DOE Pauses Set-Top Box Rulemaking to Give Industry, Advocates Time to Reach Consensus
A U.S. regulator gave more time to agree on set-top box energy efficiency standards among advocates at nonprofits seeking reduced energy use, and executives of consumer electronics companies and multichannel video programming distributors hoping to avoid rules. The executives said the talks on standards for set-tops have been fruitful, and they're hopeful conversations will pick up steam. The Department of Energy said Thursday it’s delaying a rulemaking schedule until after Oct. 1 to give the talks time to progress, and executives told us a fall time frame for a deal is reasonable.
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The conversations involving NCTA and groups like the Natural Resources Defense Council, as well as CEA with nonprofits like NRDC, aim to reach a deal on standards, executives said. They said an agreement would avert the completion of a DOE rulemaking that could impose rules on MVPDs and CE companies. MVPDs are pursuing energy efficiency efforts on both the consumer equipment side, with a focus on getting set-tops to partly power down when dormant, and for their own equipment so data centers can lower electric bills, executives said. They said the six top cable operators are deploying light-sleep boxes in a CableLabs energy initiative working toward having a deep-sleep specification in December and starting trials of next-generation boxes with chips capable of partial power downs in December 2014 (CD Nov 21 p6).
Industry executives were awaiting word from DOE about whether it would take a breather from a plan that could have included issuing a rulemaking on efficiency standards this fall and one on test procedures this summer, they said. The agency now “is amending its rulemaking schedule for set-top boxes to suspend the issuance of a proposed rule for a regulatory test procedure or energy conservation standard until after” Oct. 1, DOE’s website said (http://xrl.us/bnfa5v). “This suspension will allow industry representatives and energy efficiency advocates time to negotiate a non-regulatory agreement to improve the energy efficiency of set-top boxes. If successful, a non-regulatory agreement could become effective quickly.” That’s an argument NCTA and other stakeholders made in a May meeting with agency officials, a memorandum from the gathering written by an NCTA lawyer and filed with the department showed.
"It is great news,” said NCTA General Counsel Neal Goldberg of the rulemaking suspension. “We had been waiting for some kind of a signal from the Department of Energy that they were seriously considering a voluntary agreement.” The agency “couldn’t have said it better than this paragraph” added to the department’s website for energy efficiency standards for set-tops and network devices, he said. The CE industry’s “strong record of industry achievement with voluntary approaches in other product categories makes me optimistic about the viability of a voluntary approach for set-top boxes,” said CEA Vice President Doug Johnson before the DOE’s delay was unveiled. The DOE and Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star program is an example of a voluntary way for government to encourage energy efficiency, he said. Cable operator and association executives said many of the new set-top boxes meet the program’s version 3.0 guidelines.
A “voluntary agreement could serve as an alternate to regulation” for set-tops and “yield overall energy savings that are greater and faster than those provided by a normal DOE rulemaking process,” said NRDC Senior Scientist Noah Horowitz. The group and others “are involved in negotiations with the service providers to develop a ‘voluntary agreement'” for “service providers and equipment makers” to “commit to meet ambitious energy saving requirements” for the boxes under “an agreed-upon schedule,” he said. The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy and the Appliance Standards Awareness Project also participated in the meeting with DOE staffers and NCTA representatives. The council and project had no comment.
Regulators are updating Energy Star standards to get a version 4.0, with that standard taking effect next July, cable executives said. They want some changes to 4.0. The standard should be made “more flexible, and looser,” said Goldberg. “All segments of the industry have expressed concerns about the strictness of the 4.0 standard” taking effect in July 2013, he said. CableLabs isn’t “being guided or directed by Energy Star” but is “cognizant of it,” Chief Technology Officer Ralph Brown said: “We understand what it means in the marketplace,” where operators are trying to “achieve the most efficient energy levels with our technology and that meets the customer expectations” of not having to wait too long for boxes to power up after a lull in use, for instance. A CEA committee is updating standards for measuring energy usage on set-tops, as the FTC was directed by Congress to at some point mandate disclosures on energy usage of the devices, Johnson said.
"DOE will undertake analysis in preparation for a regulatory standard in the event a non-regulatory agreement cannot be reached or to cover any class of set-top boxes not covered by a non-regulatory agreement,” the department said Thursday. “DOE will provide technical support to ensure that any non-regulatory agreement sufficiently addresses the public interest in improving set-top box energy efficiency. DOE will also continue testing and evaluating the energy efficiency of set-top boxes in support of developing a DOE test procedure.” The initial deal being targeted would include HD DVRs and set-tops without recording functionality, said a slide from the May stakeholder meeting. “By the end of 2013, [the] largest NCTA member companies who serve approximately 85 percent of cable subscribers will buy 90 percent ENERGY STAR 3.0 set-top boxes.” Other “efforts will also include whole-home approaches that provide additional energy savings,” said a slide from the presentation which incorporated much of the CableLabs/NCTA work that began last year.