- February 11, 2019
- NEMA Communications
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This piece was originally published in the January/February 2019 issue of electroindustry.
Mike Stone, West Coast Field Representative, NEMA
In the Western United States, approximately 80 utilities collaborated with the Electric Utility Service Equipment Requirements Committee (EUSERC), which was formed in 1983 by the merger of two different groups in Southern and Northern California that had been active since the 1940s. There are 14 Western states that have utility members represented in EUSERC. The NEMA West Coast Field Representative and an Underwriters Laboratories (UL)
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- February 8, 2019
- NEMA Communications
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This piece was originally published in the January/February 2019 issue of electroindustry.
Brian Marchionini, PMP, Senior Program Manager, NEMA
Smart grid devices, systems, and applications require extensive data exchange, necessitating well-defined interfaces to transfer and translate this data from point to point across the grid.
Clarifying the communications protocol and data model performance requirements is essential to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and its ongoing update of the Framework and Roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability Standards (see infographic below).
NIST has published three
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- February 4, 2019
- NEMA Communications
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This piece was originally published in the January/February 2019 issue of electroindustry.
Gerard Winstanley, Program Manager, NEMA
The NEMA Capacitor Section is initiating a project to develop a new Standard for direct current power capacitors rated ½ kVAR and larger. The Capacitor Section is part of the Utility Products & Systems Division and covers the use of power capacitors for power factor improvement and harmonic filtering.
Power capacitors are used in power generation, transmission and distribution, and industrial applications.
The need for a dc capacitor Standard
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- February 1, 2019
- NEMA Communications
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This piece was originally published in the January/February 2019 issue of electroindustry.
Jonathan Stewart, Industry Director, Utility Products & Systems Division, NEMA
Just as the electrical power grid is developing into a system of systems with millions of interconnected parts, so, too, is the NEMA Utility Products & Systems Division moving toward an integrated coalition of product Sections.
The Division is creating a Leadership Committee that reflects a movement within NEMA from a focus on being a product-centric technical organization to one that looks at
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- January 28, 2019
- NEMA Communications
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Steve Griffith, Industry Director, Transportation Division, NEMA
The Internet of Things (IoT) wave was evident more than ever at the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held this month in Las Vegas where more than 4,500 exhibitors showcased their latest tech innovations. The impact of 5G across the industry was evident throughout the conference. From transportation, virtual reality, sports technology, and digital health, 5G is a game changer.
How does this affect the industries into which NEMA and MITA Members sell their products
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- January 28, 2019
- NEMA Communications
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This piece was originally published in the January/February 2019 issue of electroindustry.
In 2016, NEMA published NEMA MGRD 1-2016 Powering Microgrids for the 21st- Century Electrical System, a white paper introducing the concept of microgrids as an integral component of the power delivery system of the 21st century. Microgrids, once viewed as islanded systems of generation and load, valued mostly for their ability to disconnect from the grid and serve individual customer facilities during outages, are now seen as part of distribution system
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- January 25, 2019
- NEMA Communications
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This piece was originally published in the January/February 2019 issue of electroindustry.
Garry Golden, Futurist, Forward Elements
Mr. Golden consults on issues shaping business and society in the 21st century.
For years, fuel cells have been a disruptive technology that failed to meet expectations.
The technology gained popularity in the late 1990s as Ballard Power stocks went up and down with the dot-com boom and bust. Since the early 2000s, fuel cells found narrow success in remote power systems for telecommunications networks and as an uptime-focused
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- January 21, 2019
- NEMA Communications
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This piece was originally published in the January/February 2019 issue of electroindustry.
Gary Rackliffe, Vice President, Smart Grids and Grid Modernization, ABB Inc.
Similar to the smart grid concept introduced by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA 2007), “grid modernization” is both difficult to define and subject to varying opinions.
In addition to operational and information technology (OT/IT) deployment, grid modernization builds on the previous smart grid definitions and addresses several underpinnings:
Grid reliability and resiliency, especially the frequent occurrence and severity of
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- January 18, 2019
- NEMA Communications
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This piece was originally published in the January/February 2019 issue of electroindustry.
Ivan Jovanovic, Managing Director, Cable Accessories, G&W Electric Company
For decades, oil-filled terminations have been the norm for high-voltage cables. Moving away from this traditional technology are pre-molded dry-type outdoor terminations.
In 2018, 138 kV pre-molded dry-type outdoor terminations were installed in three different regions of the world for the first time: Malaysia, the Philippines, and Ansonia, Connecticut; each applied mechanical shrink installation technology to new and existing grids.
To meet the
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- January 14, 2019
- NEMA Communications
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This piece was originally published in the January/February 2019 issue of electroindustry.
Richard Glick, Commissioner, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently concluded that we are on track to see global temperatures rise by 1.5°C as early as 2030. The Trump Administration’s most recent National Climate Assessment also indicates that, absent a dramatic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, the annual economic consequences of climate change will reach into the hundreds of billions of dollars by the
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- January 11, 2019
- NEMA Communications
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This piece was originally published in the January/February 2019 issue of electroindustry.
