standards

Based on a Discussion Webinar, Friday 25th April 2008

The EU directive on the labelling of household appliances is a success. Since its entry into force in 1992, efficiency of appliances has risen considerably. With directive currently under revision, there is an opportunity to take the next step.

Should this programme also be extended to other products such as industrial equipment, for example? Or even to entire systems such as buildings? But maybe there are already too many labels on the market, to the confusion of consumers? How can the accuracy of label attribution be monitored, and should labelling programmes be accompanied by Minimum Efficiency Performance Standards (MEPS)? Finally, should labelling promote the best products or phase out the most inefficient products from the market?

These and other questions were addressed in a Discussion Webinar on 25th April 2008. Below are a few of the highlights from that discussion.

The European labelling scheme

Refrigerators are an excellent example demonstrating the impact of the EU labelling directive. The majority of refrigerators sold have shifted from efficiency categories D and E in 1992 to A and B in 2003. The categories with lower efficiency, E, F and G - about 50% of the market share in 1992 - have almost disappeared.

However, the current directive has a few shortcomings. Unlike safety labels, efficiency labels are not compulsory for all classes of electrical equipment. Furthermore, only “cold appliances” (freezers and refrigerators) are subject to MEPS.

By M Bollen et al

This paper presents the status of the work in C4.110, a joint working group by CIGRE, CIRED and UIE. The scope of the working group is to gather technical knowledge on the immunity of equipment, installations and processes against voltage dips, and to use this knowledge in the further development of methods and standards. The activities of the working group are divided in seven “chapters”, where the work has started in three chapters: “equipment and process performance”, “voltage dip characteristics” and “economics and probabilities”.

The increase in energy demand, the growing instability in energy supply and the EU CO² emmissions reduction commitments have stressed the need for an international strategy on energy efficiency and the diversification of energy sources.

Energy efficiency is, then, a topic which can be found at every international standardisation level (ISO, IEC, CEN, CENELEC, ITU-T, ETSI). This series of short articles aims at providing a brief summary of the main activities currently ongoing by the various international standardisation bodies relevant this field of interest.


European Commission-JRC

The European Commission, through its research center located in Ispra, Italy (Joint Research Centre, JRC), since 2003 has undertaken activities of analysis, proposal, and voluntary protocols (Code of Conduct) on energy efficiency, aiming mainly (but not only) at equipment standby consumption reduction.
Currently CoCs deal with:

• External Power Supply: CoC related to efficiency and no load consumption of external power supply devices (ac/dc type.)
  
• UPS: first version of this CoC was published in December 2006.
  
• Digital TV services: CoC related to TV equipment and Set Top Boxes.
  
• Broadband systems (both Network and User side.) CoC BB has been developed by: Regulators, Operators and system manufacturers. In particular, with reference to operators, this CoC can be adopted on a voluntary basis starting from January 2007.
  
• Internet Data Center: This CoC deals with power consumption, conditioning techniques, virtualisation, metrics and methods for data gathering. The importance is related to consumption share of IDCs, which is very relevant today (approximately 10%-20% of operators industrial consumption) and most of all, continuously increasing. Main regulators active on this topic are: Green Grid (EPA), UK (MTP), Australia, Swiss and Cina. The activities started in 2007.

The increase in energy demand, the growing instability in energy supply and the EU CO² emmissions reduction commitments have stressed the need for an international strategy on energy efficiency and the diversification of energy sources.

Energy efficiency is, then, a topic which can be found at every international standardisation level (ISO, IEC, CEN, CENELEC, ITU-T, ETSI). This series of short articles provides a brief summary of the main activities currently on going by the various international standardisation bodies relevant to this field of interest.


ETSI

For several years, the telecommunication world has made energy efficiency an internal requirement to optimise consumption and reduce costs, as well as impact for users.

In 2007, ETSI inserted this topic among its strategical fields.

In 2006, study points on power management for xDSL were created by ETSI TM6. Activities are supported by all main European operators.

Also, ETSI EE (Environmental Engineering) started similar activities related to system consumption and aiming to define extended environmental ranges in order to reduce conditioning impact, in particular focusing on new generation network architecture (NGN).

In September 2007, a new version of the document ETSI TS 102 533, “Energy consumption in Broadband Telecommunication Network Equipment” was published. This document, (prepared with reference to CoC BB published by the European Commission) shoots for the definition of consumption thresholds and methodologies and tests for broadband devices consumption measurements.


ITU-T

Starting from 2006, study points on power management for xDSL have been created by ITU-T (in particular Study Group 15).

