REGIONAL VALIDATION WORKSHOP FOR THE DRAFT STANDARDS FOR ELECTRODOMESTIC APPLIANCES AND REGIONAL STANDARD FOR PLUG AND PLAY SOLAR HOME SYSTEMS KITS

The ECOWAS Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE), as part of its "Regional Off-Grid Electrification Project (ROGEP)" funded  by World Bank and Clean Technology Funds, and  the initiative “Improving Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Sector Governance in West Africa (AGoSEREE-AO)” funded by European Union and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), organized a regional validation workshop for the Draft Standards for Electrodomestic Appliances and Regional Standard for Plug and Play Solar Home Systems Kits. The event took place from 21 – 22 May 2019 in Dakar, Senegal.

It is of crucial importance that consumers have confidence in the products and have access to important information they can rely on to decide whether to invest in solar products and electrical appliances.

Broader agreement on product quality standards in the Sahel region and West African countries can benefit private-sector with access to a broad market contiguous. It is against this background that ECREEE through ROGEP and AGoSEREE – AO are developing standards for the region.

The workshop directed at the following objectives:

• To present the reports produced and collect comments and contributions from participants from across the region;
• To validate the draft of the three regional electrical appliances standards;
• To validate the draft of ECOWAS Regional standard for plug-and-play Solar Home Systems kits;
• To validate the strategy for implementing regional standards at the national level.

According to the objectives the following results were achieved:

• The validation and submission of the Regional Standards for Household Appliances and Regional Standard for Plug and Play Solar Kits drafts documents validated for submission to ECOSHAM;
• Development of a report with recommendations for the validation workshop;
• Validation of the strategy to implement the regional standards at the national levels;
• The Electrotechnical Committee (THC5) to begin work on harmonizing for all EE and RE standards, is instructed.

Key stakeholders from national standards bodies, ministries of energy, experts and others regional and international actors attended the important meeting, with such a crucial importance for the ECOWAS region.