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Seattle City Light publishes new metering standard for consistency and safety 

Seattle City Light recently developed a new electric metering standard to clarify discrepancies and ensure consistent interpretation related to placement of equipment (e.g., cable boxes, downspouts, etc.) within the defined electric meter working space. SCL Construction Standard 1554.33, “Meter Mounting Configurations, Heights, Working Space, and Clearances, Exterior (Outdoor),” published on June 8, 2022, is for SCL personnel, customers, and installers involved with planning, installing, inspecting, reading, testing, and maintaining exterior mounted electric meters. 

Key provisions of the standard include: 

  • A wealth of CAD graphics to aid in clarifying the requirements. 
  • Meter mounting configurations with detailed definitions and graphics to explain the configurations that are allowed, and disallowed, for new construction. 
  • Working space is described in detail, clarifying the boundaries of the working space and how to correctly measure the width, height, and depth of the working space. Previous content had created some confusion around where the working space begins, as well as whether the horizontal measurement is done from the centerline of the meter or the meter enclosure. For single-meter installations this measurement is from the centerline of the meter, and for multi-pack meter installations the right-hand-side measurement is from the centerline of the farthest right meter and the left-hand-side measurement is from the centerline of the farthest left meter. 
  • The only clearance declared is from the electric meter to the regulator of a gas meter. No other objects or equipment are called out as having clearance requirements, as the only concern is whether something protrudes into the working space. In that case, the object or equipment would be in violation of requirements. 

To align with the new SCL 1554.33, Standards Engineering also revised SCL 1561.05, “Customer Requirements for Underground Residential Service Entrances, Single or Dual Meters” and will be revising Chapter 6 of the Requirements for Electric Service Connection handbook (RESC) in the 2023 edition.  

The newly published standard should serve as a valuable tool for ensuring safe and workable meter installations. For questions or clarifications regarding this standard, customers should contact their assigned Electric Service Representative or Electric Service Engineer.