Press Release: Energy savings and reduced emissions from new efficiency requirements for transformers

On 13 May 2014, the Ecodesign Regulation adopted by the European Commission would ensure that transformers become progressively more efficient as new power transformers put into service in the EU internal market would have to fulfil minimum energy efficiency requirements from 1 July 2015. The resulting energy savings had been estimated at 16TWh per year from 2020 onwards, which corresponds to 3.7 Mt of avoided CO2 emissions which is equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of Denmark which is 32 TWh per year. Although power transformers were generally very efficient devices, cost-effective marginal improvements in their efficiency could yield substantial energy savings, given their typical service life of 30 years or more. Given that the number of installed transformers in Europe in 2011 had been estimated at 3.6 million, a figure that is expected to increase to almost 4.7 million in 2025, the impact of today's decision would be considerable.

• Primary Source

European Commission: Enterprise and Industry: Enterprise & Industry Magazine: Articles: Sustainable industry/Innovation: Less CO2: Ecodesign is as important as the Emissions Trading Scheme http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/magazine/articles/sustainable-industry-innovation/article_11045_en.htm

European Commission: Enterprise and Industry: All topics: Sustainable and responsible business: Ecodesign http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sustainable-business/ecodesign/index_en.htm

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