Research on the small-scale consumer gas and electricity meter pooling system.

Dialogic conducted research on behalf of the State Inspection for Digital Infrastructure (RDI) to assess the extent to which the public interest is safeguarded by the small-scale meter pooling system. The RDI supervises compliance with the Metrology Act, which focuses on ensuring the quality of assured measuring instruments, enforcing legal units of measurement, and the use of consistent measuring standards. This contributes to fair trade, consumer protection, and public trust in measuring instruments and legal certainty. Our conclusion is that with the current system, the public interest in 'reliability of quantity information in commercial transactions' is safeguarded. We reach this conclusion based on the following findings:

• Our analysis of the meter pooling system indicates that there is no reason to believe that there are currently many unreliable energy quantity meters in use; let alone that there is an imminent threat of harm to the public interest.
• We found no evidence that the methodology used would be inadequate, and that specific elements (such as the ability to define subpopulations) have an impact on the public interest.
• Compared to systems used in other countries, the Dutch meter pooling system is well-developed and effective.

In our view, the meter pooling system could pay more attention to individual interests (such as those of consumers), in terms of negative effects for individual end-users. There is less incentive for grid operators to address this, as deviations (from the perspective of the grid operator) ultimately balance out. We also believe that a more systematic approach could be taken to consider the costs of more precise measuring, so that in addition to the effectiveness question, the efficiency question can also be answered: whether individual damage X justifies spending n*X on an improvement. This is a (political) decision that is best served by a (societal) cost-benefit analysis. Advancements in the field of (in particular) electricity meters suggest that the meter pooling system could be made more efficient. Grid operators seem to have enough incentives for this. The ability to define subpopulations is a good example of how meter park management can be carried out efficiently (it prevents the replacement of an entire population when only a part of it is actually faulty).