February 28, 2022

The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) has published two new standards for reporting energy data and tagging metadata.

ANSI C137.5 American National Standard for Lighting Systems—Energy Reporting Requirements for Lighting Devices specifies the minimum performance requirements necessary for lighting devices that report energy data. These requirements include the specific energy data types that need to be reported, the nominal and statistical accuracy performance for all reported data types, and references to other standards that define the information model for all data types.  

ANSI C137.6 American National Standard for Lighting Systems—Data Tagging Vocabulary (Semantic Model Elements) for Interoperability contains a controlled vocabulary of terms for lighting systems. These terms enable the development of semantic model elements, like tags, that facilitate the exchange of data and metadata used in lighting controls and analytics. The terms contained in this standard are for use by available semantic models such as, but not limited to, the future ASHRAE 223P standard, Project Haystack and Brick.

“These new standards benefit the industry because they formalize a common approach to aspects of lighting systems that are growing in demand,” said Jeremy Yon, Industry Relations Leader, GE Current, a Daintree company, Chair of the Data Tagging Working Group, and contributor to the Energy Reporting Working Group.

“Lighting has evolved so there is a continuous emphasis on systems; these standards address two interchange needs. ANSI C137.5 focuses on device energy reporting requirements that enable device data to be incorporated into a calculation of system energy with high confidence. ANSI C137.6 identifies the most important data attributes and formats for lighting systems exchanging data,” he said.  

These standards are written for lighting controls manufacturers, utility companies, and municipalities.

As the secretariat of the C137 Committee for Lighting Systems, the NEMA Lighting Systems Division is seeking experts for C137 in the underrepresented “user” and “general interest” categories. Please contact NEMA at lighting@nema.org if you are interested and indicate your interest category and area of expertise.

ANSI C137.5-2021 and ANSI C137.6-2021 are available on the NEMA website for $90 each.