Advocates, Utilities Urge California to Move Ahead On Battery Charger Standards

Efficiency advocates and utilities urged the California Energy Commission (CEC) to press ahead with standards for battery chargers regardless of efforts under way to set federal efficiency standards for the devices. But appliance makers said in comments that California would be squandering money and resources on a regulation that will soon be “superseded” by the Department of Energy’s standards.

California has set ambitious greenhouse gas reduction and “zero net energy” goals that aren’t “shared by the rest of the nation,” said the Natural Resources Defense Council. So the state can’t rely on the DOE to “define a standard that meets California’s needs,” NRDC said. Also, “many uncertainties” remain in the DOE’s rulemaking regarding “stringency, effectiveness and time of the federal standard,” it said.

"The ability for DOE to meet its schedule is also uncertain given that no draft standard has been released less than four months before the final rule is due to be published,” the group said. California should ensure that standards are in place by July so industry has the “regulatory certainty they need to make required investments” and to prevent “any delays in customer savings and environmental benefits,” NRDC said.

"A strong California standard for battery chargers could potentially result in a stronger national standard than what might otherwise be achieved,” said the Appliance Standards Awareness Project. DOE has often taken the lead from California in setting appliance efficiency standards, the group said. “DOE could follow the proposed CEC approach and establish efficiency metrics that would … better ensure energy savings in the field,” it said. State standards will provide “real, cost-effective energy savings for California and could encourage the adoption of more stringent standards at the federal level,” said Pacific Gas and Electric, San Diego Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison and Southern California Gas in a joint filing.

Pursuing regulations that will soon be superseded by the DOE is not a “prudent use” of the CEC’s resources, said the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM), urging the commission to abandon its standards-setting effort. But if the CEC decided to move ahead, it should reconsider the timeline for compliance, it said, suggesting that the regulations go into effect 30 months after they're finalized. The commission also should ensure that the battery charger regulations don’t duplicate other rules, it said.

The CEC now regulates wall adaptors of battery chargers as external power supplies, AHAM said. But there’s no indication whether this position would continue after battery charger standards take effect, it said. “If CEC pursues a regulation for battery chargers, it should also adjust the definition of a state regulated external power supply so that it does not include the wall-adaptor portion of a battery charger.” The CEC’s battery charger rulemaking would be “incredibly disruptive to the marketplace,” it said. Manufacturers would have to “shift precious resources” to design products to meet the CEC’s standards “only to potentially redesign these same products months later to meet DOE standards,” AHAM said.