Section 170IAC4-1-7. Meter testing equipment and facilities; reference and portable standards

   Meter Testing Equipment and Facilities. (A) Standardizing Laboratory. Whenever any public utility is maintaining or shall hereafter establish and maintain a standardizing laboratory, periodic inspection by the commission may be made of the instruments and methods in use, and if instruments and methods are acceptable to the commission after such inspection, certification of meters and instruments for such utility's own use and for other public utilities may be made by such laboratory.

  (B) Equipment and Facilities. Each public utility shall provide or have available such standard meters, instruments and other equipment and facilities as may be necessary to make the tests required by these rules. Such equipment and facilities shall be subject to review by the commission, and shall be available at all reasonable times for the inspection by any authorized representative of the commission.

  (C) Reference Standards. Each public utility shall provide or have available suitable indicating electrical instruments, wattmeters and watthour meters (hereinafter called "reference standards") as may be necessary for testing the accuracy of portable watthour standards and other portable instruments used for testing service meters. The reference standard may be a service type watthour meter, but if so, it shall be permanently mounted in the meter testing shop of the public utility and be used for no other purpose than for checking portable watthour meter standards. Reference standards of all kinds shall be tested and adjusted, if necessary, at least once every two years by a recognized standardizing laboratory with equipment as required in part (A) or (B) of this rule [this section].

  (D) Portable Standards. All portable watthour meter standards shall be checked against the corresponding reference standards as often as may be necessary to give reasonable assurance that the errors will not change enough between successive calibrations to materially affect the results of measurements involving their use. If such check shows any portable watthour meter standard to be in error more than one per cent (1%) plus or minus, at any load at which the standard will be used, the standard shall be tested, adjusted and certified in the laboratory of the public utility, or in some other approved laboratory, unless calibration correction is used. Each portable watthour meter standard shall at all times be accompanied by a certificate or calibration card, signed by the proper authority, giving the date when it was last certified.

  (E) Portable Indicating Instruments. All portable indicating electrical testing instruments, such as voltmeters, ammeters and wattmeters, when in regular use in testing purposes, shall be checked against suitable reference standards as often as may be necessary to give reasonable assurance that the errors will not change enough between successive calibrations to materially affect the results of measurements involving their use, and if found appreciably in error at zero of more than one per cent (1%) of full scale value at commonly used scale deflection shall, unless calibration correction is used, be adjusted and certified in some approved laboratory.

  (F) Records of certification and calibration. Records of certification and calibration shall be kept on file in the office of the public utility. (Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission; No. 33629: Standards of Service For Electrical Utilities Rule 7; filed Mar 10, 1976, 9:10 am: Rules and Regs. 1977, p. 339; readopted filed Jul 11, 2001, 4:30 p.m.: 24 IR 4233; readopted filed Apr 24, 2007, 8:21 a.m.: 20070509-IR-170070147RFA; readopted filed Aug 2, 2013, 2:16 p.m.: 20130828-IR-170130227RFA)