UL International Demko and ENEC celebrate 30 years

1992-2022 – UL 30 years anniversary

30 years ago, UL International Demko A/S signed the ENEC agreement. Now with eight ENEC test laboratories located worldwide and more than 160 standards in scope, UL was No.1 issuer of new licenses in 2021.

What is an ENEC license and what added value can it bring?

European Norms Electrical Certification (ENEC) is a high-quality European mark for electrical products and demonstrates that electrical products are compliant with European standards (EN) and ISO 9001 quality requirements as defined by the ENEC requirements.

The ENEC Mark is typically an ISO/IEC 17067 Type 5 certification scheme covering evaluation, testing, certification and surveillance. Products bearing the ENEC Mark must visibly display the ENEC Mark and are subject to ongoing surveillance monitoring with audit of the production site and re-testing of the product certified. Testing must be completed in one of the global, independent ENEC-approved testing laboratories. This independent evaluation demonstrates that the product is safe in accordance with ENEC requirements. An annual CIG factory inspection including confirmation of ISO 9001 requirements of the production site is required for continued use of the ENEC Mark.

ENEC UL Test Laboratories:

The ENEC Mark demonstrates compliance with the European standards and the test report can be used by the manufacturer to show compliance with the relevant European directives, e.g., Low Voltage Directive.

The ENEC mark is complementary to the mandatory CE marking: the CE marking is the manufacturer’s declaration that a product meets the compliance requirements set by applicable European Legislation.

Although ENEC serves as a voluntary mark, the value it adds supports the CE Marking; the safety of the product and its compliance with certain parts of the standard is assessed over time under the ENEC Mark Scheme.

EN IEC 60598:2021

The new standard EN IEC 60598:2021 was recently added to UL’s ENEC scope.
The first part, titled “Luminaires - Part 1: General requirements and tests”, covers the possibility to issue ENEC licenses based on this standard. This new edition covers digital aspects, such as Power over Ethernet (PoE), and introduces Ingress Protection IPX9 and Protect Extra Low Voltage (PELV), among other changes.

With the publication of the Amendment A11:2022 of the EN IEC 60598:2021 that introduces “European Group Differences”, and it is expected the publication of the main standard in the EU official Journals for LVD Directive 2014/35/EU. Once the EN IEC 60598:2021/A11:2022 together with the EN IEC 60598-1:2021 will be published on the Official Journal of the European Union as Harmonized standard they will give the presumption of conformity to the LVD Directive and the ENEC license issued in accordance with this standard can be used to demonstrate the compliance with Annex 1 of the LVD directive.

Ecodesign and Single Lighting Regulation

When a product is sold into the European Union market and is subject to CE Marking it is the manufacturer that declares sole responsibility that the product complies with all the applicable directives and regulations other than LVD directive. Among the most impacting directives and regulations on lighting products the following are relevant to consider:

• EMC directive 2014/30/EU
• RoHS Directive 2011/65/EU
• Regulations EU 2019/2020 on ecodesign and 2019/2015 on energy labelling Amended by (EU) 2021/340

These EU regulations on ecodesign and energy labelling were published in the European Union Official Journal in 2019 with mandatory implementation date in September 2021. With these new regulations specific to the lighting sector, the European Commission has introduced the new design criteria and a new energy label with rescaled classes.

The ecodesign regulation for light sources is known as the Single Lighting Regulation (SLR) because it combines requirements that before 2019 were set out in three separate pieces of Legislation. SRL introduces fundamental changes on the design criteria and introduces circular economy requirements, the removability and replaceability concepts of light sources and control gears contained in products.

The energy labelling regulation (ELR) introduces the rescaling of the energy label for lamps to the energy labelling scale A-G, and the discontinuation of the energy label for luminaires. All products in scope of the new EU ecodesign and energy labelling for light sources must be registered in the European Product Registry for Energy Labelling (EPREL) database before they can be placed on the market, and the ELR also clarifies the new requirements for registering light sources in the EPREL database effective in May 2021. The EPREL database provides the specific information sheet and displays the energy label, for each registered product.

UL supports customers with guidance on applicable requirements, provide evaluation and testing services and issuing certificates for ENEC and additional European voluntary marks.