As you are no doubt aware, the new Electrical Equipment Safety Scheme (EESS) started on 1st March 2013.
The EESS is another level of registration by the “responsible supplier” so that any issues in the field can be readily traced back to an Australian-based supplier for further action. Currently the regulators need to pursue the “approval holder”, and in some cases this is an overseas entity that cannot be pursued.
The scheme is designed to be one that all state jurisdictions will participate in, although New South Wales has indicated that it will not be participating in the scheme.
QEC Global has had a close look at the registration process and it seems that the EESS is not running at full speed. At this time, only approval certificates issued by the Queensland Electrical Safety Office and the Victorian office “Energysafe” and Tasmania can be registered on the system. There is no provision as yet to register any certificates issued by the NSW Government or any other private certifier such as SAA Approvals, TUV Rheinland, UL New Zealand, Globalmark, ASA etc. covered by the NSW legislation. It is mooted that this will be corrected in the coming weeks or months, but what it means to all of our clients is that we cannot register your equipment “yet” if you have one of these certificates.
ERAC has suggested that until the system is completely up to speed, that they will not be pursuing any policing of those registrants that are experiencing difficulties registering themselves as a “responsible supplier” or their equipment.
This does not mean anything else has changed. We will still continue to require Safety certificates issued for “declared” equipment, EMC test reports and energy efficiency registration. These requirements remain in place and will not change.
Until the system is in a position to accept approval certificates from other than Victoria, Tasmania and Queensland, we will adopt a “wait and see” approach on your behalf. The benefit of this is that you won’t be required to pay the annual registration fee of any models you register (currently $75 each) before you really need to.
For those certificates than can be registered, we will perform this service for you so that you remain compliant with the law (if you are selling into Queensland) and we will advise you on a case by case basis of developing legislation in the other states.
If you wish for QEC Global to perform your registrations on your behalf, please contact us for an estimate.
In the mean time, QEC Global will actively watch for developments and devise strategies to ensure that you comply with any legislation as it evolves and keep you informed of any changes that will affect you.