Activities are supported by AT&T, Belgacom, BT, Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom, KPN, NTT, Swisscom, Telecom Italia, Telenor and TeliaSonera.

A document is currently under development that defines requirements (as defined by operators) for broadband ADSL and VDSL2 devices consumption reduction without creating instability on telecommunication network. This document in particular is focused on the new technical solution called “low power mode,” which allows the reduction of device consumption during limited data transmission flow operating times.

The increase in energy demand, the growing instability in energy supply and the EU CO² emmissions reduction commitments have stressed the need for an international strategy on energy efficiency and the diversification of energy sources.

Energy efficiency is, then, a topic which can be found at every international standardisation level (ISO, IEC, CEN, CENELEC, ITU-T, ETSI). This series of short articles provides a brief summary of the main activities currently on going by the various international standardisation bodies relevant to this field of interest.

ISO

In 2005, the ISO General Assembly highlighted the importance of the relationship between standardisation, competitiveness and innovation and expressed the opinion that ISO should foster new initiatives and be more proactive in order to anticipate new fields where international standardisation might support the dissemination of innovation.

As a follow-up to this recommendation, (set forth in General Assembly Resolution 5/2005,) and further to the proposal developed by CSC/STRAT, based on the work done by the “Task force on innovative fields of work for ISO,” the ISO Council has approved, through its resolution 35/2006, a pilot process to complement the existing approaches for identifying and prioritising innovative fields of work. In this resolution, the Secretary-General is asked  to initiate the pilot implementation of the process immediately, starting with the field of energy efficiency and renewable energy sources, to be followed, in a timeframe dependent on available resources, by biotechnology.

IEC

IEC created a working group (SMB-SG1) aiming to analyse the current situation in the field of energy efficiency standardisation (as awell as renewables) and to identify standardisation gaps and opportunities.
The kick-off meeting of this Task Force took place in May 2007.

The group eventually agreed to the following Terms of Reference (ToR):

• to analyse the status quo in the field of energy efficiency and renewable energy sources (existing IEC standards, ongoing projects)
  
• to identify “white spots”/gaps/opportunities and find new ways of achieving energy efficiency in the electrotechnical domain
  
• to set objectives for electrical energy efficiency (EEE) in products and systems
  
• to formulate recommendations for further actions

The increase in energy demand, the growing instability in energy supply and the EU CO² emmissions reduction commitments have stressed the need for an international strategy on energy efficiency and the diversification of energy sources.

Energy efficiency is, then, a topic which can be found at every international standardisation level (ISO, IEC, CEN, CENELEC, ITU-T, ETSI). This series of short articles provides a brief summary of the main activities currently on going by the various international standardisation bodies relevant to this field of interest.

CEN-CENELEC

CEN and CENELEC responded to these challenges and created a horizontal advisory structure (Sector Forum) that can draw from an extended community of experts in a position to identify the standardisation needs in the field of energy management, including its relation to EU legislation.

The first meeting of the Sector Forum took place in 2006.

It is designed:

• to maintain and enlarge the network of partners created during the lifetime of the CEN/CENELEC BT JWG “Energy Management”, especially with regards to new members
  
• to initiate further investigation and to evaluate in which field or for which subject, further standardisation work is needed
  
• to coordinate ongoing European Standardisation activities concerning Energy Management
  
• to organize the CEN and CENELEC response to European legislation and Europe general strategy in the Energy Management sector
  
• to maintain the exchange of information, experience and prospecting, especially on the initiatives in course in the different countries or at European level

The other main initiative undertaken has probably been the creation in 2002 of a joint CEN/CENELEC Working Group: BT/JWG "Energy Management”. Main objective of this working group is to act as advisory group for CEN and CENELEC technical boards on all political and strategic matters related to standardisation in the field of energy efficiency.

The JWG finalized its activity results with a comprehensive report providing a summary of main priorities identified for standardisation activities on energy management field. In particuar it's possible to highlight the following priorities:

• energy efficiency and saving calculations
• energy management and services – general requirements and qualification procedures
  

These priorities led to the creation of two joint CEN/CENELEC task forces.

In June 2006, Joint Technical Board Task Force 190 (BT/TF 190, Energy efficiency and saving calculations) began work on the elaboration of standards for common methods of calculation of energy consumption, energy efficiencies and energy savings. The aim is to develop a common measurement and verification protocol and a methodology for energy use indicators. The inaugural meeting of this Task Force took place in March 2007.

Joint Technical Board Task Force 189 (BT/TF 190, “Energy management and services - General requirements and qualification procedures”.)

