A draft report on the outcomes of the "National Workshop on Standards and Testing of Cookstoves in Nepal"
9
August 2013
 |
| Tone setting the technical session |
Regional Cookstoves
Testing and Knowledge Centre (RTKC) Nepal under Centre for Rural Technology,
Nepal (CRT/N) organized a one-day workshop on 25th July 2013
entitled “National Workshop on Standards
and Testing of Cookstoves in Nepal” in collaboration with Alternative
Energy PromotionCentre (AEPC), in association with Renewable Energy
Testing Station (RETS), Kathmandu University, Department of Mechanical
Engineering (KU), Centre for Energy and Environment-Nepal (CEE-N), Practical
Action Nepal/Indoor Air Pollution and Health Forum (IAPH) and Centre for Energy Studies,
Institute of Engineering (CES, IOE).
The workshop was
organised to share on stove testing practices including stove testing
protocols, methodologies and operation of measuring devices existing in various
cookstoves testing centres in Nepal to perform efficiency and indoor air
emissions measurements and discuss on the policy issues on stove testing protocols
and standards including collaboration/coordination aspects among the existing
stoves testing and related organisations.
The event was divided
into two major consecutive sessions
 |
| Participants listening to the discussions |
Technical
Session (Morning Session): to discuss on
collaboration/coordination aspects among different stoves and related
organizations and also touch base on standards and protocol they have been
following. All together six centres including RTKC Nepal presented on their
centre goals and their activities in the morning session. This was followed by
interactive discussion sub-session where the views and questions were shared
among the participants based on the presentations and followed by Brainstorming
Session: discussion on a point question on collaborative approach among various
stakeholders.
The major issues raised
and common responses were:
1. Why would someone
test stoves?
-
for product development, value
addition/marketing, branding
-
to claim subsidy
-
for publication of test result to
receive grant for thesis writing
-
cost benefit analysis, comparing our
intervention
-
to find the appropriate stove for a
particular area/ user acceptance
2. Protocol need for
fuel other than fire-hoods
-
Common testing protocols will help
compare the results and make easy for the choice of stoves for dissemination
3. Pros and cons of
different stoves testing parameters: CCT, KPT and WBT
-
Depends on time and budget, availability
of trained professionals, and purpose of carrying out the test. WBT is
preferred in the laboratory while CCT is preferred in the field.
4. Nepal’s compliance
with IWA tier referencing
-
Depends on need. Should aim for the best
say ‘Tier 4’ for all parameters but depends on requirements for example the
stove promoted for space heating in the mountainous regions cannot be assumed
disqualified for safety reason.
-
Tier System is only for programmes own
use and priority of aspects can be assigned.
5. Bring on board all
type of stove testing clients to ensure their stoves being tasted
-
Government or other related bodies must
have provision for financial support like the stove subsidy to private
manufacturers and other concerned.
6. Collaboration among
testing centers
-
NBSM to play a chief role in quality
assurance
-
Any other testing centers can obtain
accreditation from NBSM to be a certified testing agency
-
Mechanism of monitoring and evaluation of the accredited
labs should be developed and materialized by government authority like NBSM,
AEPC
-
Conflict of Interest is one major issue
and the developer itself cannot be a biased free certifying agency for own
stoves
 |
| Dignitaries on the dice |
Policy
Session (Afternoon Session): to discuss on
the policy issues of standardization of stoves testing protocols, test results
and stoves among different stove related public/private organisations and
government bodies. Remarks by delegates and presentations and discussions were
the attractions of the session.
Session began with the
cooking status in Nepal through GoN’s ambitious programme of distributing clean
cookstoves to 3M households by 2017. AEPC’s initiative on stove quality
assurance on ICS Testing and Dissemination was concerned with ways of selection
of new models of cookstoves to disseminate and the procedures of quality
assurance of stoves through testing. AEPC’s KPT and CCT results were also summarized.
