- 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 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 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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- December 14, 2018
- NEMA Communications
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This piece was originally published in the December 2018 issue of electroindustry.
John Hindman, Tooling U-SME’s director of learning and performance improvement, led a discussion of NEMA’s Youth Apprenticeship Program.
In a full-day workshop, NEMA launched its Workforce Development Workshop to address one of the most broadly faced threats to the electroindustry—the skills gap.
NEMA created two resources, the Industry Promotion Toolkit and Industrial Maintenance Pre-apprenticeship Program, to recruit and train the future workforce while helping our Members promote the electroindustry as a vibrant and
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- December 13, 2018
- NEMA Communications
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This piece was originally published in the December 2018 issue of electroindustry.
Karen Willis, Industry Director, NEMA
With a movement toward systems in NEMA product scopes, a recent working lunch involving the Transportation Management Systems Section and the Lighting Systems Division paved the way for collaborative work projects. Among the topics they discussed were:
Standards development needs for harmonized communications;
State, city, and county procurement guidelines for secure roadway lighting; and
Lighting’s potential role in the autonomous vehicle industry.
They also discussed how they are particularly poised to
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- December 12, 2018
- NEMA Communications
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This piece was originally published in the December 2018 issue of electroindustry.
In 2018, NEMA formed the Transportation Systems Division to broaden its role in the movement of goods and people in safe, cyber-secure, and efficient ways. Member companies are well positioned to play a leading role in the electrification of America’s transportation system, which accounts for 25 percent of total U.S. energy use.
The Division is planning government advocacy and technical activities for 2019. To learn more, contact Steve Griffith, industry director for
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- December 11, 2018
- NEMA Communications
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The NEMA Lamp Index for general service (A-line) lamps has taken on a new look. When the A-line Lamp Index was first developed and published in 2012, it was designed to measure the shift in general service (A-line) lamp technology as a result of the implementation of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA-2007), which required manufacturers to replace traditional incandescent lamp technology with halogen incandescent lamp technology that consumed 28% less energy. At the time, the only
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- December 10, 2018
- NEMA Communications
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This piece was originally published in the December 2018 issue of electroindustry.
In a provoking breakfast keynote, Paul Wellener, vice chairman and leader of U.S. Industrial Products & Construction, Deloitte Consulting, proclaimed that the jobs are here, but asked, “Where are the people?”
Drawing on the 2018 Deloitte and The Manufacturing Institute skills gap and future of work study, Mr. Wellener addressed how the nature of work is changing and what manufacturing jobs will be like in the digital era. He pointed out how
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- December 9, 2018
- NEMA Communications
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This piece was originally published in the December 2018 issue of electroindustry.
Bryan Mulligan introduced a panel on the Future of Connected Transportation. The panelists, who explained how real-time data can improve safety and mobility on the road, represented the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), Panasonic USA, and the Ford Motor Company. The companies collaborated on a connected vehicle platform to save lives along the 90-mile stretch of I-70 from Golden to Vail.
Standards, Mr. Mulligan predicted and panelists agreed, will play an essential
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- December 8, 2018
- NEMA Communications
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This piece was originally published in the December 2018 issue of electroindustry.
Reid Wilson, Correspondent for The Hill Newspaper
Noting a nearly 50 percent record turnout in a midterm election, Reid Wilson of The Hill summarized that there was more interest in Election Night 2018 than in the Watergate scandal, and that the election was not about the economy—it was all about President Trump.
Tracing a wide variety of statistics based on exit polls, general demographics, and surveys, Mr. Wilson analyzed TV viewership, voter turnout,
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- December 7, 2018
- NEMA Communications
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This piece was originally published in the December 2018 issue of electroindustry.
Don Leavens used a scenario approach to analyze current conditions in the electroindustry.
Employing a scenario approach in his annual economic outlook, NEMA Vice President and Chief Economist Don Leavens, PhD, analyzed the economic growth impact of monetary policy, investments, productivity, and trade.
He explained that the first scenario, dubbed “Recession,” is based on the assumption that rising interest rates expose an overextended commercial real estate market causing real estate values to slide
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