yup, there's protection on both sides of the meter.
The power company provides it with a service fuse, which is very similar to the UK version.
The meter has an isolating switch on the bottom to allow any electrician working on the system to totally isolate it.
and then on the consumer unit we have another main fuse and isolating switch. Sometimes this is provided by a Minized switch/fuse unit.
Older installations wouldn't have the isolating switch on the meter but would still have fuse protection on both sides and a main isolator on the fuse board.
It's just the way it's always been done.
They've been VERY slow to allow anything other than a melting VDE specified (i.e. neozed) fuse as the main protection on the consumer unit. a Main MCB is a very new departure and is still rare.
