Brazil regulates high-energy efficiency for motors

The electricity to be saved thanks to the high efficiency regulation is calculated to be 1.58 terawatts a year or equivalent to $45 million (US), according to the country's federal power utility Eletrobras.

Australia, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea and the United States already regulated their electric motors for high-efficiency standards after mandatory values were established in 2002 for worldwide minimum efficiency for electric motors.

Eletrobras said that the new regulation would affect from 70 percent to 80 percent of the electric motors produced in Brazil which has an annual production capacity of 1.1 million units.

The new regulation was worked out by Eletrobras, the Brazilian National Institute of Metrology and the Ministry of Energy and Mines under the National Energy Conservation Program, which in December 2005 set forth a four-year high-efficiency program.

The program provided a grace period of six months to commercialize high-efficiency electric motors in the country.