The 'relevant harmonised standards' are no longer sufficient for EMC compliance! You probably need to apply IEC 61000-4-16 too

23 Jun 2025

Keith Armstrong, www.cherryclough.com, 28 October 2021

Since the new EMC Directive came into force in 2016, we are very likely to find ourselves having to apply test standards that we are not used to, and which might not be ‘harmonised’ by being listed in the Official Journal of the EU (OJEU).

If you are still declaring EMC compliance by choosing the most relevant test standards listed under the EMC Directive in the OJEU – then passing those tests and listing them on your Declarations of EMC Conformity – you are 5 years out of date and your products might suffer costly delays in EU and UK customs as a direct result.

Since the EMC  Directive 2014/30/EU (and the UK EMC Regulations) came into force in 2016, we have been required to perform, and document, an “adequate analysis and assessment of the risks” of our products’ complying with the Directive’s Essential Requirements.

The purpose of these “EMC risk assessments” is to specify the EMC standards, specifications, guidelines, etc., – or parts of them – to apply to our products to help ensure their EMC compliance in real life. 

Find out more about this (free) at: https://www.emcstandards.co.uk/the-new-eu-directives-which-came-into-force-in, or its (paid for) update https://www.emcstandards.co.uk/recent-emc-directives-2016.

This is especially true for frequencies below 150kHz, which has historically been neglected by EMC test standards because it is below any European broadcasting frequencies.

However, a great many activities have recently started to develop that can mean products causing/suffering EMI at frequencies below 150kHz – and of course the EMC Directive covers frequencies from “DC to Daylight” so this is a growing risk.

One of the standards that has been developed to help deal with EMI  from DC to 150kHz is IEC 61000-4-16, an immunity test standard that addresses the Common-Mode (CM) noise on cables carrying power, signals, data, even earths/grounds.

I wrote a guidebook on this standard a few years ago, which you can read/download (free) at: https://www.emcstandards.co.uk/a-practical-guide-for-en-61000-4-16-common-mod.

This guidebook includes discussions on how this EM disturbance arises, where it should be expected, and what it can affect, to help create EMC Risk Analyses. IEC 61000-4-16 has been updated since I wrote it, but I expect the basics described in my guide to still be relevant and helpful.   

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