Gossen Metrawatt: Electrical test instruments and MID-approved energy meters

Overview

Gossen Metrawatt traces its roots to two Franconian instrument makers. Dr Siegfried Guggenheimer founded a company to build and sell electrical measuring instruments in 1906, renamed Metrawatt AG in 1933, and the engineer Paul Gossen started P. Gossen & Co. in Baiersdorf in 1919 with three employees, according to the GMC-Instruments group history. Both businesses later passed through Siemens-linked owners and ABB before the Röchling group bought them in 1990 and 1992 and merged them as Gossen Metrawatt GmbH in 1993.

Most of its catalogue is handheld test and measurement instruments: installation testers, appliance testers, multimeters and calibrators used by electricians and maintenance teams. Energy metering is the smaller, stationary side of the business. Its ENERGYMID range of MID-approved DIN-rail meters is the part most relevant to energy monitoring, alongside summators and data loggers that collect meter pulses and readings and the METRAVIEW software that turns them into energy reports.

What sets the ENERGYMID line apart is the number of ways one compact meter can report: S0 pulses, M-Bus, Modbus RTU, Ethernet with Modbus TCP and BACnet, LON and, since mid-2025, LoRaWAN radio, as the data sheet and the LPWAN launch describe. A variant with a load profile certified to the German PTB-A 50.7 requirements lets the same meter serve billing that must comply with calibration law.

Since 2020 the Nuremberg company has traded as Gossen Metrawatt GmbH again, after operating as GMC-I Messtechnik GmbH, and it is the German operating company of the GMC-Instruments group, which also owns Camille Bauer Metrawatt in Switzerland, Seaward in the United Kingdom and Dranetz in the United States.

Offering

Energy metering and data acquisition

The ENERGYMID EM2281 to EM2389 series covers direct-connected meters to 80 A (EM2281 single-phase, EM2289 three-phase) and transformer-connected meters for 1 A and 5 A secondaries (EM2381, EM2387, EM2389). The data sheet lists accuracy class B for active energy, four-quadrant import and export metering, four hardware tariffs and, on multifunctional variants, up to 33 further quantities such as voltages, currents, power factor, frequency and THD. Communication is chosen at order: S0 or programmable pulse outputs, M-Bus, Modbus RTU, Modbus TCP with BACnet IP, LON or LoRaWAN, plus a Modbus TCP version with a PTB-A 50.7 certified load profile stored for four years. The Modbus RTU version is also sold as a component for wall boxes and heat pumps.

For collecting data from many meters the company sells the SU1604 summator, a modular data logger with up to 64 S0 inputs, 64 LON devices and an Ethernet port, and the SMARTCONTROL multifunctional data loggers in LON, I/O and Modbus TCP versions. The U1500 is a load optimisation system with 8 to 64 channels that sheds or delays large loads to keep peak demand down.

Software

METRAVIEW is a web-based platform for acquiring, storing and visualising energy and process data, and METRAVIEW Energy adds the energy management module: energy performance indicators, Sankey diagrams, cost reports and support for ISO 50001.

Test and measurement instruments

Most of the catalogue is portable test equipment: PROFITEST installation testers and METRALINE single-function testers for checks to IEC 60364 and DIN VDE 0100-600 (installation testing), SECUTEST appliance testers for DIN EN 50678 and 50699 (device testing), METRAHIT multimeters and test adapters for AC charging points (e-mobility testing). The site also sells the group's other brands, including Seaward testers and Camille Bauer and Dranetz power quality instruments. Calibration, repair and rental run through Calibrationhouse, the exclusive factory service partner for the Gossen Metrawatt portfolio, which states DAkkS and UKAS accredited laboratories (service page).

Meters and instruments are sold as hardware through the company's sales team and distributors such as Bürklin; METRAVIEW is sold as software with item numbers per module.

Technology

The ENERGYMID meters are four-module DIN-rail devices, 72 mm wide, powered from the measuring voltage and sampling continuously at 32 samples per period, according to the data sheet. Each meter has either two pulse outputs or one bus interface. Meter parameters and readings survive a power failure, the cover can be sealed and configuration can be locked, and the display changes colour to flag installation errors such as a wrong phase sequence or reversed transformer polarity.

The Modbus RTU interface description documents the serial protocol in detail. Addresses run from 1 to 247, speeds from 300 to 115,200 baud, and the meter answers function code 4 for measured values and function code 3 for parameters, with function 16 for writing parameters and 8 for diagnostics. It offers two register layouts: a flexible Modbus-standard address space and a fixed block layout. The Ethernet versions add Modbus TCP, BACnet IP and HTTP access through a built-in web server, and the company says their firmware can be updated in the field (TCP/IP version).

