Standard & Labelling (S & L)

Location:
India
Type of policy:
Minimum energy performance standards
Implementation period:
2006 to present
Year of latest revision:
2010
Title in original language:
Standard & Labelling

The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) initiated the Standards and Labeling (S&L) program for equipment and appliances in 2006, it intended to reduce the energy consumption of appliance without diminishing the services it provides to consumers. Further, the standards and label have been made more stringent and periodically newer minimum energy performance criteria were introduced. As a result, the least-efficient products remove from the market and more efficient products were introduced. At present the scheme is invoked for 21 equipment/appliances 8 of these product groups have mandatory requirements, 13 product groups are under a voluntary scheme.

During the 11th Five-year plan (2007–2012), the Standards and Labeling scheme created a good impact among consumers to purchase energy efficient equipment and was responsible for market transformation towards energy efficient products through a structured consumer awareness program. It resulted in an avoided capacity generation of 7,766MW (Bureau of Energy Efficiency, 2015).

Summary

The section 14 of the Energy Conservation Act 2001 empowered the Central Government to notify Minimum Energy Performance Standards & Energy Labels (S&L) for appliances in order to demonstrate the benefits of energy efficiency through reduced energy consumption. The key objective of the S&L program is to provide the consumer an informed choice about the energy consumption of equipment/appliances and the energy saving potentials.

In the year 2002 Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) was established as the nodal central agency for the implementation and monitoring of the Act. The act empowered BEE and the central government to specify energy consumption standards, prohibiting the manufactures from selling or importing equipment that do not meet the energy consumption standards in India. The Standards & Labelling Program under the Energy Conservation Act was launched by BEE in May 2006 for its voluntary adoption in the country. BEE prescribed minimum energy performance standards for various appliances and started implementing them by affixing the energy labels on the appliances. The fixation of labels on the appliances created a general awareness about energy efficient products, which led to a market transformation towards energy efficient products.

The main objective behind affixing the labels was to provide the consumer with the information about the achievable energy saving and thereby the cost saving potential of the marketed household and other equipment. Presently the Standard and Labelling scheme covers for 21 appliances in India out of which 8 are in the mandatory category and the remaining 13 are in voluntary category.

The Bureau acts as the monitoring and regulatory agency for the S&L scheme and has prescribed schedules for various appliances and the details for the same, are already available on BEE’s website. These schedules contain the information regarding the testing and labelling procedures and the periodic changes that are required for the introduction of newer more energy efficient products in the market.

The label provides the following information:

Appliance (type)
Energy Consumption per Year (CEC)
Model Name/Number, Year of Manufacturing
Brand
Type
Gross Volume
Storage Volume
Label Period

Success factors

Direct benefit to the end consumer.
The guidelines of the standard regarding the energy performance are tabulated and well laid in the schedules. The test procedures for the same are mentioned and the standards and codes to be followed for the test procedures are also given making it easy fort he manufactures to understand and implement.
Policy schedules were well laid out and readily available.
Focuses for the benefit of both the end user and manufacturer.
Realistic energy efficiency goals were set.

Factors to avoid

A stringent quality check with proper sampling size is required when procured through bulk purchase to avoid the end-user complaints for poor quality.

Other examples

Super Energy Efficient Program (SEEP): The program aimed to achieve market transformation towards super energy efficient products by making them available at rates comparable to products existing in the market. The fans are selected as the first potential appliance and the future target is to introduce super energy efficient air conditioners.
Top- Runner Program- Japan: The program targeted on setting mandatory energy efficiency standards based on the most energy efficient products already present in the market.

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Find essential basics on this good practice policy example and explore how this example was applied

Situation at outset

The policy was enacted to improve the energy efficiency in consumer appliances, the market growth in consumer appliance is observed to be of 15%. S and L program drives the market and consumers towards the adoption of efficient appliances.
In addition, in residential units consumer appliances has maximum share in energy consumption. The program was started with most widely used appliances with plans to further increase the number of appliances in both mandatory and voluntary.

Compliance:
The program was launched in the year 2006 and since then it has contributed to significant energy savings. In the calendar year of 2012-2013 it contributed to a savings of 4,608 MU, equivalent to avoided capacity generation of 2,649.8 MW (Bureau of Energy Efficiency, 2013).

Aim of policy

The key objective of the S&L program is to provide the consumer an informed choice about the energy consuming of equipment/appliances.

Governance level

It is a national policy.

