- September 18, 2019
- NEMA Communications
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This piece was originally published in the September/October 2019 issue of electroindustry.
Mark Kohorst, Director, Environment, Health, and Safety, NEMA
Young, smart, enterprising, committed, “Woke!”—these descriptors come to mind when I recall the crowd that surrounded me at Circularity 19, which took place in June in Minneapolis. Billed as the “largest circularity event in North America,” this three-day conference was all about what the organizers and attendees are promoting as the 21st-century model for conducting business on the global level—namely, the circular
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- September 16, 2019
- NEMA Communications
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This piece was originally published in the September/October 2019 issue of electroindustry.
Phil Squair, Vice President for Government Relations, NEMA
Just prior to the August Congressional Recess, U.S. Senators Rob Portman (R-OH), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) introduced the Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act of 2019 (ESIC). This bill is the latest version of the legacy energy-efficiency proposal that Senators Portman and Shaheen have introduced over the past several Congresses. The primary goal of the bill is to improve
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- September 14, 2019
- NEMA Communications
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This piece was originally published in the September/October 2019 issue of electroindustry.
Each year, the NEMA Board of Governors meets to review the successes and challenges of the past year and map out the next. One of the activities I look forward to the most is the update on the current year’s Strategic Initiatives and the projects to be undertaken the following year. The Strategic Initiatives research issues that manufacturers are facing and give NEMA manufacturers insights unique to our industry—insights
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- September 13, 2019
- NEMA Communications
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This piece was originally published in the September/October 2019 issue of electroindustry.
Simone Gianotti, Business Development Manager, EcoStruxure Industry, Schneider Electric
Whether you call it Industry 4.0, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), or Smart Manufacturing, the power of technology is being felt throughout the industrial world and fundamentally changing value chains and production methods. Indeed, so great is the change that Capgemini’s Digital Transformation Institute predicts that smart factories could add as much as $1.5 trillion to the overall output of
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- September 6, 2019
- NEMA Communications
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By NEMA Chief Economist Don Leavens, PhD
Over the summer, the U.S. economic expansion passed a 10-year milestone to become the longest stretch of uninterrupted growth on record. One reason for the record endurance is likely the expansion’s slow average growth pace compared to previous recoveries. Supply bottlenecks and inflationary pressures common with more robust recoveries only began to materialize late in the current business cycle, which has helped to sustain a decade of ultra-low interest rates.
The economy grew about 2.5
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- August 27, 2019
- NEMA Communications
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Clark R. Silcox, General Counsel, NEMA
Over the first 18 years of the 21st century, lighting products contributed more than any other product to reducing the demand for electricity in the United States, according to data published by U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) in their Annual Energy Outlook (AEO) from 2004 – 2019. Overall annual electricity use from lighting --- in both the residential and commercial sectors --- fell 57% from 2001 – 2018 from an estimated 1.82 quads in 2001
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- August 26, 2019
- NEMA Communications
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This piece was originally published in the July/August 2019 issue of electroindustry.
Chances are you are reading this indoors. We spend almost our entire lives in buildings. Whether at home at work, learning in school, or recuperating at a hospital, buildings are integral to our lives. Consequently, NEMA and electrical manufacturers are working to make sure we are safe, healthy, and productive in those buildings. Here is a snapshot of some of the important work at NEMA to improve building performance:
Improving Code Enforcement
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- August 23, 2019
- NEMA Communications
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This piece was originally published in the July/August 2019 issue of electroindustry.
Carolyn Hull, Manager, MITA's Global Regulatory Standards, has been selected as one of three winners of the USNC's 2019 IEC Young Professionals program. She will be a representative of the United States at the IEC 2019 General Meeting in October, in Shanghai, China.
Carolyn has been with MITA for just over a year. During that time, she has excelled in her grasp of the Standards development process and the role Standards play
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- August 19, 2019
- NEMA Communications
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This piece was originally published in the July/August 2019 issue of electroindustry.
Ann Brandstadter Manager, Standards Publications and Marketing, NEMA
NEMA SPD 1.1-2019 Part 1—Surge Protective Device Specification Guide for Low Voltage Power Distribution Systems is the first in a new series intended to guide the evaluation, specification, and use of surge protective devices (SPD) deployed in low-voltage power distribution system applications. It includes SPD ratings, a specification checklist, and information on surge current ratings, modes of protection, and general grounding practices.
NEMA SPD 1.1-2019
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- August 16, 2019
- NEMA Communications
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This piece was originally published in the July/August 2019 issue of electroindustry.
Jack Lyons, Northeast Field Representative, NEMA
I have been appointed to a new National Fire Protection Association Technical Committee that will develop a new Standard for Remote Inspections (REI-AAA). This Standard will assist jurisdictions in adopting procedures of inspections that use current technologies, increase department efficiencies, and address security for data that is gathered in the process.
The idea was presented at the 2017 NFPA Annual Meeting by Jim Muir, Chief Building Official
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- August 12, 2019
- NEMA Communications
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This piece was originally published in the July/August 2019 issue of electroindustry.
