International EMC Advisory Committee
Meets in the US

In early December, the Advisory Committee on EMC (ACEC) of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) met over a three day period at ETS-Lindgren’s facility in Cedar Park, Texas. The committee has 20 members (15 were in attendance) representing IEC technical committees that deal with EMC issues and standards. Diethard Moehr of Siemens chairs the committee with Dr. Remy Baillif (IEC Central Office Technical Officer) as secretary.
    The members represent various technical committees, including those shown below, and appointed experts by the IEC Standardization Management Board.

PHOTOS BY JANET O'NEIL

A tour of the ETS-Lindgren facility was held prior to the start of the ACEC meeting. Inspecting the wireless test chambers are (from left) Robert Sitzmann of Siemens AG, Masamitsu Tokuda of the University of Tokyo, Noboru Shibuya of Takushoku University, Emmanuel De Jaeger of Laborelec, Diethard Moehr of Siemens, Jacques Delaballe of Schneider Electric, Bernd Gehrke of BSH Bosch und Siemens Hausgeräte, and Ajay Garg of Hydro One Networks.

Prior to the start of the meeting, there was a tour of the ETS-Lindgren facilities showing several chambers used for a variety of tests including those for wireless, acoustics, and EMC measurements. A highlight of the tour was seeing the basic manufacturing process to fabricate what they provide including antennas, TEM devices, and RF filters as well as test chambers. It was interesting to see their open area test site with the largest conductive ground plane in the US where antennas are calibrated and new design performance is checked.

     The meeting agenda covered many important topics that come to the attention of ACEC where in many cases, after review of the presentations, ACEC advises the presenters on how to handle EMC matters. On occasion the advice is reported to the Standardization Board via a report that is drafted after each ACEC meeting.

Herve Rochereau (left) and Don Heirman view ETS-Lindgren’s wireless testing laboratory.	Don Heirman of Don HEIRMAN Consultants, Beniamino Gorini of Alcatel-Lucent Italia, Herve Rochereau of EDF - R&D, Bernd Jaekel of Siemens AG, Remy Baillif of the IEC Central Office, and Martin Wright of British Telecom (from left) are shown inside the three meter semi-anechoic chamber used for product development.
Don Heirman, Martin Wright, Remy Baillif, Beniamino Gorini, Bernd Jaekel and Herve Rochereau (from left) learned about testing wireless devices with multiple antennas.	Remy Baillif (ACEC secretary), Diethard Moehr (chairman) and Robert Sitzmann (TC62) are shown (from left) preparing for the start of the ACEC meeting.

     In any case, many subjects are reviewed at this meeting after the usual administrative activity of discussing member assignments to follow organizations that have EMC activity not only in the IEC but in other organizations such as the IEEE EMC Society Standards Development Committee.
     Next, the minutes of the last meeting were reviewed to ensure that any open action items are covered in the remainder of the agenda. Other organizations that ACEC invites to present their activity are shown below, along with other groups that are present at the meeting:

• International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
  
• International Telecommunication Union (ITU)-Radio Communications and Telecom Sectors
  
• European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC)
  
• European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI)
  

     At this meeting, for example, Dr. Jaeger presented an update on the work of the International Council on Large Electric Systems (CIGRE) and the International Forum on International Electricity Distribution (CIRED). In particular, the EMC and EMF activities of CIGRE Study Committee C4 (C4.2) were presented. As with most international committees, there are issues with power quality associated with the Smart Grid, especially above 2.5 kHz. CIGRE is also working on related issues with the use of power line communications. Dr. Jaeger then indicated that an update of their guide on “EMC in Power Plants and Substations” is expected in 2011.
     Next on the agenda were reports from product committees on their EMC activity/issues. From the list of Technical Committees/Subcommittees noted above, and additional committees, below are those that were reported on at this meeting:

• TC13 –Electrical Energy Measurement, Tariff, and Load Control (metering) - concern was raised on meters working with currents of up to 200 Amps or more not reading correctly due to excessive harmonics on the power grid
  
• TC22
  
• TC46
  
• TC61
  
• SC62A
  
• TC65/SC65A
  
• TC69—Electric Road Vehicles and Electric Industrial Trucks
  
• TC106—Methods for the Assessment of Electric, Magnetic, and Electromagnetic Fields Associated with Human Exposure
  

     Note that the presentation by the author on TC106 was to bring together a liaison relationship with ACEC. The suggested interactions were in both directions as stated by the chairman of TC106—Ron Petersen. Here are a few of the actions suggested:

TC106 Action:

• Review any EMC documents that ACEC has access to and determine if human exposure is introduced
  
• Ask ACEC to comment on measurement techniques to assess RF environment levels
  
• Provide help in the application of Guide 107
  

ACEC Actions:

• Review TC106 documents that describe radiated emission measurements
  
• Provide insight on how to handle RF emissions from antenna arrays
  
• Review TC106 standards that describe RF measurement instrumentation and use of measurement uncertainty
  

