This piece was originally published in the March/April 2019 issue of electroindustry.

Muhammad Ali, Program Manager, NEMA

Work continues to move forward in international electromagnetic compatibility lighting Standards after numerous updates were added last year. Some of the major changes in the 9th edition of CISPR 15:2018, which was published in May, include:

• Radiated disturbance limits in 300 MHz to 1 GHz range
• New definitions for lighting equipment, functional earth, and protective earth
• Introduction of three basic ports: wired network ports, local wired ports, and the enclosure port
• Deletion of the insertion-loss requirements and the associated Annex A

The next maintenance cycle of CISPR 15 is already open. Topics the USNC TAG to CISPR F will explore are:

• Control ports testing
• Two different limits of testing
• Scanning frequency limit up to 1 GHz

The USNC TAG to IEC SC 77A, low-frequency phenomena, has also been active, and following are some of its notable work items:

• IEC PT 61000-3-18 continues to work on a technical report defining network characteristics for the application of harmonic emission limits for equipment to be connected to LV distribution systems not currently covered by IEC 61000-3-2 and/or 61000-3-12.

• The U.S. is proposing to update IEC 61000- 3-2 by removing the power factor multiplier for lighting products at the third harmonics since most of the electronic devices have a displacement factor close to 1.

Some of the other changes in IEC 61000-3-2 include: revised definitions for active input power and lighting equipment, repeatability clause and Table 1 revisions, and the averaging algorithm. All of these changes will also be considered during the next revision cycle of ANSI/NEMA C82.77.