BT/TF 189 main activities are focused on the definition of requirements and qualification procedures for ESCOs and on the development of a European Standard on the "Energy Management System”. The inaugural meeting of this Task Force took place in November 2006.

This publication by IEC summarizes the international standards work carried out by TC 4, TC 82, TC 88 and TC 105 in the areas of water, sun, wind and alternative energy fuel cells.

IEC is active in this area through:

• Technical Committee 4, Hydraulic turbines
  
• Technical Committee 82, Solar photovoltaic energy systems
  
• Technical Committee 88, Wind turbines
  
• Technical Committee 114, Marine energy - wave and tidal energy converters
  
• Technical Committee 105, Fuel cell technologies
  

In certification, the IEC System for Conformity Testing and Certification of Electrical Equipment and Components (IECEE) is available and, for photovoltaics, includes an IECEE PV Scheme. For wind turbines, certification is under consideration.

The new EN 50464-1 Standard on three-phase oil-immersed distribution transformers 50 Hz, covering transformers up to 36 kV with power from 50 kVA to 2 500 kVA intended for indoor or outdoor continuous service introduced some remarkable new prescriptions on losses and efficiency according to a specific request by the European Commission.
In particular, for transformers with voltage up to 24 kV, Chapter 3.8, dedicated to losses and sound power levels it introduces new high efficency classes related to load and no load losses.

Table 2, dedicated to load losses, introduces a new high efficiency class increasing the total class number to four, and a new classification scheme for transformers similar to domestic appliances classification (A_k, B_k, C_k, D_k classes) where more efficient transformers are labelled as A_k class (old classification scheme, A, B, C had most efficient transformers labelled as C.)

Table 3, dedicated to no load losses, indroduces two new high efficiency classes with the same classification scheme adopted for load losses where new classes are labelled, starting from more efficient transformers, as A₀, B₀, C₀, D₀, E₀.

Classes for transformers with voltage equal to 36kV are different and defined in tables 4 and 5. For these transformers three classes are defined: (A_k36, B_k36, C_k36 for load losses and A₀₃₆, B₀₃₆, C0₃₆ for no load losses.)

A publication by IEC, summarising the international standards work carried out by IEC technical committees and emphasising future directions in the field of efficiency in energy distribution and transmission, contains a reference to the Leonardo ENERGY community on page 14:

"According to the Leonardo ENERGY website, which is the global community for sustainable energy  professionals: “The worldwide electricity savings’ potential of switching to high efficiency transformers is estimated to be 200 TWh. This savings potential is not only technically advantageous, but also brings economic and environmental benefits. Taking the full life cycle cost into account, selecting high efficiency transformers is often an economically sound investment decision despite their higher purchase price.”"

 From a discussion among Leonardo ENERGY staff:

A Leonardo partner, who is very happy about the Leonardo site, has a problem with excessive leakage currents and has found nothing here. Yes, this is a concern, but what can we do?

The standards reflect little about it, and where they do, they stipulate things which either miss the point or are absolutely impossible to implement.

The most interesting standardisation working groups are those dealing with standards that do not yet exist but should exist, i. e. deal with new, previously unknown problems.

This topic also includes yet another language concern: In Germany we have founded another term for leakage current (Leckstrom) which expresses that we are not dealing with a leak but with a deliberate, “normal” operating current (Ableitstrom), which abuses the PE (protective earth) conductor that was designed to carry fault currents only. Now, if you go to www.electropedia.org (the new portal of IEV), then you find “leakage current” in either case.

Stefan Fassbinder

There is a section in the UK wiring regulations - 543.7 - which replaces an earlier section - 607 - that covered the 'special circumstances' of earth leakage.

Basically, it states that if the leakage current for a circuit (i.e total for all appliances on the circuit) is, or may reasonably expected to be, above 10 mA, something must be done to make the PE conductor more resilient, such as dual conductors, larger sized PE plus a metal conduit or wire screen, or using an isolation transformer to localise the leakage. This applies to virtually all final circuits these days; we use ring circuits - so there are two PE conductors, and fittings with dual PE connectors (only one wire in each) - which satisfies the regulation. Then the user plugs four leaky
appliances into a multiway block with a single dodgy PE conductor - but the standards don't cover that!

Of course, we live in a culture where, for over 50 years, the PE and N are believed to be different from each other and are 'never' knowingly connected in an installation. It may be more difficult in a PEN oriented culture.

