DOE Tables Set-Top Energy Efficiency Proceedings as MVPDs Get Advocates to Back Expanded Plan

The Department of Energy abandoned efforts to regulate the energy efficiency of set-top boxes and network equipment and ways to test the power consumption of set-tops, as 11 multichannel video programming distributors and three of their box suppliers reached a deal with advocacy groups. Three groups pressing MVPDs to reduce the energy they say needlessly costs $1 billion-plus a year for unused set-tops that continue working will now participate in the voluntary agreement (VA) the companies reached previously. Talks between the sides cratered in 2012. The distributors expanded the previous deal, which had been reached with the industry (CD Dec 7/12 p5) only after the advocates wouldn’t sign on, to make commitments for a few years longer than the last edition of the VA.

Amending the VA means consumers will save more energy than under the previous pact, said stakeholders to the deal representing consumer electronics makers, MVPDs and efficiency advocates in interviews Monday. Starting in 2017, the participating MVPDs’ set-top boxes will have energy efficiency close to what the Environmental Protection Agency has targeted for a not-yet-finalized Version 4 Energy Star set-top box efficiency specification, said Natural Resources Defense Council Senior Scientist Noah Horowitz. “The new VA ratchets up the energy saving requirements” to a second phase of commitment that starts in 2017, said NCTA General Counsel Neal Goldberg.

Set-top boxes’ national power use will be cut by $1 billion annually, said a news release from the VA participants (http://bit.ly/1gSGvng). “Once in full effect, the agreement will save three power plants’ worth of electricity and prevent the emission of 5 million tons of carbon pollution each year.” Developed “through a non-regulatory agreement between the pay-TV industry, the consumer electronics industry and energy efficiency advocates,” the new standards “will improve set-top box efficiency by 10 to 45 percent (depending on box type) by 2017,” said DOE in a news release. Pay-TV companies must “publicly report model-specific set-top box energy use” and there’s an “annual audit of service providers by an independent auditor to ensure boxes are performing at the efficiency levels specified,” said the department.

DOE is withdrawing a NPRM for a set-top box test procedure and what it calls a proposed coverage determination for the boxes and network equipment (http://1.usa.gov/198URYG). “Even under the best circumstances, the Department of Energy’s rulemaking was not going to be effective until 2018, at the earliest” for set-top energy efficiency, said Horowitz in an interview. Advocates get savings for consumers “much sooner” that that, “and they are on the steering committee, so they can monitor those things,” he said of the VA. NRDC has a slot, while the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy and Appliance Standards Awareness Project share another representative, said Horowitz. ACEEE and ASAP had no comment by our deadline. The Environmental Protection Agency, which stakeholders noted hasn’t issued Version 4 Energy Star specs, had no comment.

The expanded VA “is a significant broadening” of last December’s commitment, in which direct broadcast satellite and telco-TV companies joined a cable effort that started in 2011 to cover “more than 90 percent of multichannel video customers, about 90 million American households,” said a fact sheet on the new pact. It’s “designed to be a more complete, more rapid and effective substitute for all federal and state legislative and regulatory mandates for set-top boxes,” said the sheet. CableLabs is continuing existing efforts to develop deep-sleep set-top boxes, parts of which shut down entirely when not in use, said Goldberg. The cable-industry R&D consortium still plans to test deep-sleep functionality in 2014 and roll it out if testing is “successful,” Goldberg said. CableLabs representatives had no comment.

Participants in the VA by order of number of subscribers are Comcast, DirecTV, Dish Network, Time Warner Cable, AT&T, Verizon, Cox Communications, Charter Communications, Cablevision, Bright House Networks and CenturyLink. CE makers Cisco, Arris including the part of Motorola Mobility it bought from Google, and EchoStar also are taking part. The deal “demonstrates that voluntary, market-oriented approaches led by the private sector can make major contributions to national goals while avoiding the costs and burdens of government-mandated regulations which, at best, would not keep pace with technology and, at worst, could impede innovation,” wrote CEA Vice President-Technology Policy Doug Johnson on the association’s blog Monday (http://bit.ly/19J0YXv). That’s “particularly” important for high-technology devices, he wrote.

Advocates and industry officials said they're looking toward so-called Tier 2 of the VA. It would require that 90 percent of all new set-top boxes that an MVPD buys starting Jan. 1, 2017, meet enhanced efficiency standards (http://bit.ly/1hzVdNH). Many models of boxes may meet that Tier 2 standard before 2017, said Horowitz. Participating MVPDs remained on track for 90 percent of their new set-tops this year to meet Energy Star Version 3 specs, said Goldberg.

After talks broke down last year between the likes of CEA and NCTA on one side and NRDC and its allies on the other on whether advocates would join an earlier version of the VA (CD Nov 2/12 p8), the sides remained in some touch, said representatives of both in interviews Monday. “We had always been in touch with the key advocates, and we thought it was worthwhile to try again, as did they,” said Goldberg. “It was clear that DOE’s preference was for everyone to get on board. It just seemed obvious for all of us to move forward.” Advocates “are getting the energy efficiency savings they want much sooner, and they are on the steering committee, so they can monitor those things,” he said. Missing are commitments that some energy efficiency advocates had wanted earlier for industry to agree to deep-sleep box specifics after testing next year, acknowledged some stakeholders.

Cable “is still on record in trying to develop” a deep-sleep box prototype, said Horowitz. MVPDs will, for the first time on a “model-specific basis” for each provider, list the energy use of set-top boxes, he said of the amended VA. Its steering committee will issue an annual report on how power consumption among the devices is changing, to measure “the national impact of this agreement,” he said. “It’s an industry agreement with folks like us having a seat at the table, as kind of like a watchdog, or also an advisory role, and while we have voting rights, we are in a definite minority” on the committee, said Horowitz. Field testing in 100 homes a year will “make sure the boxes are performing as promised,” and data on that will also be disclosed annually, he said.

The amended VA means consumers get more “control” over energy efficiency by dint of getting information on power consumption more ways, though the pact doesn’t change much for Arris because it continues Energy Star version 4.0 development and is likely to make a deep-sleep product, said Vice President Evan Groat. The contrasting trends of demand for less power use plus better performance is a challenge, said Groat, who works on product management for Arris’s digital video. “Operators ask for more and more in terms of processing power, networking capabilities, graphics capabilities and everything else.” As cable works on deep sleep, DBS companies are moving toward a gateway/client model, where there’s one central unit that does many functions and then smaller devices attached to TVs, said Groat and others.

DirecTV “intends to continue participating” in the Energy Star set-top box program as the EPA transitions to a version 4.1 spec, “which is nearly finalized and becomes effective in late 2014,” said a company spokeswoman by email. “While the goals are aggressive we are confident in our ability to comply through 2017.” CenturyLink sees the expanded VA as “designed to improve set-top box energy efficiency” and an example of the telco’s “commitment to reducing our carbon footprint and ensuring the long-term health, preservation and intelligent use of our energy resources,” said a spokeswoman. Bright House will start “customer education efforts in early January” on the efforts, said a spokeswoman. Representatives of other participating MVPDs had no comment. -- Jonathan Make (jmake@warren-news.com)