13 Jan 2026, 15:10 pm
Comparison between NEMA and Zhaga Standards for Smart Street Lighting Application
When it comes to new street lighting projects, one of the important questions is deciding whether to select Nema based or Zhaga based street lighting fixtures.
This article presents a technical and commercial comparison for luminaires and outdoor lamp controller (OLC) based on NEMA receptacle and ZHAGA (book 18) socket standard.
It aims to answer a typical question which is faced by many municipalities and city corporations regarding: Which type of receptacle / socket should they choose for their street light fixtures?
NEMA vs Zhaga
A detailed technical and commercial comparison
Standard / Region
NEMA
NEMA standard originates from North America ANSI C136.41
ANSI stands for American National Standard for Lighting Systems
It is one of the old conventional standards, mainly used in Anglo-Saxon region, namely US, UK, Australia, New Zealand. And later followed by some countries
ZHAGA
Zhaga (book 18) is the latest industry standard for street lighting application launched and supported by global Zhaga Consortium
This standard originated in Europe, and now widely adopted as a de facto standard in most countries
The last remining country, USA, also adopted this standard as part of their ANSI C136.58 standard in 2019
Zhaga (book 18) became extremely powerful and popular due to inter-operability with DALI D4i standard
Electrical Contacts
NEMA
NEMA receptacle (and controller) use 3-pin, 5-pin or 7-pin listed in the drawing above. This includes high-voltage lines (115V/ 230V).
ZHAGA
Zhaga (book 18) significantly simplified NEMA 7-pin to Zhaga 4-pin. High-voltage is not used in Zhaga system.
Dimming Support
NEMA
NEMA was originally designed mainly for switching function (3-pin). It evolved into 5-pin to mainly support analogue dimming (0-10V / 1-10V). 7-pin supports external sensor connection (e.g. a motion sensor).
NEMA can also be used for DALI communication.
ZHAGA
Zhaga has been mainly designed for DALI based communication (including DALI-2, D4i, DT6, DT7, DT8 LED drivers).
Auxiliary Power
NEMA
Original NEMA standard was not designed for auxiliary power-supply or sensor connection.
Nema ANSI C136.41 and C137.4 standard started support for auxiliary power from the LED Driver on 7-pin NEMA receptacle (on orange wire).
ZHAGA
Zhaga (book 18) standard supports 24V auxiliary power from smart LED driver on Pin 1 by default design.
This aligns perfectly with DALI D4i standard.