NEC Ethiopia

By: Abreham Teka, NEC Secretary, Electrical Standards Officer at Ethiopian Standards Agency (ESA)
IEC Affiliate Forum
New Delhi, India

Ethiopia

Ethiopia is a country located in the Horn of Africa

bordered by Eritrea to the north, Djibouti and Somalia
to the east, Sudan to the west, and Kenya to the south

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Land
Ethiopia is the tenth largest by area in Africa, occupying
1,122,000 km2
Population
Ethiopia is the second-most populous nation on the African
continent, with over 80,000,000 inhabitants.
Climate
Ethiopia is in the tropical zone lying between the Equator and the
Tropic of Cancer. It has three different climate zones according to
elevation: Tropical zone below 1830 meters, Subtropical zone
1830 - 2440 meters and Cool zone above 2440 meters

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Topography
Ethiopia is a land of
wonder and enchantment,
a land of contrasts and
surprises, of remote and
wild places. There are 25
mountains whose picks
rise over 4000 metres and
the hottest place in the
world Dalol is found in
Ethiopia.
.

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Language
Ethiopia is a multi ethnic state
with a great variety of
languages spoken in the
country. There are as many as
84 languages with 200 dialects.
The main ones are Amharic,
Oromiffa and Tigrygna. Ethiopia
has its own Alphabet and
Numeric.

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Capital city

African Union

Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa

named as among the top 10
cities to visit in 2013. Addis
Ababa is the location of several
global organizations which
includes African Union, the Pan
African Chamber of Commerce,
UNECA and the African Standby
Force etc

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Ethiopian Standard Agency(ESA)

Ethiopian Standard Agency (ESA) is a
governmental non-profitable organization and
the sole National Standards Body (NSB) which
represents Ethiopian interest in economical,
social and environmental aspects with regard
to standard benefits across international and
regional arena
Besides working with international bodies like
IEC and regional standard bodies, ESA also
work closely with different national standard
bodies under bilateral agreements
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ESA has undergone several structural and name
changes since its first birth back in 1970, and ESA
was established as per the latest restructuring, as
per Ethiopian Council of Minister Regulation No.
193/2010 in 2010.
ESA is accountable to Ministry of Science and
Technology, and has a National Standardization
council which work together with the agency, the
member of the council is drawn from appropriate
Governmental and other bodies and designated
by the government.
ESA has 97 TC, of which every single TC is a
composition of different experts from different
Gov & NGO organizations.
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Ethiopian Standards Agency has three

core business areas:

Standard formulation (Development),
Training and Technical support
Information and documentation
Organizing and disseminating
standards, Conformity assessment
procedures and Technical regulation
for the customers.
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NEC Ethiopia
National Electrotehcnical Committee of

Ethiopia, NECE, was established in

November 2012 under Ethiopian
Standard Agency with an expert group
from five different organization:
1. Ethiopian Standard Agency (ESA)
Mr. Abreham
2. Addis Ababa university
Dr. Getachew
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Cont
3. Ethiopian Electric Power corporation (EEPCO)
Mr. Kebede
4. Minstry of Energy (MoE)
Mr. Kahisu
5. Ethiopian Conformity Assessment Enterprise
(ECAE)
Mr. Mulugeta

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TCs under NECE

I.

TC 61, Electrical accessories, lamps and related equipment

Electrical accessories such as conduits, connecting devices, plugs, socketoutlets, couplers, switches, fuses and other over current protection
devices, switch gear and control gear, relays, lamps and related
equipment.
II. TC 62 ,Electrical power supply systems and machines
Rotating machinery and components, transformers, solar cells, batteries,
household electrical appliances and equipment, Power transmission,
distribution networks; and Rectifiers, converters, stabilized power supply.
III. TC 63 Electrical materials and conductors
Electrical materials and conductors in general such as cables, bus bars,
wires, magnetic materials, semi conducting materials, and insulation
materials, etc
IV. TC 64 ,Electronics
Electronic components in general resistors, capacitors, semi-conductor
devices, electronic devices, display devices, electric filters, etc., And
electromechanical components for electronic and telecommunication
equipment including mechanical structures for electronic equipment, and
related components and equipment
V. TC 66, Electrical Installation
Electrical installation in residential, commercial and industrial buildings
Members of TC 66:
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National electrotechnical committee