Presentation on Bio-energy
Research Activities at NAST for Evidence Based Policy Formulation was more
based on the technical session’s guidelines that highlighted on objectives and
activities of Bioenergy Lab and possible avenues on bioenergy sector.
This was followed by
presentation from NBSM focusing on the process of Nepal Standard development.
The process of obtaining accreditation was briefed with calling on testing
centres to enrol in the list.
The presentations were
followed by discussion. Some of the major issues and concerns were:
1. Mandates for
developing any standards and compliance testing at NBSM
-
If any product which is as per National
Standard (NS) and if the government think that is mandatory, can commence issue
order and comply. There are 12 such products including cement. If the products
have no NS mark then they can’t be sold in Nepal.
-
The existing labs recognised by NBSM will be
considered for standards
2. What is the point
of having stove standards?
-
For Nepal Standard ‘NS’ Mark
3. Subsidy for Institutional
stoves
-
Setting up a benchmark for institutional
stoves is necessary and qualified design should get subsidy
Scientific and Global perspectives on stoves testing standards, a
presentation by Associate Professor Ms Tami Bond briefed on the history of
stoves testing and highlighted on the programme effectiveness of the global
stoves programmes stating that in an effective program the full performance of
the technology is achieved, poorly performing technology should be displaced
and a large fraction of users adopt better technology. Accordingly, possible
reasons for loss of effectiveness is due to not accepting the technology by
users, don’t use the technology and users don’t adopt the technology (cost,
other motivation). On her presentation she also clarified on the IWA details.
It is very difficult to set up standards as every place is different in
terms of stoves, fuels, foods, cooking habits, and uses despite the fact that
every place is same for the emissions that have effects beyond household and health
effects of PM is similar around the
world. Regarding IWA -International Workshop Agreement (IWA) is a temporary
Workshop agreement (that provides stoves rating until the next standards
are formed) held in The Hague, Netherlands, Feb 2012 which was participated by
over 80 participants (including 3 from Nepal).
One of the important issues of the discussion of the presentation was
the Research gap and standards between USA and Nepal and the challenge and the common
response was that
-
Nepal has special challenges because of
landscape and type of combustionsources may vary, however pollutants are almost
same all over the world. One of the main reasons is the technology that widens
the research gaps.
-
Nepal should acknowledge where it is and think
of target of project/programme.
This was followed by another
discussion for which one of the core questions and discussion is outlined below:
“Does Nepal need its own stove standards and testing
standardization?
Nepal
needs stoves standards to sell or promote stoves. Setting up the clear
benchmark/standards referring to the Tier systems set by IWA can be considered.
Tier ZERO may be acceptable in some parameters. Setting up bench mark also
should consider the situations like cooking indoor or outdoor and geographical
conditions.
 |
Senior Scientist, Dr. Rabindra Dhakal, National Academy of Science
and Technology (NAST)
speaks his thoughts on 'does Nepal need its own Testing Standards!' |
Nepal
has much more to do to have National Standards on cookstoves and this is the
good initiation. Interim stove testing protocol need to be updated which was
prepared in 2009based upon the available equipment and existing situation of
that time. Technology upgrading and HR development are two major components to
be considered for upgrading interim protocol and setting up standards.Nepal is
not the voting member of ISO yet but NBSM is upgrading and working on to obtain
a full membership.
The
existing IWA standards are to guide the testing standards while Nepal need to
set up the bench mark as guiding mechanism to choose a stove for promotion and
dissemination. Also there should be a mechanism of reward and penalize on the
stoves manufactured/promoted.
Conclusions:
Providing
clean energy (cooking solutions) to people who needed is the main goal and
standard benchmark and protocol are the tools for achieving this. The priority
of the time is setting up the benchmark keeping in mind the GoN’s ambitious
mission of “Clean cooking Solutions for all by 2017” and revise the interim
protocol 2009 for testing standards and create uniformity in testing procedures
for all the testing centres in Nepal by obtaining accreditation from NBSM to
ensure quality.
Your valid comments are appreciated as we are in the very early stage regarding Cookstoves testing and cookstoves standards.
