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The federal government is investigating a range of policy options to increase the energy efficiency of new fans sold in Australia.

A Regulation Impact Statement (RIS), which will be released for public comment in early 2016,  is currently being prepared with the main focus on non-domestic fan units used in commercial and industrial applications.

Fan industry data is being compiled by the Expert Group who is working closely with industry stakeholders to gather information on fans driven by electric motors with a fan motor input power in the range of 125 Watts to 500 kW.

The project is being managed by Sustainability Victoria on behalf of the national Equipment Energy Efficiency (E3) Committee which coordinates the development of energy labelling and minimum energy performance standards (MEPS).

The E3 Committee is chaired by the federal Department of Science and Industry and CCN understands that the policy options being considered include fan efficiency regulations similar to those implemented in the European Union in 2013.

General manager of the department's appliance energy efficiency branch, David Walker, said the RIS document will consider a range of policy options.

He said a range of voluntary options and mandatory regulations will be considered.

"The exact options to be considered will be finalised as part of the development of the RIS," Walker said.

Now that detailed product information has been collected, he said the next step is to undertake a cost-benefit analysis of a range of possible policy options and to prepare the RIS for extensive stakeholder consultation.

The RIS must also be approved by the Commonwealth Office of Best Practice Regulation prior to its release.

Following the consultation process, Walker said the preferred policy options will be identified by the E3 Committee and then be implemented through the Greenhouse and Energy Minimum Standards (GEMS) Act.

He said the E3 Committee has a long standing relationship with the Fan Manufacturers Association of Australia and New Zealand (FMA-ANZ).

"We are very appreciative of the constructive and co-operative way that FMA-ANZ and its members have worked with the E3 Committee during this process," Walker said.

FMA-ANZ chairperson, Simon Bradwell, said existing global regulations and standards are a simple benchmark for moving forward but local factors also need to be taken into account.

"The government has not given any firm indication of what the regulatory framework will look like but the FMA is in broad support of regulation and industry codes of practice," he said.

"All MEPS type regulations introduced by government aims to remove the lowest 20 per cent by efficiency of the products sold into the market; we anticipate this will continue."