In article l.net,
"Dave Liquorice" writes:
On Fri, 25 Nov 2016 15:59:50 +0000, Robin wrote:

As part of an initiative to prevent theft of power, government
requires
meters to be physically inspected by the companies (can't remember
if
this annually or every 2 years).

OFGEM dropped that requirement w.e.f. 1/4/16.

Are mechancical meters still under a statatory requirement to be
replaced every 10 years and electonic ones every 20?

Never was the case for mechanical meters. I worked on a meter
reading project for GEC around 1990, which read the existing
mechanical meters. Their design life was 40 years, and they
often got refurbed/recalibrated and used for even longer.

Something that delayed the introduction of electronic meters
was that the industry was insisting on the same 40 year design
life, and that simply wasn't possible for an electronic meter
(there was no electronic display technolgy at the time which
could get anywhere near 40 year lifetime).

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]