Lloyd Harrington INTERNATIONAL WHITEGOODS WORKSHOP 16-17 October 2013, Melbourne

Energy Efficient Strategies

  Look at the history of regulation in Australia  Brief overview of Australian process  Assessment of good and bad elements of the

local approach  Some candid views on Europe and US  What an ideal world would look like……

Energy Efficient Strategies

  30 years experience in the energy field  Dealing with appliance efficiency for 25 years   20 years as a technical consultant for

governments in Australia on appliances   20 years experience in national standards

committees for product performance  Nearly 20 years involvement in IEC standards  Broad international experience in energy

Energy Efficient Strategies

  Labelling regulations first introduced in NSW and Victoria in 1986

 All technical requirements included in state regulations

  Test procedures were not in very good shape  As new products were added, the overall

process became very messy  Many errors and mistakes in regulations

Energy Efficient Strategies

 Wilkenfeld Labelling review in 1990 looked at overall system and recommended a national approach

 Wilkenfeld MEPS feasibility study in 1993 - more products to be covered

 Round table with industry in late 1993 recommended a coordinated national approach to regulation – test procedure (Part 1) and detailed regulatory requirements (Part 2) in Australian standards

Energy Efficient Strategies

 Products are selected for regulation based on potential energy savings

  Technical feasibility assessed  Regulatory impact statement formally

assesses costs and benefits of proposal  Standards and regulations implement

requirements  Ongoing monitoring and evaluation

Energy Efficient Strategies

 Relatively quick to regulate a product  Good collaboration and communication with

industry – fairly transparent process  Standards processes allow close scrutiny of

all technical details  Good data sources available locally –

supports regulatory proposals and evaluation  Historically strong verification program  Good international policy collaboration

Energy Efficient Strategies

 Some government processes resist regulation (reducing green tape, deregulation)

 Very modest resources for analysis and policy support

 Processes are less formal and rigid (a good thing) but this means that progress is more dependent on the good work of officials

 Not enough formal ex post evaluation   Little engagement in international standards

Energy Efficient Strategies

 Australia is a small market, generally cannot push efficiency envelope in isolation beyond world best practice

  Few products are manufactured locally (exception is refrigerators)

 Policy of copying requirements from other countries has been quite successful – cuts through issue of technical feasibility

Energy Efficient Strategies

 Very process heavy, lot of resources applied   Test procedures generally developed in

isolation from the rest of the world  Wide product coverage  Often push efficiency envelope  Approaches to MEPS and labelling less

dynamic, Energy Star quite dynamic

Energy Efficient Strategies

 Process well defined, lot of resources, but many external influences on decision making

 Sometimes over-complicate the issue – appears to be a lot of horse trading

  Little engagement with ISO and IEC  Wide product coverage  Often push efficiency envelope   Label re-grading – long term issue

Energy Efficient Strategies

  Regulations need to reward products that reduce energy across the range of typical use

  Strong engagement in international standards to make these globally applicable (not all international standards are fit for purpose)

  Strengthen policy collaboration on approaches to energy efficiency – harmonisation on metrics and thresholds

  Better tools and agreed approaches for evaluation and comparisons

Energy Efficient Strategies

Thank you