The Norwegian Electrical Trade Association (EFO) is a trade association of suppliers and wholesalers of electrical materials, equipment and solutions. Our members deliver everything from sockets and light bulbs to advanced shore power facilities, North Sea cables and the future of distributed power solutions. We have 168 members that are active in all of the country’s counties. Many are also major exporters.

Our members have an overall turnover exceeding NOK 50 billion and have more than 13,000 full-time equivalents. EFO turned 100 years in 2018, so we have considerable history.

EFO operates Norway's largest product database for electrical products, EFObasen, with approximately 250,000 products with accompanying product information – and is an active driving force for the digitalisation of the construction industry. On behalf of a unified Norwegian construction material industry, we are responsible for the implementation of the international standard ETIM in Norway. We are co-owners of companies including Boligmappa, and Renas, and one of the founders of Eliaden.

EFO is a member of the European Union of Electrical Wholesalers (EUEW).

Our vision: Norway – the world's first fully electrified society

Electrification is considered the most important and most comprehensive measure for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and developing new value creation. EFO's objective is to contribute to all possible forms of electrification. Our vision is Norway – the world's first fully electrified society. We are a member-driven organisation where our members possess and distribute the solutions and products required to electrify Norway. Our task is to highlight the electrical industry's role as well as contribute to the establishment of framework conditions to ensure that the potential of electrification is realised. Our three most important contributions are:

• Digitalisation of product information
• Decision-making support
• Safeguarding of framework conditions for electrification
  
  

Digitalisation of product information

Through the electrical industry's joint product database (EFObasen), we offer a shared digital platform where all suppliers and wholesalers can add their products with accompanying information and features. The products are also assigned a branch ID (EL number). This creates a marketplace for the products as well as facilitating digitalisation of the entire value chain all the way to operation and maintenance of building and construction works. The database contains approximately 250,000 unique products and manages the ETIM standard, which is strongly represented in the building and construction industry.

Decision-making support

Through regular industry statistics, based on reporting from our members, we offer our members updated and good overviews of the developments in the industry. The statistics are disaggregated into individual groups and adapted to the information level to which our members have agreed. We also prepare various industry analyses that describe developments and trends in the industry. We also enjoy good cooperation with Prognosesenteret, which regularly provides us with adapted market reports and analyses for the industry. These are made available to our members.

Safeguarding of framework conditions for electrification

In order to succeed with electrification there must be a good interaction between business and politicians/regulatory bodies. Therefore, we strongly prioritise business policy and constructive cooperation with other actors/organisations with whom we share objectives. We also enjoy a strong and good cooperation with the environmental organisations Bellona and the Norwegian Society for the Conservation of Nature. Through active participation in Skift, we contribute along with 20 leading companies, as well as EEF, ZERO and Xynteo, to developing new green value creation, while also reducing Norwegian emissions by 40% by 2030.