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Envestra, the owner of the gas meters, has contracted OEAM (Origin Energy Asset Management Ltd) to manage the installation and maintenance of its meters. OEAM has presented a Gas Measurement Management Plan to the Technical Regulator as required by the licence conditions. It contains an overview of the current practice and also outlines OEAM's proposed procedures for future operation. This Plan has been reviewed and conditionally accepted by the Technical Regulator as complying with the requirements of the Gas Act 1997 and being adequate to maintain the standards of the consumer metering and billing systems. OEAM has applied to extend the life of some gas meters in service and this application has been approved with the condition that OEAM regularly submits detailed field test results to the Technical Regulator and that these results justify such an extension.
The Plan includes the following sections:
This section covers the accuracy of meters prior to leaving the manufacturer and upon installation. There is a limited retest program before meters are sealed, ready for use.
The periodic change-over for domestic meters is currently 10 years, except for the two most widely used meter models for which a 15 year interval has been approved by the Technical Regulator. Commercial and industrial meters have a 10 year replacement program together with frequent maintenance and checking systems which vary for different types and sizes of meters.
The Technical Regulator is reviewing the current practices of meter replacement and testing, having regard to actual test results obtained for meters returned from the field.
Meters can be condemned and scrapped, in-tested and returned to service or scrapped, or repaired and tested. The Plan contains a set of procedures for the repair and sealing of meters. It also includes an analysis of the errors found in meters which have been tested in-house by OEAM.
The Technical Regulator has accepted the calorimetry procedure in the Gas Measurement Management Plan. The procedure gives a means of testing gas, sourced from the Cooper Basin and from the State's South East, with an accuracy within the tolerances prescribed by the Regulations.
The Key Performance Indicators provided by OEAM in their return have indicated that the witness test accuracy of Epic Energy's calorimetry measurement at their Gepps Cross gate station is within acceptable limits.
As part of the on-going process of monitoring compliance with the conditions under which gas licences are issued, a commercial audit was conducted during the year on the retail operations of Origin Energy in respect to billing accuracy and security deposits. The objectives of the audit were to determine the accuracy of the entity's billing system and to determine compliance with licence conditions relating to security deposits.
In respect to billing accuracy, the audit concluded that there were no material discrepancies in relation to accuracy of recording and processing data.
In respect to security deposits, the audit concluded that security deposits, where held, were accurately identified and that interest was credited as required. Origin Energy currently holds security deposits for a period longer than that stipulated in the licence, as noted in the 2000 audit, but this is being rectified through the implementation of systems changes.
Unaccounted for Gas (UAFG) is the difference between the gas entering a distribution network and the gas leaving it (billed and unbilled gas plus any change in linepack). It is estimated that 80% of this difference can be attributed to leakage.
UAFG is reported on a 12 monthly rolling average to March of each year.
The Gas Measurement Plan is a confidential document and is not available to the public.
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