ERC steps up quality control standards, PNS ratings on new electrical equipment

The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has intensified efforts to uplift the quality and standard of electricity measurement schemes.

Along with the Department of Trade and Industry’s Bureau of Product Standards (DTI-BPS), the ERC recently formed a technical committee to formulate the Philippine National Standards (PNS) on equipment for electrical energy measurement and load control.

Working on the PNS draft are representatives from the academe, meter industry, consumers, professional groups, research institutions, government agencies, and meter testing institutions.

The committee, headed by Legario L. Galang Jr., head of the ERC’s Meter Division, is set to initially draw the standards for household electric watthour meters.

"This is a joint undertaking between the ERC and the DTI-BPS and the first of its kind in the Philippines where technical standards for the manufacture and importation of electric meters are set," ERC chairman Rodolfo B. Albano Jr. said.

Albano said it is their primary responsibility "to protect the public interests from any abuse of market positions."

International standards such as those of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and the American National Standard (ANSI) would serve as the working papers in the development of the technical standards in the manufacture and importation of watthour meters and other electrical load-measurement equipments to be used by the end-consumers.

The PNS will serve as a catalog in setting product standards for quality, reliability, and accuracy. The DTI-BPS will be responsible for enforcing the PNS once it is completed by mid-2006.

Presently, unlike other products, electric meters manufactured abroad and those locally assembled need not pass through Philippine-Standard (PS) testing prior to marketing.

The ERC, however, conducts an accuracy test on all meters to ensure that it functions within the acceptable accuracy before installation in the customers’ premises.

The ERC has the sole authority to secure the accuracy of all electric meter equipments thru testing and calibration.

Albano said meters which passed the accuracy test bear the official seal of the ERC.