Related appliances

The following appliances have been covered in the program in both the mandatory and voluntary schemes:

Refrigerators and freezers
Clothes Washers
Clothes Dryers
Kitchen stoves and ovens
Television
Monitors
Computer
Office equipment (Copiers, Fax machines, Printer, Server etc.)
Tubular Fluorescent Lamps
Electric Geysers
Ceiling Fans
Led Lamps
Domestic LPG Stoves
Distribution Transformer
Induction Motors
Agricultural Pump sets
Ballast (Electronic/Magnetic)
Diesel Engine Driven Monoset Pumps for Agricultural Purposes
Solid State Inverter
Diesel Generator

Actions targeted

Improvement of energy performance of consumer appliances available in market.
Increasing acceptance of efficient appliances among consumers and manufacturers.

The minimum energy efficiency requirements of appliances are mentioned in various schedules present on the BEE’s website and are as follows:

For example, Schedule 5 describes the requirement and testing methodology for direct cool refrigerator. Comparative energy consumption requirement for star labelling is defined in the table 2.2 of schedule 5. In addition, since the direct cool refrigerator is under mandatory compliance list the efficiency level required for achieving 1 star becomes MEPS for Direct cool refrigerator.

BEE revises the efficiency levels required for the appliances from time to time. For direct cool refrigerators any appliance manufactured with efficiency equivalent to 1 star level of 2016 will not receive star label in 2017, as it will not meet the current efficiency level required by the program.

The products, which are commonly used and have maximum penetration among consumers, are kept in mandatory and appliances, which will exhibit potential growth in population but are not very common, are kept in voluntary list.

List of mandatory appliances and corresponding schedules under S&L program

S.No.	Equipment	Schedule
1	Frost Free (NoFrost) Refrigerator	Schedule 1
2	Tubular Fluorescent Lamps	Schedule 2
3	Room Air Conditioners	Schedule 3
4	RAC (Cassette, Floor Standing Tower, Ceiling, Corner AC)	Schedule 3(A)
5	Distribution Transformer	Schedule 4
6	Direct Cool Refrigerator	Schedule 5
7	Electric Geysers	Schedule 10
8	Color TV	Schedule 11

List of voluntary appliances and corresponding schedules under S&L program

S. No.	Equipment	Schedule
1	Induction Motors	Schedule 6
2	Agricultural Pump sets	Schedule 7
3	Ceiling Fans	Schedule 8
4	Domestic Liquified Petroleum Gas Stoves	Schedule 9
5	Washing Machines	Schedule 12
6	Computer (Notebook/Laptops)	Schedule 14
7	Ballast (Electronic/Magnetic)	Schedule 15
8	Office equipment's (Printer, Copier, Scanner, MFD’s)	Schedule 16
9	Diesel Engine Driven Monoset Pumps for Agricultural Purposes	Schedule 13
10	Solid State Inverter	Schedule 17
11	Diesel Generator	Schedule 18
12	VARIABLE CAPACITY AIR CONDITIONERS	Schedule 19
13	LED LAMPS	Schedule 20

Target groups

Relevant target groups

Manufacturer Manufacturers are the targeted group for Standard and labelling as they can bring about a market transformation towards energy efficiency.
User The whole Standard and labelling program focuses upon the savings that the end user can achieve. Consumers are targeted to adopt efficient appliance by displaying performance of appliance in simple and comprehensive graphical display. The potential saving in operating cost throughout the equipment life drives the consumers towards buying efficient appliances.
Consumer organisation Consumer organizations play a key role in convincing the manufacturer and seller regarding the market transformation and promote energy efficiency.

Beneficiaries

Direct beneficiaries

User
End users get an informed choice of the energy efficient appliances and therefore it results in energy cost savings to them. An energy label allows consumers to more easily calculate running costs of products and to compare the energy consumption between different appliances.

Indirect beneficiaries

Manufacturer
Newer products can be launched with less competition, increased demand of high efficiency products, market transformation, easier to introduce and market newer technologies.
Sales person
Customers generally tend to purchases newer and less energy consuming products resulting in more sales.

Barriers addressed

Relevant barriers

Organisational barriers:
The investor-user barrier: The investor may not be the one who has the financial benefit. Standards guarantee a mandatory minimum efficiency level of energy-using products for all products on the market.
Lack of interest and motivation in energy efficiency-improvement: Companies, organizations and households often focus on their core activities only. A label can have a significant influence on the consumer. Customer willingness to not invest in high cost of labelled products could be a motivation for manufacturers to not invest in energy efficiency improvements, especially at the top spectrum.

