The 58th meeting of CENELEC Technical Committee 210 (CLC/TC210) was held last 6-7 December in Brussels, chaired by John Davies, with Nyomee Hla-Shwe Tun as secretary.
The agenda (doc. TC210/Sec1072/DA-rev) and the minutes of the previous meeting held in Lisbon and organised by ANACOM (doc. TC210/Sec/1050/REP) were approved.
The time-consuming process of reviewing the electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) standards to publish in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) has continued. A total of 56 documents are involved; the respective problems include the controversial 80/80 rule, which will be dealt with at the level of working group 15 (WG15), with development of the European standard for horizontal application of that rule. The normative references are also a problem, mainly originating in standards of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) which are not dated, while at European level most normative references are dated. When they are not, an explanation must be provided to the European Commission (EC) and the consequent principle of adopting the most recent standard cannot always be applied.
A survey is being conducted on periodical maintenance of five standards, one concerning powerline communication (PLC) technology, which makes use of the electric power transmission network.
The situation of wireless power transmission (WPT) technology is at an impasse in various instances of the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
The WG14 rapporteur, Klaus Peter Brentz, is responsible for drawing up annexes ZZ and ZA. Taking their interpretation from the legal standpoint into account so they can be accepted by the EC, he has encountered problems regarding the performance criteria and applicability of some standards.
The EC is not happy with the current versions (in some cases three decades old). Editorial improvements must therefore be made, in the long term in the new WG15, coordinated by Stephen Colclough. But for practical reasons in the short term this will be done in annexes ZZ, per a proposal by Ronald Storrs.
The responses to the questionnaire circulated by WG11 were mostly for option B (- 20dB). The responses were provided in various manners. With respect to Portugal, they have already been sent to WG11 (Martin Wright).
With the entry of three more members from the PLC industry (millions of PLC arrangements are already operational around the world) the group will be unbalanced and there may be blockages: in that case, the issue at hand is passed up to a higher level.
The question of radio detectors in PLC, as opposed to radio demodulators, was clarified, finally placing them outside the scope of the RED.
The matter of the management body for dynamic notches was again discussed.
The removal of multiple input multiple output (MIMO) technology from parts 1 and 3 of the PLC standard, EN50561 is awaited. The ban on injecting signals in protective ground (PE) will have to be investigated. It is suspected that use of the PE port by MIMO technology infringes the Low Voltage Directive (LVD); the matter will therefore have to be clarified by CLC/TC64 and CLC/TC108x,
The next TC210 meeting will be held on 22-23 May 2019 in Milan, Italy. The following one is scheduled for 5-6 December 2019 in Brussels.
