How to write a luminaire specification for a tender
Thresholds under Law ZRU-684 in BRV and UZS, what article 34 allows in a specification, parameters with tolerances and evidence, UP-17 preferences and eight errors that get a lot contested.
Contents
The technical specification decides the outcome of a luminaire procurement before price does: a weak specification lets in the cheapest imports, and one “tailored” to a single model is contested and sends the lot back to the start. Below is the order in which a procurement officer of a budget organisation or a designer puts together a specification: first the procedure, then what the law requires of the text, then the parameters with tolerances. Thresholds and clauses are given from the lex.uz texts as of 17 September 2026; check the edition before announcing a procurement.
Step 1. Procedure and threshold
The Law “On Public Procurement” No. ZRU-684 ties the procedure to the contract value in BRV (base calculation value). The BRV from 1 September 2026 is 440,000 UZS (Presidential Decree No. UP-115 of 23 June 2026, clause 3(b)). Thresholds for budget customers are in brackets.
| Procedure | Contract threshold | Basis | What decides |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small-value procurement | up to 50 BRV, 22 million UZS (25 BRV, 11 million); annual limit 1,000 (500) BRV | article 51-1 | comparison of at least three prices, no commission |
| E-shop | up to 25,000 BRV, 11 billion (2,500 BRV, 1.1 billion) | articles 49 and 50 | choice of an offer from the catalogue; the only channel where a specific brand is allowed |
| Best offer selection | up to 25,000 BRV, 11 billion (6,000 BRV, 2.64 billion) | article 56 | price and technical criteria; the customer sets the weights (Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 276, clause 67) |
| Tender | above 25,000 BRV (above 6,000 BRV) | articles 64 and 65 | the same criteria, a commission of at least seven members |
| Auction to lower the starting price | up to 25,000 BRV (6,000 BRV) | article 52 | price only: nowhere to present the norm and the warranty |
There is no general “direct contract without a procedure” in the law: direct contracts are possible only under the closed list in article 71, and luminaires are not on it. A specification with norms, a calculation and IES files works in a selection and a tender; in an auction it collapses into the line “150 W luminaire”, and price wins.
Step 2. What the law requires of the specification text
- No trade marks or models. Article 34, part 3 prohibits naming the brand, model and manufacturer, except in the e-shop and where no other precise description exists, and then with the words “or equivalent”.
- Tolerances, not exact values. Article 34, part 5: the documentation contains maximum and (or) minimum values of the indicators. Write “power not above 150 W”, “flux not less than 19,000 lm”, not “150 W, 19,500 lm”.
- No inflated requirements. Article 34, part 9 and article 22 of the Law “On Competition” No. ZRU-850 prohibit requirements that only one supplier meets and that do not follow from the purpose of the facility.
- Criteria and weights are announced in advance (article 32). The customer may single out mandatory criteria: failure to meet them removes the participant (Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 276, clause 72). It is reasonable to make mandatory: illuminance by calculation, IP, the declaration of conformity, IES files and the warranty.
Step 3. Parameters with tolerances and evidence
Every line of the specification makes sense only when it says what confirms it. The list below is a skeleton; the figures in brackets are set by the customer for their facility.
| Parameter | How to write it | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Illuminance by zone | under ShNK 2.01.05-24 with the plane and clause: warehouse 50 lx on the floor and 75 lx on the rack (Annex 9, Table 2, clause 65), shop floor by visual task class (Annex 1, Table 1) | DIALux calculation with the stated MF |
| Luminous flux and efficacy | not less than [__] lm and [100] lm/W by a measurement report on the assembled luminaire (ANSI/IES LM-79); without a report, “calculated” | report or the entry “calculated” |
| Minimum under the norm | luminous efficacy of the LED modules not below 95 lm/W at Ra 80 (ShNK, Table 4) | data sheet |
| Ingress and impact protection | IP54 for a warehouse and shop floor, IP65 for streets, fuel stations, unheated warehouses; IK08 | data sheet, declaration |
| Colour rendering and temperature | Ra not less than 80 (85 for sales floors, Annex 9); Tc from [4000] to [5000] K | data sheet |
| Percent flicker | not above 10% for classes I and II, 15% for III, 20% for the rest (Annex 1, Table 1); offices 15%, retail 10% to 15% | measurement report |
| Driver | voltage from [176] to [264] V, power factor not less than 0.95, surge protection not less than [2 to 4] kV, THD not above [20]% | driver data sheet |
| Life | L70 not less than [50,000] h by the LED manufacturer’s LM-80 report and a TM-21 calculation; without a report, “calculated” | LM-80, TM-21 |
| Warranty | not less than [36] months on the assembled luminaire, including the driver | warranty letter |
| Photometry | an IES file (LM-63) or LDT for every article; the flux in the file agrees with the declared one | files |
| Conformity | declaration of conformity: luminaires under HS 9405 are on the mandatory assessment list (Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 43, Annex 4, clause 107) | declaration |
| Product data sheet | power, flux, Ra, Tc, IP, IK, temperature, dimensions, mass | data sheet per article |
| Calculation | a lighting calculation of the facility in DIALux or Relux from the files of the offered articles, with Eav, Emin, uniformity and W/m² | project file and report |
| Comparison table | line by line: requirement, offer, document | participant’s form |
| Local production | certificate of locally manufactured goods (Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 712): an advantage at evaluation, not a condition of admission | certificate |
The point on local production must be recorded exactly like that: the certificate cannot be required as a condition of admission, but it can be taken into account at evaluation.
