South Korea to tighten energy conservation standards for five home appliances

On February 23, 2024, the South Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) announced that it has drafted a new amendment to the Operational Regulation on Equipment for Efficiency Management (hereinafter "the Regulation" or "the draft Regulation") to strengthen energy conservation regulations for certain home appliances, and that it will solicit comments from the public between February 23, 2024 and March 31, 2024.

The main provisions of the Regulation are on the Energy Efficiency Grading Scheme and the Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS). The Energy Efficiency Grading Scheme assigns grades from 1 to 5 according to energy efficiency of covered products and requires labeling of such products corresponding to the assigned grades. The MEPS is a system that prohibits the manufacture and sale of products that do not meet minimum energy performance standards. Currently, the Regulation covers about 40 home appliances as target products.

The following is a summary of the main changes proposed in the draft Regulation.