Ecodesign requirements — power transformers

KEY POINTS

• The regulation applies to transformers purchased after 11 June 2014.
• Medium² and large transformers³, regardless of when put on the market or into service, must be reassessed for compliance and conformity with the regulation if:
  • the core or part of the core has been replaced; and
  • one or more of the complete windings has been replaced.
• Transformers designed for a number of specific purposes are excluded from the regulation including those to be:
  • directly connected to a furnace;
  • installed on fixed or floating offshore platforms, offshore wind turbines or on board ships and all kinds of vessels;
  • used in arc-welding equipment or resistance-welding equipment.
• The ecodesign requirements are set out in the annexes to the regulation.
• The regulation sets out the conformity assessment procedure.

Changes introduced under Regulation (EU) 2019/1783

These changes include:

• if threshold voltages in electricity distribution networks deviate from the standard ones across the EU, EU countries must notify the European Commission accordingly, so that a public notification can be made for the correct interpretation of the various tables in Annex I to the regulation (ecodesign requirements);
• the manufacturer, importer or authorised representative must not put on the market any products that can detect when they are being tested and change their performance accordingly;
• to make verification testing easier, market surveillance authorities are permitted to test, or witness the testing of, larger transformers at premises such as those of the manufacturer;
• the Commission will review the regulation and present the results no later than 1 July 2023.