UMS Charge Codes Explained

When using electricity at home or in the office, the amount of power used is determined with the user of an electricity meter.

Power usage on our highways and roads works slightly differently.

In these situations, the amount of power used is unmetered. 

It’s for this reason that each piece of power drawing equipment is assigned a UMS code.

This 13 digit number informs electricity suppliers how much power a piece of equipment will consume.

This allows them to calculate total power usage and determine how much to bill.

Elexon are the organisation responsible for issuing UMS codes and administrating the manufacturers application process.

They’re advised by the Unmetered Suppliers Users Group (UMSUG).

It’s for this reason that UMS charge codes are often referred to as Elexon codes or UMSUG codes.

 

Charge Codes Deconstructed

The current charge codes system for LED lighting products uses a 13 digit code that begins with the number 42.

These codes, specific for LED products provide a simplified system covering outputs from 1W to 500W.

Each product will have a code for lower and upper limits.

This matches the minimum and maximum range of circuit watts delivered by the lumianires driver.

Here’s how to deconstruct a UMS charge code.

 

1. The first two numbers define the product type. In this case, 42 designates the product as an LED luminaire.

2. Numbers 3-6 show the power consumption in Watts. In this example, the power consumption is 65 Watts.

3. Numbers 7-10 can be used to designate a specific manufacturer. For generic UMS codes such as the one above, these numbers will always read 0000.

4. Numbers 11-13 show the percentage output of the product. In this case, it is 100%.

Dimming Profiles

Dimming is not a consideration of generic LED charge codes.

It can however be accommodated by linking the UMS charge code with a variable power switching regime.

A spreadsheet containing all current variable power switching regimes can be found here. 

Additionally, further advise on the application of switching regimes created by Elexon can be accessed here.

Acrospire UMS Charge Codes

To make the process of choosing the correct lantern for your application as straight forward as possible, we’ve complied a list of Acrospire charge codes here.

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