Regional Seminar “Moving towards a new approach on standardization & harmonization of Electricity & Gas standards and codes” – Belgium

Objective

The seminar covered the main challenges for PCs in transforming their existing standardisation frameworks into the new system and discussed the key steps required to create standards for electricity and gas within the CEN/CENELEC system. The meeting also developed some familiarity among the new technical groups in each PC for their future cooperation with stakeholders within their countries and among themselves. Validation of priority standards in electricity and gas at both the national and regional levels and defining a strategy for their adoption were also important objectives.

This regional seminar presented a series of examples of standardisation that will form the basis of a working plan for the harmonisation of standards within INOGATE Partner Countries.

A series of presentations by both INOGATE and representatives of international standards organisations and companies explained the importance of standards in industry, trade and most human activities, and underlined the importance of trust and consensus in building and adopting standards. In presenting best practice, CEN/CENELEC speakers explained their organisation and the work of their technical committees; the UK company BSI provided details on international standardisation and gave case studies. The importance of harmonisation of methodologies and of integrating existing standards was also emphasised.

The current situation in INOGATE PCs was presented and focused on their potential to adopt standards for both electricity and gas, their membership in international and European organisations and their current modest activity on technical committees. Adoption of EU directives in PCs, as well as existing obstacles to obtaining texts of international standards for national adoption were also highlighted. An analysis of standardisation activities in the PCs revealed that Moldova and Ukraine were in a good position to adopt the required electricity standards and needed to ensure the participation of their TCs. The remaining PCs needed to develop a strategy for harmonisation with the technical committee activity that was required to achieve this. The priority standards across the INOGATE countries in the electricity and gas sector were analysed on the basis of an earlier questionnaire and it was recommended that five priority standards be used in the first developments of harmonisation.

Participants

All INOGATE Partner Countries will participate.

Along with the addressing crucial technical topics on the harmonization of Electricity and Gas Standards, the seminar will also aim at:

• Setting a platform for the future cooperation between the members of the newly created Technical Expert Group for Electricity & Gas Standards in each PC, and
• Fostering the work and cooperation between the NSBs and the Electricity and Gas industry at the national and regional level.

The aforementioned bundled objectives imply an increased participation with representatives of a number of stakeholders in each PC. This can be ensured by inviting all members of the Technical Expert Group in each PC to this introductory seminar. The list of participants from the PCs therefore would include:

1 Participant per PC (National Standardization Body)

1 Participant per PC (Electricity Company or TSO)

1 Participant per PC (Gas or Oil & Gas company or TSO)

1 Participant per PC (Ministry, in charge of technical standards), only in case of absence of the NSB from the PC

The approximate number of the participants will be 33, the exact make-up will depend on the specifics of each PC.