I have an interesting leakage problem. I bought two network attached storage hard drives which are in metal cases and have external plug-type power modules (with earth pins). They weigh nearly nothing, so no transformer. The power units are marked as Class 2 and CE compliant. When connected to the drive box and powered, the case sits at about 95V wrt the 'earth' potential of other devices. The short circuit current between the case and 'earth' is just under 3.5 mA. So this is a standard poor quality mains filter with the centre point connected to the dc output, but NOT to the input PE! So, is the Class 2 marking valid - does the output connection count as an exposed conducting part - and is the CE marking legal? The main point that this highlights is that the disk box itself does not need to comply with anything despite being part of a system that can expose the user to risk.

I have connected the cases to earth, of course, but these are 'high street' items from a well known distributor (but an unknown Chinese manufacturer) and there must be rather a lot of them in use. 

David Chapman


The clause mentioned by David comes from IEC (IEC 364 Art.707.471.3.3.1) which can also be found in Italian standards.

Angelo Baggini

The World Energy Congress organised in Rome, Italy (11-15 November  2007) included a session on the role of International Standards, in collaboration with the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).

It provided an overview of the key role that International Standards can play in supporting the development and promotion of energy efficiency and renewable energy sources.

International Standards were recognised as part of the solution to today’s energy issues for the following reasons:

• they help avoid unnecessary technical barriers to trade which might result from national and regional policies
• they are essential for creating global markets for efficient energy technologies and for disseminating good energy management practice
• they provide common metrics for defining and measuring energy performance so that investment decisions and incentives may be targeted to encourage energy efficiency
• they support scientific cooperation and the harmonization of public policies.

Paul Waide, from the International Energy Agency (IEA), presented a joint  IEA-ISO Position Paper on the issue, which was used as background material for the 2007 G8 Meeting.

The ISO Secretary-General, Alan Bryden, and the IEC President, Renzo Tani, outlined the work their organisations are doing in order to promote the goal of a sustainable energy future in this interdependent world.

New Decree 22/1/08 n. 37 (G. U. 12/3/08 n. 61) replacing 46/90 law has become effective.

New 22/1/08 Decree "Regulation for implementation of Art. 11-quaterdecies, paragraph 13, letter a of law N. 248, December 2, 2005, related to reorganization of regulation on installations inside buildings" has been published on the Italian Official Gazette, (12/03/08, N. 61)

Download Decree

Occasional reason for complaints:

Conflicting statements on the same thing in different standards

by Stefan Fassbinder

Different standards often make divergent statements on the same part or component of an installation. This is because, firstly, one standard deals with electrical safety (e. g. IEC 60364-5-54), another one with functionality and EMC (e. g. IEC 60364-4-44) and possibly yet another with lightning protection (e. g.  IEC 62305).

In many cases, the limits given in standards are mere estimates, so the respective bodies, since they all consist of technical experts, will always come to similar, but not necessarily the same limit values! Because standardisation, especially on an international level, is a very complex task, there is often a lack of communication between any two (or even more) bodies dealing with the same object from different perspectives. This is how the conflicting statements come about.

The table below gives a compilation of partly conflicting requirements. At present, attempts are being made to overcome these small, technically irrelevant, but all the more confusing deviations. For instance, the following requirements are given in the present Table 54-2 of draft IEC60364-5-54 (64-1610/CD):

Present draft Table 54-2 (64-1610/CD)
	Buried in the soil		Unburied
Type of protection	Cu	Fe	Cu	Fe
Electric shock	See Table 54-1	See Table 54-1	See clause 543.1.3	See clause 543.1.3
Electric shock & lightning protection	16mm²	50mm²	16mm²	50mm²

Discussion webinar of Friday, March 14th, from 14h30 to 15h30.

Content

Different standards often make (sometimes conflicting) statements on the same part or component of an installation. Furthermore, the process of standardising takes a long time, so sometimes standards are already technically out of date when released. Does this have to be so? What is being done to prevent it? What are the difficulties that international standardisation work has to tackle? This presentation aims to seek some answers.

Presentation from the event

Practical Information

The event will use the Adobe Connect webconferencing system that allows you to join the event at the single click of a button. At the time of the event, simply click http://eci.emea.acrobat.com/webinars/ to enter the webinar room and enter your name. No plug-in is required. Sound is over the internet, so you will need headphones to participate (or a microphone and speakers in a private room.)

Motor driven systems account for approximately 50% of the electricity consumed in Europe.

This kind of device is always characterised by a high efficiency, but considering the large amount of energy consumption, it’s evident how even a small efficiency improvement can lead to relevant energy savings.

In spite of the huge energy savings opportunities, recent market research carried out in several countries pointed out that in European industry, efficient motors and motor systems are far from having a significant quota in today's operating equipment.

The article contains a detailed summary on energy efficient motor system market penetration in Europe.

