As required by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, the Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy has initiated a rulemaking process that may result in the adoption of new energy conservation standards for battery chargers and external power supplies and the amendment of the current standards for Class A external power supplies. The EISA directs the DOE to (i) issue a final rule by 1 July 2011 setting forth energy conservation standards for battery chargers or classes of battery chargers or (ii) determine that no energy conservation standard is technologically feasible and economically justified for battery chargers. Battery chargers are defined in the regulations as devices that charge batteries for consumer products, including battery chargers embedded in other consumer products. The term external power supply means an external power supply circuit that is used to convert household electric current into DC current or lower-voltage AC current to operate a consumer product. Class A external power suppliers are those that are able to convert to only one AC or DC output voltage at a time and that have nameplate output power that is less than or equal to 250 watts.

The DOE will hold an informal public meeting on 16 July to discuss and receive comments on its planned analytical approach and the issues it will address in the rulemaking proceeding. Requests to speak at the meeting are due by 2 July. Interested parties may also submit public comments to the DOE by 20 July.

As previously reported, the DOE recently amended its test procedures for battery chargers and external power supplies to include provisions for measuring standby mode and off mode energy consumption, effective from 27 April. The rule also added test procedure specifications for testing switch-selectable external power supplies and extended the current certification reporting requirements to Class A external power supplies for which Congress established energy efficiency standards in the EISA.