In November 2022, Standards Australia engaged a consultant from cameron.ralph.khoury to conduct an independent review of the Technical Committee EL-001 Wiring Rules. Based on the recommendations from this review, the committee was restructured and a new committee started working in November 2023.
Since then, the newly reformed EL-001 committee has been busy throughout 2024 gathering and reviewing feedback on the AS/NZS 3000 Wiring Rules. They received over 500 pieces of feedback from EL-001 members, other technical groups, and the public. This feedback has served as a foundation for their project proposal for updating the AS/NZS 3000 standards.
As part of their planning, the committee recognised the importance of creating a long-term maintenance strategy for AS/NZS 3000. The goal is to ensure that the standard remains relevant and effective in a constantly changing industry. In the past, the committee has mostly responded to updates reactively, but they hope to take a more proactive approach to managing this important standard with a clear maintenance strategy.
Proposed Strategy
EL-001 proposes the following key maintenance strategies for AS/NZS 3000
- The next AS/NZ 3000 revision will consist of a targeted update aimed at addressing important issues present in the current standard with a scheduled timeline for publication around mid-2027. A detailed scope of work can be found in the project proposal P-004717.
- After the 2027 publication, AS/NZS 3000 will go under a fixed term cycle of release for maintenance updates. A new edition of the standard will be released every 4 years.
- It is only amendments that address critical issues and are identified to be contributing to unsafe environments that are allowed to be updated to AS/NZS 3000 outside of the 4-year cycle.
- Amendments to AS/NZS 3000 outside of the standard 4-year review cycle will be implemented solely to address critical issues that are identified as contributing to unsafe conditions.
- EL-001 will maintain a proactive “issues register” to identify and guide future work items for consideration in subsequent revisions. This register has already been established and includes various items previously submitted to EL-001 for review in AS/NZS 3000.
- Develop a roadmap that outlines the future editions of AS/NZS 3000 and provides an overview of the major anticipated changes for each release.
Access the full proposal here.
Suggested Benefits
EL-001 believe this proposal will bring the following benefits to our industry:
- Establish a proactive strategy for updating the standards
- Enhance industry engagement
- Mitigate spikes in non-compliance following revisions to the wiring rules
- Simplify the amendment process
- Offer long-term visibility regarding future changes and updates
- Develop a clear process for prioritising and managing new issues
- Enhance industry training through fixed cycles of updates
- Improve clarity concerning the changes and/or additions required for compliance
Next Steps
Standard Australia and EL-001 are seeking industry feedback to support both the project proposal and proposed maintenance strategy for AS/NZS 3000.
To view the details of this proposal and to provide comments click here, OR:
- Go to the Standards Australia Project Proposal Portal at: https://standards.my.site.com/proposal
- Login with your registered email address and password
- If you are not already registered, you can register at: https://standards.my.site.com/idppoc/s/selfreg
- If you have forgotten your password, go to: https://standards.my.site.com/idppoc/s/forgot-password
- Once logged in to the Project Proposal Portal, click on ‘Proposals in Consultation’ in the navigation menu
- Locate the proposal in the list of ‘Open Proposals’ or search for: P-004717
- Once you open the Proposal you can download a copy of it by clicking on the ‘Export Proposal to PDF’ button on the Proposal Details page.
Consultation on this proposal closes on Thursday, 05 December 2024 at midnight, AEST.
Please note that once consultation closes, comments cannot be accepted on this proposal therefore we ask that you provide feedback prior to the close date.
When looking at the proposal, there are three main criteria to be assessed:
- The Identification of the need for the work, and issue(s) for which the development of a new, revised or amended Australian Standard is the answer.
- The scope and summary of the specific intent of the proposed changes to address the issue(s).
- The “net benefit” case covering Public Safety, Social and Community interests, the Environment, Economic impacts of the changes and any Competitive impacts provided.
If you have any questions or require assistance in relation to this proposal, please contact George.Sfinas@standards.org.au by Thursday December 5th, 2024
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