What is BS EN 62059-31-1 - Accelerated reliability testing of electricity metering equipment about? 
Electricity metering equipment are products designed for high reliability and long life under normal operating conditions, operating continuously without supervision. To manage metering equipment effectively, it is important to have tools for predicting and estimating life characteristics of various types. Thus, when it comes to electricity supply systems, performance and reliability of electricity metering equipment is essential for fair and accurate meter readings. 
BS EN 62059 is a standard that discusses electricity metering equipment. 
BS EN 62059-31-1 is one of the parts in the BS EN 62059 series that covers general aspects of the dependability of electricity metering equipment based on accelerated reliability testing. It contains information on the role in dependability management of the various parties involved and, on the methods, applicable during the whole life cycle. 
BS EN 62059-31-1 provides one of several possible methods for estimating product life characteristics by accelerated reliability testing.
In BS EN 62059-31-1, elevated, constant temperature and humidity is applied to achieve acceleration.
BS EN 62059-31-1 is applicable to all types of metering equipment for energy measurement, tariff and load control in the scope of IEC TC 13. The method given in BS EN 62059-31-1 may be used for estimating (with given confidence limits) product life characteristics of such equipment prior to and during serial production. This method may also be used to compare different designs.
Note: Other factors, like temperature variation, vibration, dust, voltage dips and short interruptions, static discharges, fast transient burst, surges, etc. – although they may affect the life characteristics of the meter – are not taken into account in BS EN 62059-31-1.
Who is BS EN 62059-31-1 - Accelerated reliability testing of electricity metering equipment for?  
BS EN 62059-31-1 on accelerated reliability testing of electricity metering equipment is relevant to:  
- Meter manufacturers and purchasers 
- Anyone involved in design, installation, maintenance and commissioning of meters 
- Power distribution and transmission companies  
- Local authorities  
- Inspection authorities 
- Regulatory bodies 
- Engineers 
Why should you use BS EN 62059-31-1 - Accelerated reliability testing of electricity metering equipment? 
BS EN 62059-31-1 provides a method for estimating life characteristics using temperature and humidity accelerated testing. It is practically impossible to obtain data about life characteristics by testing under normal operating conditions. Therefore, accelerated reliability test methods have to be used.
During accelerated reliability testing, samples taken from a defined population are operated beyond their normal operating conditions, applying stresses to shorten the time to failure, but without introducing new failure mechanisms.
The estimation is performed by recording and analysing failures during such accelerated testing, establishing the failure distribution under the test conditions and, using life stress models, extrapolating failure distribution under accelerated conditions of use to normal conditions of use.
The method provides quantitative results with their confidence limits and may be used to compare life characteristics of products coming from different suppliers or different batches from the same supplier.
BS EN 62059-31-1 also discusses the Weibull distribution and presents numerical and graphical methods to be used for plotting data, to make a goodness of fit test, to estimate the parameters of the life distribution and to plot confidence limits.
The main characteristics of Weibull distribution, which can be used to model material strength, time to failure data of electronic and mechanical components, equipment or systems, are covered in BS EN 62059-31-1.
