CP403 - The Importance of Good Metering Practice
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Combination meters are used exclusively by the water industry and hence not covered in most flow courses
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Flow measurement data underpins many water utility activities and is needed for many purposes – regulatory reporting, leakage control, network management and revenue collection to name a few. Getting good quality flow data is therefore essential to a water utility business.
There are three components to ensuring good quality data – meter selection, installation and operation.
- Meter selection to get the most appropriate meter technology and performance for the application and the right size for the installation.
- Meter installation to ensure that the installed performance is not compromised by poor installation practice;
- Meter operation to ensure that appropriate auditing and maintenance procedures are in place to maintain performance and be able to demonstrate the performance to the regulators.
Those specifying flow equipment, those installing flow equipment and those responsible for maintaining the meters and demonstrating performance need to understand these points. It is also important for those that use flow data to understand its potential uncertainty and limitations.
Given the importance of flow data, it is surprising that it is often taken for granted and the basics of good practice are often overlooked. With the regulators asking for ever better evidence in relation to leakage data or meter under-registration figures, utilities are coming under pressure to understand, and be able to demonstrate, good measurement practice.
So where can a water utility go to get an understanding of what constitutes good flow measurement practice? At the moment most commercial training courses on flow are aimed at the use of flowmeters for industrial process control or fiscal metering in oil and gas. There is nothing that specifically addresses the applications and types of meters used in the water and environment industry.
For example, the helical turbine meters used for DMA measurements, combination meters used for large commercial revenue meters and the rotary piston meters used for household revenue metering are almost exclusively used within the water industry. These meters are not covered in currently available courses. Misalignment of a single jet meter can lead to errors of several percent and rapidly shorten its operational life. Again, unlikely to be covered on courses aimed at process or oil metering.
To help address this problem and improve flow measurement practice within the industry, WRc is proposing a new project under its Portfolio research programme to develop a course on the basics of flow measurement. This will specifically focus on the types of meters and the applications found in the water industry.
The project will produce a syllabus and material that covers clean water flow measurement from source to tap – encompassing abstraction, process and strategic metering, district and network metering, pcc monitoring and revenue metering. Within this framework the types of meters found in these applications will be described and the issues associated with poor performance identified. Guidance will include sizing meters, good installation practice and meter verification.
Participants in the project will be able to help formulate the syllabus and will also benefit from having access to, initially, free and, subsequently, heavily discounted training for their staff.
For further information on the project please see:http://www.waterportfolio.com/asp/project_information.asp?project_id=406&status=Proposed or contact Andy Godley.