Global acceptance of Indian gear to improve with CPRI accreditation

 

Central Power Research Institute (CPRI) has earned ISO/IEC17065 accreditation, which can potentially boost exports of Indian electrical equipment.

A government release noted that CPRI has been granted the accreditation from National Accreditation Board for Certifying Bodies (NABCB) for certification of electrical equipment as per ISO/IEC17065.

This accreditation means that manufacturers who have obtained test certificates from CPRI would be able to export their products without requirement of retesting or authentication by any other body outside the country.

“This would provide a significant boost to the already robust indigenous development and manufacturing of electrical products in India and thereby strengthen ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’,” the release said.

 

Bottleneck removed

Electrical products manufactured in India are exported to several countries. However, several exporters had raised the issue with the Union power ministry that some countries were not accepting test reports of CPRI due to the absence of ISO/IEC17065 accreditation. Accordingly, the Union power ministry directed CPRI to obtain this accreditation urgently. The impediment faced by exporters has therefore now been addressed. Before this accreditation materialized Indian exporters had to resort to foreign testing laboratories.

With CPRI now having this accreditation, Indian exporters do not need to send their products abroad for testing. This is expected to encourage more manufacturing and exports of electrical equipment from India.

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Products covered

CPRI has bagged certification for its test reports covering transformers & reactors, cables and cable accessories, capacitors, switchgear & control gear, transmission line accessories and energy meters.

 

ISO/IEC 17065 Accreditation

The ISO/IEC17065 accreditation demonstrates to the market and regulators globally that the agencies have met the requirements for operating certification schemes in a competent, consistent and impartial manner. The purpose of ISO/IEC17065 is for conformity assessment or the certification of products, processes and/or services. The test report issued by CPRI test laboratory will be authenticated by an independent certifying division within CPRI which would issue the test certificate.

 

Increasing global competitiveness

While appreciating the efforts of the Union Ministry of Power in getting this accreditation, Vipul Ray, President, Indian Electrical and Electronics Manufacturer’s Association (IEEMA), stated, “This accreditation will address a major non-tariff barrier of non-acceptance of CPRI test certificates by many foreign power utilities, which required re-testing of equipment by another foreign laboratory outside the country. This will boost exports of electrical equipment manufactured in India further, by increasing the competitiveness of electrical products exported from India and thereby encouraging manufacturing in India under ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’.

“Non-acceptance of CPRI test certificates has been a perennial issue and long pending demand of the industry for removal of this bottleneck since testing electrical equipment abroad involved mammoth cost as testing charges, besides transportation cost and other logistical arrangements, that made the Indian products costlier vis-à-vis supplies from other countries. A significant time also need to be spent to get the equipment tested abroad which disturbed the delivery schedule of the exporters as well,” Ray added.

Featured photograph showing testing of EHV cables at one of CPRI’s facilities is for representation only.