ITS.AHEF.33.GE - Harmonisation of electricity and gas standards (Establishing Technical Committees)

Objective

This first meeting to create technical committees (TCs) for standardisation focused on relevant stakeholders in the Georgian electricity and gas sectors. Its goal was to provide background on TCs within the standardisation sector for future development in each INOGATE PC.

Special reference to Georgia's decree of September 2012 on national committees, their management, membership and rights and responsibilities of members, as well as a commitment to a public comment phase for draft standards was a point of departure for this event to help all states to lay down the foundations for well-functioning technical committees.

To provide context, presentations gave a general overview of the INOGATE project, presented EU best practice on TCs and described the benefits of standardisation with special reference to CEN/CENELEC TCs and past experience of PCs.

This first meeting on the creation of the Electrotechnical Committee on Standardisation informed participants on its activities and related legislation, introduced EU best practice of TCs and covered the activities related to the development, discussion and recommendation of standards in the electricity and gas sectors. 

Presentations outlined the scope and benefits of standards, how they are produced (with CEN/CENELEC technical committees and standards creation as an example) and presented a view of CEN/CENELEC governance, administrative structure and committees, with special reference to existing CEN technical committees in the energy sector (both electricity and gas). Great emphasis was placed on the process of developing standards, the importance of consensus, their regional and international context and the importance of national committees and sub-committees made up of national stakeholders from various sectors in each country. All the stages in the development of a European standard – initiation, public consultation and approval, publication and review – are important in the development of standards.

Among the aspects of the energy sectors targeted (electricity and gas) are renewable energy, energy efficiency, climate change and statistics. Stakeholders include government officials and regulators, electricity and gas companies and commercial system operators and national standardisation, certification and accreditation organisations.

The audience asked questions on the language of European or international standards to be implemented in a country (in this case Georgia) and showed great interest in a BSI publication setting out British standards.

The meeting provided a clear path for the creation of solid, sustainable technical committees to work on the harmonisation of standards for both the electricity and gas sectors. Future activities will build on this information to establish the composition, operation and scope of these technical committees.