Chambers Metercare (Home Page).

Electrical Engineering Consultant:   tariff metering in power stations and at bulk electricity supply points.

I have now retired, but I am keeping this website alive because the following pages may still (I hope) be useful to my former colleagues:-

Explanation of what a meter compensation is

IEE Conference Paper on Main/Check discrepancy analysis.

Brief description of the consultancy:-

Chambers Metercare is an electrical engineering consultancy which offers all types of specialist technical work, both on-site and off-site, concerned with MWh and MVArh tariff metering systems in power stations. Similar work can be undertaken for sub-stations and other bulk supply points of electricity. The company is available for work internationally.

A particularly useful speciality is the auditable calculation of meter compensation values. These calculations are an essential first stage of the meter calibration process, required (in Britain and certain other countries) by the Metering Codes of Practice. Hyperlink: What is a meter compensation? In the last five years, the consultancy has performed around 95% of all the meter compensation calculations required at power stations owned by National Power plc. This work has included routine spreadsheets as well as a number of special-purpose calculations designed to cater for unusual plant connection circuitry or abnormal grid conditions. We have also performed calculations for Kot Addu and Hub River Power Stations in Pakistan, for Corby Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) Station, for the National Grid Co, Eastern Merchant Generators Ltd, Scottish and Southern Power plc, AES Power Ltd, Alstom Power Ltd, and for Scottish Nuclear. We have recently completed a contract for the meter compensation calculations at the cogeneration plant in Esso Fawley Oil Refinery.

With modern communications, compensation calculations like these can be done in Britain for a client in a foreign country, without the addition of travelling costs. This is an important consideration, since many countries are now experiencing a shortage of personnel able to do this type of work.

Another speciality is work on the electrical metering aspects of the Heat-Rate (Thermal Efficiency) Tests that are part of the Plant Acceptance Programme when a new power station is taken over from the main contractor or from a vendor. This type of work has been undertaken for National Power at Killingholme and Deeside (combined cycle) Power Stations, as well as for Kot Addu and Hub River Power Stations in Pakistan.

A new technique has been developed, whereby the integrity of all the generator metering systems within a company can be monitored remotely by a systematic analysis of the discrepancies between the Main and the Check MWh metering. This is a semi-automatic computer technique, using the continuously-updated half-hourly metering data from the Main and Check MWh Settlements database. Using the technique developed by my company, National Power has found a few small metering errors of which they had not previously been aware. The financial savings from detecting metering faults at an earlier stage of development can be substantial.
Hyperlink 1:     IEE Conference Paper on Main/Check discrepancy analysis.
Hyperlink 2:     Information on membership of the World-Wide Histogram .

Chambers Metercare also offers the service of a "friendly audit" of a chosen sample of metering systems. The audit is as strict, and as wide-ranging, as the official one, but there is no official penalty if a fault is found. The work has two aims. Firstly, the audit might find an error that is causing a generator meter to under-register; a base-load 500MW generator earns around $170M per year, so an under-registration of 0.1% might well cost the generating company $170,000 annually. Secondly, the prudent company would always wish to ensure the accuracy of its meters before any possible surprise visit by the official tariff metering auditor. A "friendly audit" by Chambers Metercare would be useful in finding and fixing defects before the official auditor can find them. It also helps your company to demonstrate to the auditor that you have exercised due care and diligence in your meter maintenance procedures.

If your company does find itself the subject of an official audit of its metering systems, Chambers Metercare can provide assistance with the technical aspects of the ensuing disputes and negotiations with the auditor.

Britain privatised her entire electricity supply industry in 1990. Since then, all the major generating companies, and the National Grid Co plc, have installed new metering systems which are believed to be the most modern in the world. As a former employee of National Power plc, I have worked on the technical aspects of one of these modern metering schemes from the outset. Chambers Metercare is therefore well placed to provide technical information and advice to metering engineers in other countries which are now following Britain's lead and privatising or de-regulating their own utilities.

For a complete list of the work that Chambers Metercare can undertake, click here.

Contact Information.

Dr R G Chambers,  58 Primley Park Avenue,  Leeds LS17 7HU,  England.
Location map and directions

Telephone  +44 (0)113-268-4406           

e-mail         [email protected] .