The Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA) supported the development of legislation in California and Oregon related to battery charger standards. In 2015, NEEA contracted with TRC Energy Services (TRC) to investigate the question of whether a battery charger appliance standard adopted in California and Oregon affected the battery chargers sold in NEEA’s non-adoptive states: Idaho, Montana, and Washington.
To investigate this question, TRC conducted phone interviews with five manufacturers and email correspondence with one manufacturer and interviewed two industry experts to investigate how manufacturers have adjusted product lines in response to the standards and to discuss NEEA’s role in the standard adoption process. TRC then conducted a spot check of products in the states served by NEEA and reviewed literature from the U.S. Department of Energy (U.S. DOE) to investigate the level of compliance with the state standard (adopted by Oregon and California) in NEEA’s non-adoptive states.
TRC concluded that the majority of battery chargers sold in NEEA’s non-adoptive states comply with the California and Oregon standard. The one exception was the battery charger class for golf carts. Based on these results, TRC infers that NEEA’s efforts towards the adoption of the standard resulted in energy savings for Idaho, Montana, and Washington. TRC recommends that NEEA continue to collaborate with California organizations to develop state appliance standards for adoption in California and/or in the states served by NEEA.