Step 4. Preferences and points built into the law
- Price preference. Presidential Decree No. UP-17 of 4 February 2026, clause 12(b): from 1 April 2026, for budget customers, 15% is added to the lowest price of imported goods when three or more domestic producers take part in the procurement, 12% with two, 8% with one. The price of the local offer does not change; it is the import that is counted as dearer.
- Points for localisation. Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 276, clauses 95-1 and 155-1: under the scoring method a local producer is credited with 15% of the points scored, multiplied by the localisation level; nothing is credited if its price exceeds the lowest by more than 15%.
- Total cost of ownership. From 1 January 2027, procurements above 1 billion UZS for items with a service life above 3 years are evaluated by TCO (UP-17, clause 11(b)): for luminaires that is kWh over the service life and maintenance, not the unit price.
- The status of domestic producer is confirmed by a certificate from JSC Uzbekekspertiza under Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 712 of 28 October 2024: localisation not less than 30%, expert review in 5 working days, fee 3 BRV, validity 24 months, an entry in the Register of local products and producers.
About ourselves, plainly: the declaration of conformity for our series is being reissued, the LM-79 report on the assembled luminaire and the certificate of locally manufactured goods are in preparation; we will publish the numbers on the page for state customers when we receive them. Until then, compare us by the IES files, data sheets and the calculation.
Eight typical specification errors
- A model or brand in the text (article 34, part 3): the lot is contested.
- Exact values instead of tolerances: “150 W” screens out a 140 W luminaire with the same flux.
- Efficacy without a method: the figure from the module specification and the figure for the assembled luminaire are different figures, and without a report it is promises that get compared.
- “Service life 50,000 hours” without LM-80 and TM-21: impossible to verify.
- IP65 and IK10 for an office or a dry warehouse: the price goes up, the light does not.
- A norm by room rather than by zone and plane; values outside the ShNK scale (clause 5): “250 lx” is unknown to the code.
- No requirement for IES files and a calculation: the customer cannot repeat the calculation and check the offer.
- Acceptance without a measurement report: without a lux-meter measurement under clause 178 and Table 26 of ShNK, a dispute about “it is dark” cannot be settled.
Ready-made technical specification templates for six facility types, in DOCX and Markdown, sit on the page for state customers; IES files, data sheets and the price list on the downloads page. How to read the lm/W, IP and Ra lines in someone else’s specification: in a separate article.
Frequently asked questions
Can a specific luminaire model be named in the specification?
Only in the e-shop or where no other precise description exists, and then with the words “or equivalent” (Law No. ZRU-684, article 34, part 3). In a selection and a tender the description is by parameters with tolerances.
What is the threshold for best offer selection?
Up to 25,000 BRV per contract, for budget customers up to 6,000 BRV: at a BRV of 440,000 UZS that is 11 billion and 2.64 billion UZS (article 56 of Law No. ZRU-684). Above that, a tender under article 64.
Is an LM-79 report mandatory in the specification?
The law does not require it. But without a report the flux and efficacy are calculated values, and that is worth writing into the specification: “by a measurement report on the assembled luminaire; without a report, stated as calculated”. Then figures of the same class get compared.
How to reflect the preference for a domestic producer?
No separate wording is needed: the preference under UP-17, clause 12(b) is applied when prices are compared, and the localisation points under Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 276, clause 95-1 are credited by the platform’s electronic system. In the specification a line on the certificate of local production as an advantage at evaluation is enough.