United Nations Environment Programme United for Efficiency (UNEP-U4E) has supported Indonesia’s ADLIGHT, Advancing Indonesia’s Lighting Market to High Efficient Technologies, project with capacity building since it was launched in September 2020. This increase in breadth of knowledge and skills has underpinned the development of minimum energy performance standards (MEPS) and energy labels for light emitting diode (LED) lights that are scheduled to come into force in July 2023 and helped inform improved monitoring, verification and enforcement (MVE) activities.

The three-year (2020-2023) ADLIGHT project is being executed by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Directorate General for New, Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation (MEMR/DGNREEC), in cooperation with UNEP-U4E initiative and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and with the financial support of Global Environment Facility. It aims to reduce electricity demand and related greenhouse gas emissions by promoting increased use of high efficiency lighting technologies through the transformation of the national market.

However, the application of energy efficient lighting systems in Indonesia faces challenges.  As a nation composed of groups of islands, Indonesia is prone to porous borders which allows the local market to be confronted by low quality energy efficient lighting products. This situation hampers consumers’ access to good quality LED products, as deployment of good quality products in the market has to compete with the low-priced, substandard lighting products.

To overcome these barriers, one of ADLIGHT’s three key components has focused on developing regulatory mechanisms (including update of MEPS and labels for lighting products) and extending market monitoring, verification and enforcement capability, which will provide improved conditions for fair market competition of energy efficient lighting products.

During the MEPS and labelling development process, UNEP-U4E supported capacity building of stakeholders (from government, industry and lighting testing laboratories). This training was designed to aid in benchmarking, formulation and post implementation of MEPS for the lighting products, whilst building competence and the capacities of testing infrastructure facilities. To achieve this UNEP-U4E technical experts provided training and insights on round-robin testing of LED lamps within Indonesian LED testing facilities and provided information on MEPS and energy labels and corroborated evidence from the Indonesian lighting market characteristics that informed the decision to set minimum consumption for the LED MEPS at 80 lumens per Watt. To support improved market monitoring, verification and enforcement, UNEP-U4E also provided capacity building on the significance and benefits of product registration systems and the impact a national and/or a regional system could have in Indonesia/ASEAN region.

During the second half of 2021, dedicated hybrid workshops, with both on-site and online participants, where held on each of these topics. In total, 175 delegates representing the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, testing laboratories, academic institutions and manufacturer trade associations took part in the workshops – 73 in person and 102 virtually.

In June 2021, the workshop on capacity building of laboratory personnel on round robin testing of lighting products provided context, and preparation of participants, for a round robin testing exercise undertaken as part of the ADLIGHT programme of work. It presented delegates with an overview of:

• The importance and benefits of monitoring, verification and enforcement and the role of product testing.
• Round robin testing objectives, methodology and benefits, including an introduction to the international technical requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories and the statistical methods for use in proficiency testing by inter-laboratory comparison.
• Lighting standards and testing procedures, including efficacy and functional performance standards, along with an illustrative example of an experimental design of round robin testing of lamps and result interpretation.

In August 2021, a workshop on product registration system development presented an overview of:

• The significance and benefits of product registration systems and their use as a key part of any monitoring, verification and enforcement toolkit, along with an introduction to the UNEP-U4E product registration system software.
• The ASEAN regional product registration system, with details of the existing initiatives, regulations and targets.
• Data confidentiality requirements and how manufacturer sensitivity issues of can be addressed within a data sharing regime.
• The components of a product registration system for energy-efficient lighting and the legislation configuration options of the UNEP-U4E product registration system.

In October 2021, a workshop on MEPS and labelling of energy-efficient lighting products provided delegates with an overview of:

• The significance and benefits of MEPS for lighting products.
• MEPS regulations for lighting products (based on ASEAN Regional Roadmap), including scope of products, efficacy requirements, functional performance parameters and requirements, test methods and performance standards and testing infrastructure.
• The importance of product labelling, types and characteristics of labelling for lighting products (endorsement/comparative, etc.) and the design and development approach of a label for lighting products, including effectiveness and technical factors and the benefits of regional and international labelling harmonization for lighting products.

The presentations from all three workshops are now available on the UNEP-U4E website.  To access them, click here.