The Structure Of A Meter

A customer's consumption is measured using a meter. What a meter measures and how it measures it can change over time. The following example illustrates a simple meter before and after a reconfiguration.

The system maintains how a meter looks over time so that it can reproduce bills using historical consumption. Information about this meter is recorded in the following tables:

• Every meter has a single meter record that contains information about the meter that doesn't change over time. For example, its meter number and manufacturer.
• A meter configuration record is required whenever something changes about what the meter measures. The meter shown above has two configurations - the original and the one effective on 1-June-1999.
• Every meter configuration contains one or more registers. Each register references the unit being measured and how the measured quantity is manipulated before it is billed.