John V. Lampe, Business Development Director, Distribution Automation, Itron
The electrical industry is in transition from a predictable grid—with few sources of energy and few monitoring and control points—to a dynamic one with many monitoring and control points. Three categories of change motivate this transition:
the public’s reduced tolerance for outages;
increased emphasis on cybersecurity; and
society’s desire to employ more renewable energy for electricity and transportation.
These changes require greater resilience from the
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- January 9, 2019
- NEMA Communications
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This piece was originally published in the January/February 2019 issue of electroindustry.
When the 116th Congress convenes on January 3, 2019, NEMA Members will face a two-party federal legislature for the first time since 2013 when Democrats held a majority in the U.S. Senate. Democrats’ new majority in the House of Representatives, coupled with Republicans’ majority in the Senate, presents exciting challenges and opportunities as we work to achieve advocacy objectives of the Association as well as specific product groups.
We expect
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- January 7, 2019
- NEMA Communications
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This piece was originally published in the January/February 2019 issue of electroindustry.
This is truly an exciting time to be an electrical manufacturer.
Over the course of my career, I have had the opportunity to be engaged in a number of NEMA industries, from lighting to electric motors. But today is different. Not only must we compete on the basis of well-understood product parameters, but also on a new market underpinning that requires a value based on the ability of these products
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- January 4, 2019
- NEMA Communications
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This piece was originally published in the January/February 2019 issue of electroindustry.
Interest in transactive energy (TE) is growing, as evidenced by New York’s Reforming the Energy Vision discussions; as piloted by the national labs; and as implemented in the United States (by companies like Introspective Systems and LO3), Denmark (by PowerMatcher), and Australia (by Power Ledger).
These and similar tactics are driven by the realization that new approaches are needed to efficiently and reliably integrate distributed energy resources (DERs) and adapt
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- December 28, 2018
- NEMA Communications
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This piece was originally published in the December 2018 issue of electroindustry.
Caption: G.P. Russ Chaney, Chairman of the Board of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), left, presents the Emerging Young Professional award to Muhammad Ali, NEMA Program Manager. Photo courtesy of ANSI
As 2018 concludes, we salute the hard work by NEMA staff that led to the following awards and achievements:
Muhammad Ali: Named ANSI Emerging Young Professional.
Ken Gettman: Received IEC 1906 Award from IEC Technical Committee 121, and recognized as an IEEE
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- December 26, 2018
- NEMA Communications
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This piece was originally published in the December 2018 issue of electroindustry.
Craig Updyke Director, Trade and Commercial Affairs
The Trump Administration’s successful conclusion of negotiations September 30 on a United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA) hastened its October 16 notifications to Congress of intent to enter into new trade talks with the European Union, the United Kingdom, and Japan.
All four actions set clocks in motion—60 days until USMCA could be signed and 90 days before proposed new negotiations may begin. While reviewing the USMCA terms,
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- December 21, 2018
- NEMA Communications
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This piece was originally published in the December 2018 issue of electroindustry.
Madeleine Bugel, Manager, State and International Government Relations, NEMA
NEMA President and CEO Kevin J. Cosgriff traveled to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in October to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Saudi Standards, Metrology and Quality Organization (SASO) on a Technical Cooperation Program (TCP). Mr. Cosgriff met with Dr. Saad Othman Al-kasabi, the governor of SASO, to discuss the TCP and the opportunities it creates for collaboration. They discussed SASO’s role
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- December 19, 2018
- NEMA Communications
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This piece was originally published in the December 2018 issue of electroindustry.
Jack Lyons, Northeast Field Representative, NEMA
The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Fire Protection Research Foundation sponsored a meeting of the Electrical Safety Research Advisory Committee (ESRAC) during the Second Draft meetings for the National Electrical Code® (NEC) in San Diego, California, in October. NEMA is represented by Vince Baclawski, senior technical director, and Jack Lyons, Northeast field representative.
Casey Grant, director of the foundation, and Donny Cook, advisory committee chair, opened the
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- December 17, 2018
- NEMA Communications
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This piece was originally published in the December 2018 issue of electroindustry.
Ann Brandstadter, Manager, Standards Publications and Marketing, NEMA
ANSI C119.5-2018 American National Standard for Electric Connectors—Insulation-Piercing Connector Systems, Rated 600 V or Less (Low Voltage Aerial Bundled Cables and Insulated and Non-Insulated Line Wires) covers insulation-piercing connectors used for making electrical connections between insulated, insulated-to-bare, and bare-to-bare conductors rated 600 V or less and 90°C (low voltage aerial bundled cables and bare and insulated line wires) on overhead distribution lines for electric
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- December 16, 2018
- NEMA Communications
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This piece was originally published in the December 2018 issue of electroindustry.
Discussion about the future of NEMA was followed by lawn bowling. Pictured (from the left): Mike Pessina, Lutron; Dave Nord, Hubbell; Jack Nehlig, Phoenix Contact; Mark Wingate and Jeanette Wingate, Maxivolt; Gerald Connolly, Legrand; Deb and John Caskey, NEMA; and Patrick Hope, NEMA.
The 2018 Industry Future Forum, held on November 14 in conjunction with the Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas, dove into a single topic: Standards and the future of
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