Policy package

The S&L program is a package in itself combining the labelling scheme with MEPS to drive the market transformation towards the efficient appliances on a dual front. One aspect pushes the supply side to produce efficient appliances on the other hand the labelling scheme pulls the consumers to adopt more efficient appliances.
The policy relies on the codes for standard test procedures defined by Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).

Policy innovation

The policy includes various appliances, residential as well as industrial and the whole package delivered the committed energy savings in each phase by bringing both residential and industrial appliances under the S&L umbrella.

The policy has combined the MEPS and Labelling in one package making it easier to implement. The combined package is more effective as it tackles the market transformation towards efficiency from a dual front.

Possible further improvements

The policy has embedded elements of future improvements such as:

Addition of more appliances in both mandatory and voluntary category
Shifting voluntary appliances to mandatory category
Periodic revision of efficiency levels required for different star rating levels

Find out how this good practice policy example was implemented and explore the associated factors and side-effects

Preconditions for implementation

Agencies or other actors responsible for implementation:Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE)

Funding:BEE is a government subsidiary organization, which is working in partnership with many international agencies like UNDP & GEF. However, major portion of the funding for the S & L program was provided by the government of India.

Test procedures:
The test procedures are usually carried out as per BIS/IS codes and are referred to in the relevant schedule for each appliance. The manufacturers have to submit the test reports of the products in order to receive the label. The testing can be done in any National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) Accredited Lab (can be in house or third party as well). There are provisions for checks and measures. BEE can randomly check the performance of any labelled appliance available in market without any advance notice.

Steps of design and implementation

Policy was formed with background research on appliances available in market, efficiency levels, demand projections and energy saving potential in different appliance categories. Realistic targets for appliances were kept initially.

Appliances were selected based on the following factors:

Appliances that use a significant amount of energy
Appliances that are present in most households or where rapid growth is predicted
Appliances for which energy efficient technology exists but is not being used by manufacturers
Appliances for which there is a significant variation in the energy efficiency of different units

Minimum efficiency levels for different star levels are defined and revised by BEE from time to time for all appliances. Test procedures are defined by BIS in respective IS Codes.

Quantified target
By the end of 12th five year plan, the policy aims to have 20 equipment under voluntary phase.

Actors responsible for design and implementation

Actors responsible for design

BEE
CLASP

Actors responsible for implementation

Monitoring and evaluation

Monitoring
The monitoring is done by BEE, which keeps a record of the manufactured units, details about the performance of the appliance etc.

Evaluation
An evaluation of the S&L scheme does not exist.

Policy dynamics and handling side-effects

Dynamic market transformation and or innovationThe policy aims at market transformation and innovation for new products, as it changes the minimum energy performance criteria periodically and creates awareness in the public regarding the benefits of energy efficient products. Thereby, the manufacturers are bound to search for newer products in order to sustain in the competitive market.

Avoiding lost opportunities
By setting minimum energy performance standards and by promoting the most energy-efficient appliances, MEPS and energy labels help consumers to avoid buying inefficient appliances (which would be a lost opportunity to save energy).

Minimizing snap-back effects
The efficiency levels are regularly revised and the policy does not have any financial support mechanism, the snap back effect will not affect the framework of the S&L program.

Minimizing free-rider effects
Free-rider effects are likely to be very marginal.

Creating spill-over effects
The policy provides information to consumers and generate awareness, by providing active choice towards more efficient appliances. The policy stimulates the demand for efficient appliances.

Sustainability aspects and co-benefits

The policy is designed to promote sustainability, as the use of energy efficient products reduces the energy intensity.

Implementation barriers

Key barriers of policy implementation includes:

Lack of testing infrastructure nationwide for different appliances
Lack of testing standards for all appliances
Wide market share of unorganized and small manufacturers
Capacity for check testing and reinforcement within the government
Cost of energy efficient appliance and R&D cost for technology improvement

Find out the potential impacts of this good practice policy example alongside energy savings and cost effectiveness.

Achieved energy savings

During the period of 2012-2013, energy savings are estimates at 2,649.8MW (Bureau of Energy Efficiency, 2013).

Authors

Singhal, Akhil (Lead author)
Tholen, Lena (Reviewer)

References and further reading

Bureau of Energy Efficiency. (2013). Annual Report 2012-2013. Bureau of Energy Efficiency.
Bureau of Energy Efficiency. (2015). Annual Report. Bureau of Energy Efficiency.

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Standard & Labelling (S & L)

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List of mandatory appliances and corresponding schedules under S&L program