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:- |
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] .