     The idea is that ACEC can guide the exchange to its member technical committees as appropriate to expert opinions and reviews. It was then agreed that Don Heirman as a member of ACEC will be the liaison with TC106 (TC106 had made this appointment at their meeting at the IEC General Meeting in Seattle last October).
     Speaking of Guide 107 (EMC–Guide to the drafting of EMC publications), the Standardization Management Board (SMB) earlier in the year made such guides mandatory and hence any publication with a focus on EMC matters shall follow the Guide. The committee decided to look again at the Guide which is maintained by ACEC to ensure that mandatory and suggested areas in the Guide are clearly differentiated. This Guide should be of interest to our own EMC Society standards activity. When it is updated, there will be a chance to review some of its basic requirements perhaps at an EMC Society Standards Development Committee meeting.
     Next, a review of the ACEC activity in providing tutorials and workshops including the increased support of the IEC Central Office was discussed. At the IEC General Meeting in Seattle, a two hour tutorial was held describing primarily the EMC standards activity of CISPR and TC77. This may form the kernel of expanding it to a full day or two in the future. To see the slides from a previous tutorial use: https://www.iec.ch/zone/emc/on_pres.htm

Noboru Shibuya (left) and Masamitsu Tokuda traveled from Japan to Cedar Park, Texas for the ACEC meeting held at ETS-Lindgren.	Don Heirman is shown presenting a review of IEEE EMC Society standards activity that is of interest to ACEC.

     The next part of the agenda was to hear from CISPR and TC77 members present on the activities of their respective committees. In general, these were status reports by the chairmen of the parent committee and their Subcommittee chairmen who were present. There is not enough room in this column to review the dozens of slides that were presented. But if there is any particular interest in the activities of these committees, you can contact the secretary of CISPR who is Stephen Colclough at s.colclough@samsung.com and the secretary of TC77 who is Diethard Moehr at diethard.moehr@siemens.com who will I am sure direct you to the appropriate person to answer your questions.
     At each meeting the committee reviews the EMC Zone on the IEC web site to see if there are any changes needing to done or to check documents there. It is found by https://www.iec.ch/zone/emc/
     The ACEC secretary has indicated that there will be a “new look” on the web site so even if you may have visited it in the past, it may be worthwhile to see the changes.
     ACEC also assigns members to review standards of IEC Product Technical Committees that have EMC in their work. At this meeting, the secretary reported the following documents were reviewed:

• New work item proposal for SC45B (Radiation Protection Instrumentation)
  
• Committee draft document for TC72 (Automatic Controls for Household Use)
  
• Committee draft for vote document for SC17B (Low-voltage Switchgear and Controlgear)
  
• Committee draft for vote documents for TC29 (Electroacoustics)
  
• Committee draft document for TC85 (Measuring Equipment for Electrical and Electromagnetic Quantities)
  

     So you can see the breadth of the IEC technical committees that have documents involving EMC application or use and hence are candidates for ACEC review. The reviews themselves look at the application of Guide 107 and any other clauses that contain emission or immunity aspects to make suggestions for improvement or provide confirmation that the EMC discussions/requirements are acceptable.

Enjoying the ETS-Lindgren hosted reception at a local restaurant were Remy Baillif, Herve Rochereau, Janet O’Neil, Bill Radasky of Metatech, Zhong Chen and Don Heirman (from left). Janet and Zhong are with ETS-Lindgren.

     Two other agenda topics brought about considerable discussion. The first topic was a Swedish proposal for a strategy to increase the coordination of standardization of power quality and EMC. This proposal was submitted to the SMB which asked for National Committee (NC) responses. Seven responded as well as the officers of SC77A which handles low frequency phenomena (from power frequency up to 2000 Hz) which includes power line harmonics and voltage fluctuation horizontal standards for products to meet if required. While there was some support for the Swedish proposal for a special committee, there were several NCs that indicated that ACEC should review the matter. Hence, the SMB decided to submit the Swedish proposal to the ACEC for consideration and a report before they took any further action. At the ACEC meeting in Texas, there continued the discussion with the result that there was already good coordination with the needs for power quality and EMC simultaneous application. It was further decided that no special committee or working group would be needed to address the matter. The report back to the SMB is in preparation. Any significant reaction to the ACEC report will be covered in a subsequent Newsletter column.

     “Should there be limits between 2 kHz and 150 kHz?” was the topic discussed next. Herve Rochereau, secretary of SC77A, presented a paper urging the consideration of limits in this frequency range to control voltage components on the power line from modern electronic equipment. His recommendation was to have product committees as well as EMC specific committees, such as TC77 and CISPR, to review their existing standards with the view to closing the limit “gap” between 2 kHz and 150 kHz where no present limits exist. ACEC agreed to support the request.

(From left) Martin Wright is encouraged to try a famous Texan beer, Shiner Bock, by his ACEC colleagues Robert Sitzmann and Emmanuel De Jaeger.	Don Heirman thanked all for coming to Cedar Park, Texas for the ACEC meeting and ETS-Lindgren for hosting the meeting and the dinner at a wonderful barbecue restaurant.

     The last item on the agenda was to indicate any issues that ACEC can review with respect to Smart Grid (SG). There is an SMB Strategic Group 3 on Smart Grid which advises the SMB on fast-moving ideas and technologies likely to form the basis for new international standards or IEC TCs in the area of Smart Grid technologies. Both TC77 and CISPR have indicated the usefulness of their standards for SG application. That was noted at the meeting as ACEC continues to monitor how it can help in moving forward the application of EMC principles to achieve the interoperability of the SG system(s).
     With a discussion of meetings for 2011, the meeting adjourned. If there are any questions, please contact Don Heirman, d.heirman@ieee.org.     EMC