Asia-Pacific Partnership Buildings and Appliances Taskforce

Harmonization of Testing Procedures - Workshop on the Electric Motors Project

Kunlun Hotel, Beijing 10th June 2007

The Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate (APP) is an initiative to accelerate the development and deployment of clean energy technologies. The Partner countries are Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea and the United States of America. The Partners have agreed to collaborate to promote and create an enabling environment for the development, diffusion, deployment and transfer of cleaner technologies and practices through a series of Task Forces.

The Buildings and Appliances Task Force (BATF). The BATF has agreed to a series of projects proposals, details of which can be by clicking here.

One of these projects, Harmonization of Test Procedures, aims to eliminate major barriers to developing successful standards and labeling programs. This project wants to develop enabling arrangements for harmonized test procedures for four technologies including electric motors. Almost 40 participants from Partner countries (and invited electric motor efficiency experts) gathered at this initial workshop to scope the nature of this project. The workshop was convened by the Australian Government with the help of Chinese government agencies.

The workshop discussed the suitability and potential design of several project proposals for APP member countries which aim to improve the efficiency of electric motors and motor driven systems. The workshop meeting preceded a global gathering of world experts at the Energy Efficiency in Motor Driven Systems Conference (EEMODS 07) allowing many of the world pre-eminent experts to participate.

The participants agreed the goal of their workshop was to:

Consider developing proposals for practical projects in the field of electric motor efficiency;
Develop a process and timetable under which APP member countries could take decisions to participate in the potential electric motor projects;
Explore how APP member countries can best monitor the range of international initiatives currently ongoing in this field;
Consider the merits of APP member countries coordinating with or even leading these other initiatives within their own project framework.

Electric Motors use upwards of 40% of global electricity and the electricity consumed by motors accounts for more than 95% of their lifecycle costs. Despite being globally traded, they remain regulated on a national basis resulting in a multiplicity of test and performance requirements, even with APP countries. The benefits of harmonisation for all stakeholders are obvious:

Suppliers - reduced costs for manufacturers/increased range of products available in individual markets
Regulators - increase options for regulators/programmes to undertake voluntary or mandatory actions
Compliance - increased potential for improved quality of product through more robust compliance locally and pan-nationally
Public - increased consumer knowledge/choice and reduces their overall costs

The workshop was able to resolve agreement from all participants that two possible projects would not only contribute to the APP agenda but could also coordinate (and in some aspects lead) the global agenda for harmonised motor driven systems.

Possible Project 1 - Motors

Participants agreed that there is clearly a need for consistency in definitions, test methodologies and enforcement but these should not be static. They agreed to support calls for benchmarking activities.

APP countries are currently using either one of two widely used motor testing methodologies. One is the same procedure that is used in Europe and some APP countries while the other is used predominantly in Japan and the US. The International Electrotechnology Commission (IEC) is moving towards establishment of a harmonised test standard containing these two methodologies. While these methodologies are moving toward equivalence, scope exists for comparative studies to inform each APP country about the two methodologies.

Participants agreed to support a possible project that would:

Create a "Government" forum to facilitate a dialogue between government officials responsible for or interested in sharing experience and data of using a particular testing methodology and performance requirements or labels;
Create a "Technical Exchange" forum which would start with round robin testing of motors in each of the participating APP countries comparing the two commonly used test methodologies. This would lead to information concerning the accuracy and repeatability of the testing procedures and would inform policy makers of the pros and cons of using each of the standards. If participants chose to migrate from one test methodology to another they would be able support each other in this process. They would also be able to work together to establish which performance standards were most suitable for their jurisdiction; and
Facilitate APP member countries engaging with:
- IEC working groups to ensure outcomes of the standard development process are suitable for use in their countries; and
- Other regional groups working in this field.

Participants considered such a project could be completed within 3 years. Australian participants indicated that their country was ready to lead this aspect of the project.

Possible project 2 - Motor Systems

There was a general consensus that there are large energy savings to be made by improving the efficiency of motor systems. Participants recognised that this is more challenging than just improving the efficiency of a motor. They also recognised that often the most significant factor effecting efficiency is how that system is used. There has been a host of endeavours around the world (eg recent experience in the US in developing system assessment protocols to include measurement and reporting criteria) but translating activity into results has proved very challenging. More recently, some efforts relating to the driven device (ie the pump & fan) are showing promise in Europe. Some international endeavours by the International Energy Agency and global standard-making bodies are also suggesting a more productive approach may be achieved (eg the USA and China are individually looking at energy management processes and procedures being incorporated into factory energy efficiency certification schemes and even linked those schemes to incentive programmes). APP countries already have testing experience with driven devices establishing how their performance can be measured and improved.

Participants discussed a possible project with similar elements to the first that would:

Create a forum for dialogue between governments to share experience of defining the benefits and barriers to legislating for improved efficiency for motor driven systems;
Create a forum for technical exchange which would start with comparing all the test data that is currently available and creating a prioritised list of products that could practically be the subject of energy efficiency performance requirements; and
For priority aspects or entire motor systems, each of the participating APP countries could share experience on working elements and liaise with other regional groups undertaking similar tasks (eg the Energy Using Products (EuP) work being conducted by the European Union).

Participants agreed that, if such a project was commenced, it would take many years to really impact on the efficiency of motor systems. This project should last at least 4 years. Participants were not convinced that they could clearly articulate the scope of the project at this time but all agreed that the promise of the "efficiency dividend" was more than sufficient to agree APP should make a coordinated response in this area. One delegate expressed it in risk management terms which were endorsed by many; "APP cannot afford not to fully explore motor systems, the payoff is too large not to make a concerted and prolonged endeavour".

Proposal Timetable

The workshop convenor (Australia) agreed to produce two project proposals and a background paper that participants could use to inform their APP representatives (by 17th June 2007). They requested participants to commit to the following timetable:

The workshop participants to report their individual recommendations to their national APP BATF representative by no later than 24th June 2007.
The Australian delegate to the APP BTF will contact other country representatives around 30th June asking for advice on three questions:
- Will they support the two project proposals?
- Will they commit their country to be a participant in one or both of the project proposals?
- Will they provide other than in-kind resources to one or both of the project proposals?

Australia will table the views of all member countries in a paper prepared for BATF consideration at the meeting scheduled for 16th July in Seoul. The workshop convenors undertook to inform participants of the outcome of those deliberations