BEE (Bureau of Energy Efficiency) is an Indian Govt. agency created in March 2002 under the Ministry of Power and the provisions of the nation's 2001 Energy Conservation Act. Here, a BEE Certificate is a document representing a company’s level of BEE compliance. The level one indicates the highest achievable status and the lowest level is eight. A company or product having higher BEE level represents the standard performance in relation to the current competition. From 2010, Govt. has made ratings compulsory for certain items which specify its performance and customer can make the right decision in shopping those items. In fact, every company should try every year to achieve the highest rating for increasing the market share of its product.
BEE Certification is important for the companies for proving their BEE status in the market. This certificate is valid for one year which should be renewed every year. The renewal is based on the BEE implementation of that period. The certification also helps in the promotional and regulatory activities of the company. In regulatory terms, it sets performance standards and designs labelling schemes for electronic appliances. BEE rating or star rating is mandatory on appliances like televisions, AC, water heaters, refrigerators, pumps etc. This helps in developing norms about the energy consumption of the product. However, higher star rating appliances are attracted by the customers more.
Bureau of Energy Efficiency has set standards for particular appliances which should be fulfilled in order to sell them legally in the Indian market. According to the respective category of the product, there are prescribed testing standards, process and rules which get compiled to attain the right BEE labels. After this, labels are stamped in the form of ratings from 1 to 5 on the products. The ratings indicate the performance level of the product. The technical expert committees, testing laboratories, an industry association, consumer organisation etc. also works with BEE authority in this labelling task.