Balancing legal metrology and market model requirements

Requirements for electricity metering are traditionally dictated by laws forming a system of legal metrology which regulates the use of measuring instruments impacting on consumers, particularly the ´public´, to protect them from abuses due to inaccurate or unfair measurements. Unbundling of electricity supply services and opening of access to networks may require new legal provisions to define what is to be done and it has been the experience in the UK that these have inevitably impacted on metering requirements. This paper looks at the interaction between legal metrology and competition law in the UK and how this has shaped metering requirements for the competitive supply market. The UK has a two tier legal system of Primary Legislation-an Act of Parliament-which sets out the main provisions in general terms, and Secondary Legislation-Directions or Requirements (often in the form of a Statutory Instrument)-which interpret these general provisions and give detail