Introduction

The limitation of disturbances caused by fluctuating loads of medium size, at Low Voltage (LV), concerning appliances with input current > 16 A and  75 A is the subject of this article. Now, why did we develop a practical tool in order to easily assess the disturbances? It's simple: the standards dealing with these issues are not exactly easy in use.

Low-voltage disturbances – flicker & voltage fluctuations

Main sources and examples

Rapid voltage changes in LV networks are mainly caused by fluctuating loads in consumer’s installations, operation of transformer tap changers or other operational adjustments in the system.

Nuisance effects

The main problems are:

• Effects on lighting
  
• Tripping of protections
  
• Fluctuating torque
• Malfunction of electronic devices
  

Limits

A parameter of importance is the network impedance. The relative voltage change associated with a load variation is given by:

with:

U: voltage at the point of connection (Pcc)
Delta P: active power variation
Delta Q: reactive power variation
R: resistance of the network at Pcc
X: reactance of the network at Pcc
At LV, X/R varies between 0,5 and 1 depending on the type of cable or line.

Connection rules applied in Belgium

The basic principle of the connection rules is to find a compromise between the “strength” of the network and the disturbance level caused by consumer’s installations To do this, we need to evaluate the network impedance as defined in IEC 61000-3-11. To continue, the workflow proposed in the figure below is applied.

Figure – Connection assessment of a fluctuating load

To do this, two easy-to-use calculation worksheets have been created with the different variables and calculations to be executed for the assessment.

If the disturbing loads don’t meet those criteria, a supplementary evaluation stage (Stage 3) is considered with other evaluation methods and criteria. Necessary data

The necessary data:

• short-circuit level at the feeding MV/LV substation
  
• transformer characteristics
  
• length and type of cables / lines that connect the load to this substation

Introduction

The limitation of disturbances caused by distorting loads of medium size, at Low Voltage (LV), concerning appliances with input current > 16 A and  75 A is the subject of this article. Now, why did we develop a practical tool in order to easily assess the disturbances? It's simple: the standards dealing with these issues are not exactly easy in use.

Low-voltage disturbances - harmonics

Main sources and examples

Harmonics are mainly caused by non-linear loads. This non-linearity can be intrinsic but can also be the result of repeated commutations of power electronic components.

By D Ilisiu

Transelectrica is the Romanian Transmission and System Operator (TSO). In the company's activities, the Power Quality aspects are very actual and important.

First part of the paper contains the standards and technical requirements regarding the Power Quality aspects included in Romanian technical code of the Electricity Transmission Grid. The reference concerns only the high voltage grid.

The second part of this paper presents the strategy of controlling and monitoring of Power Quality in the transmission system, managed by TSO. Here are insert the main types of measurements, monitoring systems and results The locations, methods, measurements and results, obtained during past years are presented.. There are also results obtained in a substation with multilevel voltage (400/110 kV) by simultaneous measurements.

The third part of this paper presents conclusions on the actual situation of Power Quality in Romanian high voltage grid.

The final part of this paper enlightens the major problems concerning the control of power quality in the high voltage grids. It seams to be necessary to establish minimal requirements, methods of analysis and global performance parameters for Power Quality in interconnected high voltage systems (e.g. UCTE). Similar statistics focused on same parameters, admission limits, rules of analysis and monitor concerning Power Quality could be useful in complex analyses of high voltage system transmission behavior.

View paper (pdf) 

By R Neumann

Power Quality measurement is still a quite embryonic market although there are hundreds of manufacturers around the world. Whereas basic variables like RMS values of voltage and current are well defined, some power quality variables are not. This has led to a situation, that different instruments might show different results. The standard, issued by the International Electrotechnical Commission, IEC 61000-4-30 defines for each type of parameters the measurement methods to obtain reliable, repeatable and comparable results. The objective of this paper is to explain how to measure the most important parameters and to give a little outlook how this standard might evolve and effect the way you need to measure Power Quality.

View paper (pdf)

By S Skundric et al

Realization of metrological supervision is connected with several technical problems during testing of measuring instruments in the substations. Individual accuracy testing of electrical energy meters and instrument transformers could be done in the substations but, these testing require disconnecting or dismounting of controlled measuring instrument. This is comprehensive job which requires additional time and produces a significant financial loss.

Measuring method, presented in the paper, enable accuracy testing of the entire measuring installation without disconnecting or dismounting of the single units. The proposed method requires specific measuring equipment accommodate for the special conditions in the plant. Analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of the proposed measuring method and measuring equipment is shown, especially measuring errors and metrological validity of such accuracy testing.

View paper (pdf)