Latest Policy | Give full play to the supporting and leading role of energy-saving standards to help green, low-carbon and high-quality development

Give full play to the supporting and leading role of energy-saving standards to help green, low-carbon and high-quality development - interpretation of the "Notice on Further Strengthening the Update, Upgrading and Application Implementation of Energy-saving Standards".

Energy saving standards are developed to achieve the purpose of energy conservation, is recognized as one of the most economical and effective energy saving measures in the world, more than 100 countries and regions have formulated mandatory energy saving standards, involving industry, energy, construction, transportation, agriculture and other fields. Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission and the State Administration for Market Regulation jointly issued the "Notice on Further Strengthening the Implementation of the Update, Upgrading and Application of Energy-saving Standards" (Fagai Huan Zi Gui [2023] No. 269, hereinafter referred to as the "Notice") to deploy relevant work, accelerate the update and upgrading of energy-saving standards, and effectively strengthen the application and implementation of energy-saving standards, so as to further consolidate the foundation of energy-saving work, actively and steadily promote carbon peak and carbon neutrality, and accelerate the green transformation of development mode.

1. Implement standard improvement actions and accelerate the updating and upgrading of standards

Energy-saving standards are an important starting point for promoting energy conservation and carbon reduction. Since the 80s of the last century, China has begun to study and formulate energy-saving standards. During the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" period, the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Standardization Administration launched two phases of "100 Energy Efficiency Standards Promotion Project" in order to speed up the formulation and revision of energy-saving standards in key areas, and a total of 206 energy-saving national standards were formulated and revised, which basically solved the problem of narrow coverage and low energy efficiency level in the initial stage of the construction of the standard system, and strongly supported the implementation of energy-saving policies and measures. Since the "13th Five-Year Plan", the update and upgrading of energy-saving standards have been steadily promoted, and the energy efficiency indicators of key products such as room air conditioners and motors have reached the international leading level. Since 2021, 17 mandatory national standards for energy conservation and 26 recommended national standards for energy conservation have been formulated and revised. Up to now, China has issued and implemented 108 national standards for mandatory energy consumption limits, 66 mandatory national standards for energy efficiency, and 190 recommended national standards for energy conservation, and the energy-saving standard system has been basically established.

At present, China's development is still facing energy resource constraints, and the promotion of carbon peak and carbon neutrality has put forward new and higher requirements for energy conservation. The "Notice" adheres to the problem-oriented approach and proposes to organize and implement the "14th Five-Year Plan" 100 energy-saving and carbon-reduction standard improvement actions. On the basis of the results of the "100 Energy Efficiency Standards Promotion Project" and other measures in the early stage, this action will make further work arrangements in combination with the current deployment of carbon peak and carbon neutrality, as well as the key needs of the construction of the energy-saving standard system. The "Notice" makes it clear that focusing on key industries such as petrochemicals, chemicals, steel, non-ferrous metals, building materials, machinery, as well as key energy-using products and equipment such as motors, fans, pumps, compressors, welding machines, and industrial boilers, will be accelerated to update and upgrade standards. Further expand the coverage of standards, accelerate the formulation and revision of standards in the fields of new infrastructure, cold chain logistics and new home appliances, and make up for the shortcomings of energy-saving standards in key areas. Accelerate the improvement of supporting standards such as energy accounting, testing and certification, evaluation, and auditing. Coordinate the research and formulation of energy-saving standards and carbon emissions-related standards, explore the inclusion of energy conservation and carbon reduction of products and equipment in energy efficiency labeling, and guide the industry and products to achieve the collaborative goal of energy conservation and carbon reduction with standards.

2. Improve the requirements of standard indicators and play a leading and restraining role

Mandatory energy consumption quota standards and mandatory energy efficiency standards are the basic requirements to meet the requirements of energy conservation management, and must be implemented in accordance with the law. Among them, the energy consumption limit standard stipulates the energy efficiency level of unit products in key industries such as thermal power, coal, petrochemical, steel, nonferrous metals, building materials, etc., and the energy efficiency standard stipulates the energy efficiency level of key energy-using products and equipment such as household appliances, industrial equipment, lighting products, commercial equipment, and office products. The formulation and implementation of policies and measures such as fiscal and tax incentives for energy-saving products have provided important technical support. It is estimated that since 2012, through the formulation and implementation of energy consumption quota standards, the annual energy saving of about 290 million tons of standard coal, equivalent to an annual reduction of about 609 million tons of carbon dioxide, through the formulation and implementation of energy efficiency standards and energy efficiency labeling management system in the field of terminal energy consumption, an average of more than 170 billion kilowatt hours of electricity can be saved every year, equivalent to nearly 100 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year.