Brian Marchionini, NEMA Senior Program Manager, speaks at the Power Africa Clean Energy Standards Program workshop on energy storage in South Africa in February.
For the Western Hemisphere, the Administration launched the America Crece energy initiative in 2018 (“crece” is Spanish for “it grows”). Led by the Treasury Department but involving six additional agencies, the initiative promotes economic prosperity through energy growth, integration, and security. It encourages energy trade, private sector investment,
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- August 9, 2019
- NEMA Communications
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This piece was originally published in the July/August 2019 issue of electroindustry.
Kirk Anderson, Industry Director, NEMA
During a recent Industrial Control Systems Joint Working Group meeting, representatives from the Department of Defense (DOD), International Society of Automation (ISA), and National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) outlined a new program to address the growing risk of unprotected and underprotected building control systems in the U.S. and abroad.
Building owners, users, and manufacturers of control systems continuously work to find practical ways to create safe and more
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- August 5, 2019
- NEMA Communications
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This piece was originally published in the July/August 2019 issue of electroindustry.
Mariela Echeverria, Communications Services Manager, NEMA
The Edison Electric Institute, GridWise Alliance, and National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) hosted the Grid Innovation and Infrastructure Expo on Capitol Hill recently in conjunction with the U.S. Congressional Grid Innovation Caucus, co-chaired by Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-CA) and Rep. Bob Latta (R-OH).
“Innovation will be central to the long-term resilience of our nation’s energy infrastructure,” said Congressman Jerry McNerney. “Today’s expo brings together leading industry companies
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- August 1, 2019
- NEMA Communications
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This piece was originally published in the July/August 2019 issue of electroindustry.
Scott Ziegenfus, Systems Architect, Hubbell Lighting
Even though it’s not published yet, it’s possible you’ve heard something about BACnet Secure Connect (BACnet/SC), which has sparked a significant amount of buzz in the building systems industry. The name itself triggers curiosity. Here are some questions you may be asking:
How secure is it?
How different is it from the BACnet we use today?
Does it allow BACnet to work in the world of IoT?
How IT “friendly”
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- July 24, 2019
- NEMA Communications
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This piece was originally published in the July/August 2019 issue of electroindustry.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, “weather, water, and climate-related events cause an average of approximately 650 deaths and $15 billion in damage per year.”1
Chad Kennedy, Director of Industry Standards for Power Equipment, Schneider Electric
In 2018 alone, there were 14 different billion-dollar disaster events in the United States. And over the past three years, the yearly frequency of billion-dollar disaster events has doubled the long-term average.2 With storm data
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- July 19, 2019
- NEMA Communications
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This piece was originally published in the July/August 2019 issue of electroindustry.
Zijun Tong, Program Manager, NEMA
When it comes to modern consumer digital technologies, the first few things that come to mind might be Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, and Google Home. People rarely think of thermostats, although they are quietly serving everyone in the background. The technology related to thermostats has evolved from manually setting a cooling or heating point with a mechanical lever to a computerized thermostat that improves the user experience.
Two
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- July 17, 2019
- NEMA Communications
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This piece was originally published in the July/August 2019 issue of electroindustry.
Mark Kohorst, Senior Manager, Environment, Health, and Safety, NEMA
On one afternoon in February 2019, three aviation mechanics working in a hangar in Moberly, MO, were overcome with carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning resulting from a malfunctioning heater inside the structure and rushed to the hospital. The previous month, emergency workers treated 14 people and hospitalized one from a nail salon in Fort Worth, TX, less than a week after three employees of
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- July 15, 2019
- NEMA Communications
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This piece was originally published in the July/August 2019 issue of electroindustry.
Maria Karpman, BEMP, CEM, LEED, AP Principal, Karpman Consulting, and Michael Rosenberg, FASHRAE, CEM, LEED AP; Chief Scientist, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Buildings are complex systems composed of numerous interacting components that are influenced by external factors such as weather and occupant behavior. Building energy modeling (BEM) tools use physics-based equations to calculate building energy use at hourly or sub-hourly timesteps. Typical applications of energy modeling include optimizing building designs, documenting compliance
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- July 11, 2019
- NEMA Communications
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This piece was originally published in the July/August 2019 issue of electroindustry.
Brian Letendre, Director of Engineering, CBRE
Analytics serve as a business tool in the management of real estate facilities by taking large amounts of data inputs and transferring this data into useful information that is used to drive business decisions and operational improvements.
The raw data is automatically processed and organized using predetermined algorithms that prepare mass amounts of data for human consumption. We gain knowledge and insight on historical trends, abnormalities, and
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- July 10, 2019
- NEMA Communications
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This piece was originally published in the July/August 2019 issue of electroindustry.
Buildings are like small cities. They are the infrastructure of our economy and include multiple and varied subsystems that serve to support the people who live, work, and visit them. These “communities within cities” are increasingly smart and connected.
According to Congress, “the term ‘high-performance building’ means a building that integrates and optimizes on a life cycle basis all major…attributes, including energy conservation, environment, safety, security, durability, accessibility, cost- benefit, productivity, sustainability,
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