No

concerned organization

TC UNDER NECE
61

62

63

64

66

Ethiopian Electricity Agency

Chair
person

Chair
person

member

member

member

AAU-Institute of Technology Dep.of Elec &

Computer Engineering

member

Chair
person

member

member

member

Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation

Member

member

Chair person

member

Chair person

Ethiopian Society of Electrical Engineers

Member

Member

Member

Ethiopian Conformity Assessment

Enterprise

Member

Membr

Member

Chair person

Member

FORTSCHRITT Electro-Mechanical Services

Member

Member

Member

Ethio Telecom

Member

Member

Member

Metals &industrial development institute

Member

Member

Member

Member

Ethiopian Metals and Engineering

Corporation

Member

Member

Member

10

Ministry of Communication & Information

Technology

Member

Member

11

SNAP Computer

12

Ministry of Urban Development &

Construction

13

Mesfin Industrial Engineering

14

AAU-Institute of Technology Dep . of

mechanical engineering

Member

Member

15

Ethiopian Standards Agency,

Member &
sec

Member &
Member &
Member &
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sec
sec
sec

x
Member
x
Member
x
Member

Member

x
Member
Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member
Member &
14
sec

Benefits
Enables Ethiopia to participate in the IEC global

standardization work without membership fee

Enables ESA to use IEC International Standards
and other documents free of charge.
We can receive up to 400 standards for adoption
free of charge as an Affiliate Plus country.
We are allowed to receive assessable documents
in accessible PDF, this makes our adoption process
easy. Reduce paper work and therefore save cost.

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Cont
We can access technical drafts for comment to
our level especially from the side of our
national differences like Altitude,
temperature, national power supply etc.
If there is some difficulties in understanding
some clauses from the standard to our
knowledge we will ask technical explanation
from the respective IEC TC through our NEC.
But before we established NEC we let our
customers to find a solution by themselves if it
is above our level.
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Cont
We hope we will also be benefited from IEC
Mentoring Program also.

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Challenges
Lack of awareness of consumers manufacturers,

Importers, Academic institution on IEC

International Standard and on quality in general.
Inadequate high level experts on the field.
Poor consumer association on elctrotehcnology
products.
Some times misunderstanding on some clauses
from the standard technically.
Persons who are active in the work change
frequently.

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Adoption process
A new work item proposal is filed by customers
for a new standard to be formulated.
NECE will discuses on the requested standards
together with the respective TC.
After the TC approves for adoption NECE will
request those standards from IEC for adoption
if it is already developed by IEC.
The newly adopted standards will have new
reference (designation No) as ES IEC XXXXX.
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Adopted IEC International Standards

Ethiopia yet adopt 206 IEC International
Standards into national standards.
List of adoptions available on IEC website

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Conformity Assessment in
Ethiopia
Ethiopian Conformity Assessment Enterprise
(ECAE) is major conformity assessment
organization in Ethiopia.
Providing inspection, laboratory testing and
certification services to public and to industry.
ECAE offers a wide range of testing services
based on standards such as ES, IEC, ISO and
others national standards or specifications if
requested by the customer.
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Core business areas of ECAE

Laboratory Testing Services.

Certification Services.

Inspection Services.

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Cont..
Testing laboratories operated at

ECAE HQ:
Chemical,
Electrical,
Microbiological,
Radiation,
Mechanical,
Textile & Leather.
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ECAEs Electrical Testing

Laboratory
Under ECAEs Electrical different electro
technology products are tested according to
Ethiopian standards adopted from IEC
International Standard test methods and
requirements.
For example
Electric cable

ES IEC 60227, ES IEC 60502, ES IEC 60228.

Compact Fluorescent lamps (CFL)
ES IEC 60968, ES IEC 60969
etc.
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Scope of ECAEs Electrical

Laboratory
ECAEs Electrical laboratory has six main
laboratories
1. Electrical cables and Insulators testing Lab
2. Protection Device testing Lab
3. Photometric testing Lab
4. Battery testing Lab
5. Power Analysis Lab
6. PV testing Lab (New)
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Welcome to Ethiopia