The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA), Rosslyn, Va., will be pressing Congress in the next few months to preserve language in House and Senate energy bills now on Capitol Hill that it believes would benefit the electrical industry.
The House passed its energy bill in August, while the Senate passed its version last month. Several items in the proposed legislation, now awaiting conference, would be of particular importance to the electrical industry. NEMA has focused its lobbying efforts on these areas: language requiring efficiency ratings for transformers to conform to those in NEMA standard TP1, TP2 and TP3; provisions requiring lighted exit signs and traffic signs be certified EnergyStar products; a federal product procurement standard for motors based on the NEMA Premium motor efficiency standard; higher energy-efficiency goals for new federal installations and retrofits; and the establishment of a consortium to develop solid-state lighting technology.
Timothy Feldman, vice president, NEMA's government affairs, and Edward Gray, NEMA's director, energy policy, offered some additional insight into the proposed changes for these areas:
Lighted exit signs would have to meet U.S. Department of Energy/Environmental Protection Agency EnergyStar program efficiency specifications. This would effectively require the use of light-emitting diode (LED) signs. LED exit signs save about $15 to $20 a year in electricity costs, more than making up over time for their higher initial cost. These signs are also higher margin products.
High-value NEMA Premium (TM) motors are available in sizes from 1 hp to 500 hp; motors available in the lower federally required efficiency levels are available in sizes 1 hp to 200 hp. NEMA Premium efficiencies are the highest possible without requiring redesigned motor-starting systems. Manufacturers, utilities and energy efficiency advocacy groups all support and encourage the standards.
The House and Senate energy bills treat federal building efficiency differently. NEMA prefers the Senate approach, which is based on exceeding the industry consensus standard of the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) and the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA), ASHRAE/IESNA 90.1-1999.
The Senate bill calls for new construction and retrofits to exceed this standard by 30%. The House bill includes numerical percent reductions in federal government energy use over time that would have to be assessed by the government agencies and requires that agencies buy efficient products, such as EnergyStar products.
The legislation calls for the establishment of a solid-state lighting consortium to research and develop highly efficient lighting systems. The Senate bill specifically mentions the development of white LED systems. These systems could be used in interesting applications, such as curved walls that light spaces.
In addition to getting several provisions written into the legislation, NEMA also supports provisions for tax incentives for advanced meters and tax deductions for efficient commercial buildings. According to NEMA, to be eligible for the tax deduction, meters would need to have features that would make them amenable to applications where demand could be reduced automatically or through manual means.
For example, the meters might have to measure electricity use on an hourly basis so time-of-use rates could provide an incentive to the electricity user to reduce use at high cost times of day. Besides reducing customer costs, this would reduce the need for inefficient high cost generation by the utility. The House and Senate energy bills also include a three-year tax life for the meters, which would further incent meter sales.