HONG KONG – October 28, 2025 – The European Union's Energy-related Products (ErP) Directive continues to drive significant changes in the design and manufacturing of power supplies. With ongoing updates and stricter requirements, understanding the latest revisions is crucial for ensuring regulatory compliance and market access in Europe. LiTong Group provides insights into the impact of these updates on power supply design.
1. Overview of the ErP Directive
The ErP Directive (2009/125/EC) establishes a framework for setting ecodesign requirements for energy-related products. Its primary goal is to improve the energy efficiency of products throughout their lifecycle, thereby reducing energy consumption and environmental impact. For power supplies, this translates into stringent requirements for active mode efficiency, no-load power consumption, and standby power.
Figure 1: The EU ErP Directive aims to improve energy efficiency.
2. Key Updates and Stricter Requirements
Recent revisions to the ErP Directive, particularly those affecting external power supplies and internal power supplies for various electronic equipment, have introduced more demanding efficiency thresholds and lower limits for no-load and standby power. These updates are part of the EU's broader strategy to achieve climate neutrality by 2050.
- **Lower Standby Power:** The maximum allowable standby power consumption continues to decrease, pushing designers to adopt highly efficient control ICs and optimized circuit topologies.
- **Higher Active Mode Efficiency:** Requirements for efficiency under various load conditions have become more stringent, necessitating the use of advanced power conversion techniques and components.
- **Expanded Scope:** The directive's scope may expand to cover new categories of products or tighten requirements for existing ones, requiring continuous monitoring and adaptation from manufacturers.
3. Impact on Power Supply Design
These stricter ErP requirements have a direct impact on how power supplies are designed:
- **Component Selection:** Designers must prioritize highly efficient components, such as Power Integrations' LinkSwitch™, TinySwitch™, and InnoSwitch™ families, which are specifically designed to meet or exceed global energy efficiency standards.
- **Topology Choices:** Topologies that inherently offer high efficiency and low standby power, such as flyback converters with advanced control schemes, become more critical.
- **System-Level Optimization:** A holistic approach to design is needed, considering not just the power supply IC but also the transformer, output rectification, and overall system architecture to minimize losses.
- **Testing and Compliance:** Rigorous testing and documentation are required to demonstrate compliance with the directive's ecodesign requirements.
4. How Power Integrations Solutions Help
Power Integrations' ICs are at the forefront of enabling ErP compliance. Their proprietary EcoSmart™ technology, integrated high-voltage MOSFETs, and advanced control algorithms ensure ultra-low no-load and standby power consumption, while maintaining high active mode efficiency. Products like the InnoSwitch™ series with FluxLink™ technology simplify the design of highly efficient and reliable power supplies that easily meet the latest ErP requirements.
Conclusion
The evolving EU ErP Directive presents both challenges and opportunities for power supply designers. By staying informed about the latest updates and leveraging highly efficient and integrated solutions from Power Integrations, engineers can ensure their products achieve regulatory compliance, reduce energy consumption, and gain a competitive edge in the European market. LiTong Group is here to support your design efforts with expert technical guidance and access to compliant components.