The effective implementation of mandatory national standards for energy conservation can not only play a hard binding role, but also have an advanced leading role. Advanced standard indicators can effectively stimulate the endogenous power of energy conservation and carbon reduction of enterprises, promote technological innovation of enterprises, and support the green, low-carbon and high-quality development of the industry. For example, the "Energy Consumption Limit per Unit Product of Conventional Coal-fired Generating Units" standard issued in 2017 stipulates that the energy consumption limit of 1000MW ultra-supercritical units is less than or equal to 273gce/kwh for power supply, and the third level is less than or equal to 285gce/kWH for power supply, leading the domestic coal-fired power energy consumption level to reach the world's leading level. The energy efficiency standard indicators in the "Energy Efficiency Limit Values and Energy Efficiency Grades of Room Air Conditioners" released in 2019 exceed the regulations of developed countries and regions such as Japan and Europe, achieving international leadership. In 2021, China's air-conditioning products won the Global Refrigeration Technology Innovation Award for the first time, and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) took China's energy efficiency standard for room air conditioners as a global best practice case, believing that the standard can effectively guide air-conditioning manufacturers to achieve the synergistic benefits of energy conservation and low-carbon refrigeration advanced technology research and development.

The "Notice" proposes to steadily increase the energy consumption limit standard and energy efficiency standard index requirements. The advanced value of the energy consumption limit standard should represent the energy efficiency level of about 5% of the industry, the access value should represent the energy efficiency level of about 20% of the industry, and the limit value should eliminate about 20% of backward products and production capacity on the basis of energy-saving transformation; The level 1 level value of the energy efficiency standard should represent the energy efficiency level of about 5% of the same energy-using products and equipment, the value of the level 2 level should represent the energy efficiency level of the top 20% of the same energy-using products and equipment, and the level 3 (or level 5) should eliminate about 20% of the backward energy-using products and equipment。 The value principle in the "Notice" is the principle of the indicators at all levels in the formulation and revision of energy-saving standards, and in the process of specifically promoting the formulation and revision of various standards, it will be combined with the current situation of energy efficiency, production capacity, and technical characteristics of products and equipment in different industries to be grasped as a whole. At the same time, the standard value will be coordinated with the energy efficiency benchmark level and benchmark level of key industries, the advanced level of key products and equipment, the energy saving level, and the access level, so as to achieve work coordination, index convergence, and form a policy synergy.

3. Consolidate the foundation of standardization work and form a closed-loop management mechanism

Sound basic data and solid technical analysis are important guarantees for high-quality energy-saving standards. Since the end of the 80s of the last century, the data basis and research methods of energy-saving standards have been gradually improved. At present, an energy efficiency database of 41 types of energy-using products covering five major fields, including household appliances, commercial equipment, office electronics, lighting products, and industrial equipment, has been established, involving more than 3.14 million product models from more than 26,000 manufacturers. At the same time, the relevant competent departments have also accumulated basic data on energy consumption in key industries through energy statistics and energy-saving supervision, which provides important data support for the formulation and revision of energy-saving standards. The National Standardization Committee organized and carried out a pilot statistical analysis of the implementation of mandatory national standards, selected some mandatory national standards with high consumer attention, great industrial influence and wide coverage, carried out statistical analysis of the implementation, and put forward references for the formulation and revision of standards. However, compared with the advanced level of developed countries, there are still gaps in the data basis of energy efficiency and energy consumption, the monitoring and evaluation mechanism for the implementation of standards, and there are shortcomings such as scattered data and non-sharing, backward data monitoring methods, and lack of implementation evaluation methods, and the closed-loop management of standard development, implementation and information feedback has not yet been realized.

The "Notice" proposes to strengthen the data support of energy-saving standardization work, promote the allocation of energy measuring instruments through the implementation of energy statistical analysis and energy utilization status reporting systems, encourage the construction of energy management centers and other systems, establish data sharing mechanisms and other measures to improve data integrity, accuracy and timeliness, support the development of more scientific standard index technical analysis, and provide a basis for the update and upgrading of energy-saving standards. The "Notice" proposes to establish an evaluation and feedback mechanism for the implementation of energy-saving standards, regularly carry out the evaluation of the implementation of energy-saving standards in key areas, timely feedback on the evaluation results, effectively connect the key links such as standard evaluation and formulation, realize the closed-loop of the whole process of energy-saving standardization work, solve the problems of untimely update of standards and inadequate implementation, and vigorously enhance the advanced, scientific and effective nature of standards.

Overall, the issuance of the "Notice" will give full play to the leading, constraining and supporting role of energy-saving standards, promote industry enterprises to actively adopt advanced and applicable energy-saving and carbon-reduction technologies and management measures, guide the green and low-carbon transformation and upgrading of the industry, increase the effective supply of energy-saving and low-carbon products, and stimulate the endogenous power of green consumption.

Source: China National Institute of Standardization