U.S. Proposed Battery Charger Standard Moving Forward

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has just published a new Federal Register notification regarding its March 2012 notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR) on efficiency standards for External Power Supplies (EPS) and Battery Chargers (BC). While many stakeholders were hoping for a final decision on the proposed efficiency levels by now, the DOE's latest notification is a request for information (RFI).

The reason for the RFI is that the California Energy Commission (CEC) adopted its own state BC efficiency standard that became effective this past February. So, the DOE is seeking information and test data on BCs that manufacturers have certified as “California” compliant, to determine if their previous technical analysis needs to be revised. If the DOE finds any new information that was not considered in the March 2012 NOPR, it could decide to revise the analysis to see if alternative energy conservation standards are needed. The DOE would then issue a supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking (SNOPR) and allow stakeholders an opportunity to comment.

Some of the issues that the DOE is requesting comments and information on include:

• Product design and technologies that manufacturers are using to meet the CEC standard
• Product costs (if any) that manufacturers incurred to meet the new standard including engineering, design, and manufacturing
• Any products that are no longer offered for sale in California due to the standard

A complete list of DOE questions can be found in the Request for Information notification by clicking here. Stakeholder comments on the issues are invited and can be submitted here by May 28, 2013. All notices, public comments, public meeting transcripts, and supporting documents associated with this rulemaking are included in Docket No. EERE-2008-BT-STD-0005.