The LoRaWAN versions transmit in the 868 MHz ISM band at 14 dBm with 125 kHz channels (data sheet); the launch announcement describes bidirectional communication with AES encryption and no battery, and the trade portal Industry EMEA carried the launch in June 2025.

Approval is under the Measuring Instruments Directive 2014/32/EU by conformity assessment modules B and D. The operating instructions give the type-examination certificate numbers for the direct (EM228x) and transformer (EM238x) families and separate certificates for the variants with the PTB-A 50.7 load profile, which records 15-minute values with an operating and calibration logbook. They also give an eight-year calibration validity in Germany and a three-year guarantee.

On the software side, METRAVIEW Energy connects to meters and third-party systems over OPC UA, Modbus, MQTT, MSCONS and Gossen's own Energy Control Language (ECL), which the SU1604 summator also uses over up to four TCP/IP sockets alongside RS-232, RS-485 and the proprietary ECS-LAN bus.

Markets

Gossen Metrawatt sells to electricians, installers, industrial maintenance teams, hospitals and utilities. Its site groups applications into industry and trade, healthcare, mobility, and smart grid and energy efficiency, with dedicated material on testing photovoltaic systems, battery storage and AC charging stations (home page). The energy metering line is aimed at energy data acquisition in industry, commerce and building technology, at billing of sub-tenants and third parties, and, in the LoRaWAN version, at sites without wiring such as construction site distribution boards (ENERGYMID LPWAN announcement).

Germany is the home market. The PTB-A 50.7 load profile option and references to the German energy services law and federal efficiency funding on the site address German compliance needs directly, and the meters are documented in German and English. Outside Germany the group sells through its own subsidiaries: the group structure lists group companies in Italy, the United Kingdom, France, the Czech Republic, Austria, Spain, the Netherlands, China and the United States.

Distribution is also indirect. Electronics distributors such as Bürklin stock ENERGYMID meters, including the LoRaWAN EM2389 for transformer connection. The company runs trade fair appearances for the whole group, such as SPS 2025 in Nuremberg, where it showed ENERGYMID radio meters beside Dranetz power quality analysers and Camille Bauer radio modules (SPS 2025 announcement).

Training is part of the offer. The former Gossen Metrawatt Training Academy became the GMC Instruments Academy in February 2026, offering seminars on electrical safety testing and standards across the group's brands. Calibration and repair for the whole Gossen Metrawatt portfolio go through Calibrationhouse, which says it calibrates more than 10,000 equipment models from over 1,000 manufacturers (service page).

Company

Legal entity

The company is Gossen Metrawatt GmbH, Südwestpark 15, 90449 Nuremberg, registered at the Nuremberg district court under HRB 24602, according to its imprint, which names Markus Belmer and Dr Markus Diehl as managing directors. The register record shows the company registered in September 2008 as GMC-I Messtechnik GmbH and renamed Gossen Metrawatt GmbH in October 2020, a change the group history describes as a commitment to the brand. Kurth Electronic GmbH, a telecommunications test specialist bought in 2016, was merged into it in July 2023, and the production company MTP Messtechnik Produktions GmbH followed on 13 June 2025 (merger notice).

Ownership

Gossen Metrawatt GmbH is owned by GMC-Instruments GmbH, also at Südwestpark 15 (group imprint). The group was built around the 1993 merger under Röchling; new shareholders took over in 2005, and the group bought the US Dranetz-BMI, Daytronic and Electrotek businesses in 2007, which TD World reported as a sale to "Gossen-Metrawatt (GMC-I), of Nuremberg". Seaward followed in 2015 and Kurth Electronic in 2016.

In February 2023 funds advised by KLAR Partners agreed to take a majority of GMC-Instruments from its founder and controlling shareholder Dr Hans-Peter Opitz, who kept a significant minority stake (KLAR Partners announcement; NEON, counsel to Dr Opitz). The group reported revenue of about €120 million for 2022. Its sister companies include Camille Bauer Metrawatt AG in Wohlen, Switzerland, GOSSEN Foto- und Lichtmesstechnik GmbH in Nuremberg and Dranetz Technologies in Edison, New Jersey.

People

Dr Opitz handed the group chief executive role to Joachim Czabanski on 1 July 2023. The group management page now names Frederic Michel as chief executive, Markus Belmer as chief commercial officer and Stefan Glaser as chief financial officer of GMC-Instruments GmbH. Gossen Metrawatt states ISO 9001:2015 certification since 2009 and ISO 14001:2015 (quality page). Headcount and revenue for Gossen Metrawatt GmbH alone are not published.