Brussels, 10/07/2008 (Agence Europe) - Television sets, computers and microwaves will have to use less electricity by 2020: so says a proposal for a regulation from the Commission to reduce the electricity consumption on standby mode of household or office electrical equipment that was endorsed by EU member states at a meeting of the Ecodesign Regulatory Committee in Brussels on Tuesday 8 July. The regulation sets energy efficiency standards that all electrical goods marketed in Europe will have to meet, reducing standby electricity consumption by almost 75%. Depending on the functionality of the product, it sets a maximum allowed power consumption for standby of either 1 or 2 Watts by 2010. From 2013, the admissible power consumption level will be lowered to 0.5 Watt or 1 Watt, which is close to the levels that can be achieved with the best available technology. The aim of the regulation is to reduce today's standby electricity consumption in the EU - approx. 50 TWh per year - by 73% by 2020, equivalent to Denmark's yearly electricity consumption, leading to savings of approximately 14 million tonnes in CO2 emissions per year. It repercussions, however, will be felt outside Europe given that many of the targeted products are sold worldwide. The staged approach allows manufacturers to adapt their products to the new requirements in time. The regulation will now go to the European Parliament for scrutiny and will be formally adopted later in the year. (E.H./transl.rt)