December 28, 2021

The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) published American National Standard for Roadway and Area Lighting Equipment—Metering Performance Requirements for LED Drivers with Integral Energy Measurement (ANSI C136.52-2021). This new standard establishes acceptable metering performance criteria for LED drivers with built-in (integral to the driver) energy consumption measurement functionality for use in outdoor luminaire applications. It describes two metering device performance levels for roadway and area lighting applications: 2% Accuracy Class and 5% Accuracy Class.

"The method of billing customers for lighting based on hours of darkness is incompatible with new technologies such as dimming, adaptive lighting, and remote control of lighting. To fully realize the benefits of these technologies, it is useful to measure and report the actual energy used at each luminaire," said Richard Haring, LC, IES, CLCATT, Product Compliance Engineer, Signify North America Corporation, and chair of the project.

"This Standard is intended to address that need at the LED driver level. It doesn't address the communication of the data captured or the hardware necessary to communicate the data from the point of measurement," he said.

This Standard is written for use by roadway and area lighting component manufacturers, municipal and regional governments specifying outdoor lighting solutions, and street lighting offices/bureaus.

The NEMA Lighting Systems Division, as the secretariat of ANSI ASC C136 Roadway and Area Lighting, is looking for industry experts specifically in the categories of "Users" and "General Interest" to participate in standards development activities. Please contact NEMA at lighting@nema.org if you are interested and indicate your interest category and area of expertise.

ANSI C136.52-2021 is available on the NEMA website for $70.