in accordance with the plan outlined in s. PSC 113.0921.

PSC 113.0914(2) (2) A stator balance test shall be performed on all new meters before being placed in service.

PSC 113.0914(3) (3) Meters with electronic programmable registers may be shop tested on a periodic basis.

PSC 113.0914 History History: Cr. Register, July, 2000, No. 535, eff. 8-1-00; CR 02-027: am. (1) (intro.) and (a), Register December 2002 No. 564, eff. 1-1-03.

PSC 113.0915 PSC 113.0915 Testing of metering installations utilizing pulse devices.