INdustrial and tertiary product Testing and Application of Standards

Project Information

INTAS

Grant agreement ID: 695943

DOI

10.3030/695943

Project closed

EC signature date 26 January 2016

Start date 1 March 2016

End date 28 February 2019

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Secure, clean and efficient energy

Total cost

€ 1 906 966,25

EU contribution

€ 1 880 448,00

Coordinated by

WIRTSCHAFT UND INFRASTRUKTUR GMBH & CO PLANUNGS KG
Germany

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - INTAS (INdustrial and tertiary product Testing and Application of Standards)

Reporting period: 2017-09-01 to 2019-02-28

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

There is a need to strengthen the capacity of Market Surveillance Authorities (MSAs) to conduct Ecodesign related market surveillance activities with respect to new and pending industrial and tertiary sector products. Especially in the case of customised products which are unsuitable for testing in laboratories, there is a lack of expertise, experience, and resources available across Europe for such kind of testing. An increasing concern is that new regulations addressing these products risk being unenforceable.

The aim of the INTAS project was to address these concerns and provide technical and cooperative support, as well as capacity building activities, to MSAs charged with enforcing these regulations. The need for the INTAS project arose from the difficulty that MSAs and market actors face in establishing and verifying compliance with energy performance requirements for large industrial products subject to requirements of the Ecodesign Directive. The focus of the project was to support compliance for very large industrial products, specifically transformers and industrial fans, with the requirements of the Ecodesign Directive. The energy consumption of transformers and industrial fans is very significant and thus the risk of losses due to poor compliance cannot be ignored.

Fullfilling its aims, INTAS has been able to:
a. support European Member State MSAs deliver compliance for large products (specifically for transformers and large fans);
b. support industry to be sure of what their obligations are under the Ecodesign Directive and to deliver compliance in a manner that will be broadly accepted by MSAs;
c. foster a common European approach to the delivery and verification of compliance for these products.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

INTAS has progressed in accordance to its plan. As a general overview, the following achieved results can be highlighted:
(1)Completion of the first project phase consisting in establishing a clear picture of the existing testing and market surveillance landscape for both large fans and power transformers in Europe.
(2)Establishment of a detailed database of European testing laboratories as useful tool to be exploited by MSAs.
(3)Involvement of a large number of relevant European MSAs in the INTAS information and consultation process mainly through direct participation in the project, membership in the project’s Advisory Board or participation in the European Administrative Cooperation Group (AdCo) on Eco-design. Fostering of MSAs cooperation and exchange of information.
(4)Organisation of two rounds of National Focal Point meetings to gather feedback on limitations of the current market surveillance framework and on the project approach from all relevant stakeholder groups (manufacturers, laboratories, end users, market surveillance entities). A third round was additionally organized in some countries mainly to disseminate the project results.
(5)Involvement of key industry representatives in the project through membership in the Advisory Board and establishment of new collaborations and improvement of working relationships between MSAs and other market actors.
(6)Formulation of policy recommendations and creation of awareness among decision makers at national and European level on the need of increasing MSAs resources for conducting adequate product energy performance market surveillance.
(7)Analysis and determination of the applicability, costs and reliability of the panoply compliance assessment options.
(8)Proposition of clear and usable methodologies for the evaluation of energy performance of fans and power transformers to be mainly exploited by MSAs.
(9)Broad communication and dissemination of the project development and outcomes through the regular update of the project website, a social media campaign, distribution of information material, preparation of articles, participation in major events and organization of workshops and the Final Conference.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

INTAS actions have both resulted in improved estimations of the potential energy savings that could be achieved from more effective Ecodesign market surveillance for industrial fans and power transformers, and have helped to empower MSAs. In this way, they are able to realise these savings through the establishment and verification of the most effective market surveillance methods and through the development of the value proposition and identification of viable funding pathways that can ensure MSAs have the resources they need to implement Ecodesign market surveillance for industrial products. The potential pan-EU final electricity savings from Ecodesign market surveillance for industrial fans and power transformers are 25.1 TWh annually in 2030 and 40.2 TWh annually in 2050 under a central scenario where 10% of product energy performance is lost due to non-compliance in the absence of market surveillance. If this is extended to include other industrial products (fans, transformers, electric motors, water pumps and air compressors) treated under Ecodesign regulations the potential savings increase to 115 TWh annually in 2030 and 128 TWh annually in 2050 under the central scenario where 10% of product energy performance is lost due to non-compliance in the absence of market surveillance. Currently there has been very little investment in market surveillance for these products; however, INTAS has estimated that were roughly €4 million to be invested across the EU annually in Ecodesign market surveillance for industrial products that roughly 84% of this savings potential would be released.

The work in the INTAS project has successfully established how to do market surveillance for large industrial products, has identified the major barriers to effective market surveillance and put forward viable solutions to overcome these both within the existing regulatory framework, but even more effectively should the INTAS policy recommendations be fully adopted in future revisions of the regulations. In the case of power transformers some of the INTAS policy recommendations were known in time to be included in the latest revision of the regulations and hence will help to improve compliance for that product group as soon as the regulations are implemented. In the case of industrial fans it is hoped they will be taken on board in the next revision of the fan regulation. Furthermore, the INTAS project has successfully communicated its market surveillance methodologies to all European MSAs responsible for compliance with Ecodesign regulations and thus these are now armed with the information they needed to be able to undertake this activity. INTAS has also helped to address the other major barrier of a lack of resources by establishing the extremely favourable benefit cost ratios attributable to Ecodesign market surveillance for industrial products, developing and circulating awareness raising materials on this topic and highlighting emerging additional options that Member States could deploy to provide the necessary funding, should traditional sources not be sufficient. Thus, the INTAs project has helped to raise capacity both in terms of technical and market knowledge, and in terms of access to resources, to enable MSAs to have much better prospects of being able to implement Ecodesign market surveillance for large industrial products.

Large fans

Power transformer

Project logo