NEMA Currents Blog

Falling off A Cliff

In a previous post I outlined one of the central problems behind the credit market crisis: plummeting house prices. Although most people have a general understanding of how much housing construction took place at its peak, the chart below illustrates how much (over)building took place during the boom...

Published Fri, Oct 17 2008 3:47 PM by Brian Lego

Filed under: Economics

Do standards really make a difference?

Some recent problems in Mammography make it abundantly clear that they do. Recently, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) got reports indicating that image quality from a number of full-field digital mammography (FFDM) units was being compromised when their images were displayed on some third-party...

Published Wed, Oct 01 2008 9:08 AM by Howard Clark

Of Clocks and Teakettles...

Last week Cosmologist Stephen Hawkins unveiled the spectacular new Corpus Christi clock at Cambridge University. The clock has no hands but uses rotating rings and flashing blue LED lights to indicate the time. The mechanism is entirely mechanical and the fantastical insect or Chronophage (time eater...

Published Wed, Oct 01 2008 3:03 PM by Gerard Winstanley

Filed under: Safety and Standardization

FERC Boosts Advanced Transmission Technologies

In one of the first cases to explicitly consider the use of advanced transmission technologies, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved a 135 basis point rate adder for incorporation of an underground HVDC line, fiber-optic cables, and static var compensators into the proposed New York...

Published Thu, Oct 02 2008 9:36 AM by Eric Hsieh

Filed under: Smart Grid, transmission

A Week of NEMA Successes on Capitol Hill

What a great week for NEMA's government relations team. First, Congress enacted the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights Act of 2008 . Next, it ratified the U.S.-India Civilian Nuclear Agreement . Then today, the House came back and finished the job on the Emergency Economic Stabilization...

Published Fri, Oct 03 2008 3:30 PM by Stephen Gold

Filed under: General

Not Out of the Woods Yet

Today's passage of EESA 2008 is expected to help shore up troubled credit markets in the weeks and months ahead. In addition, the legislation should help to bolster investor confidence and business confidence to some extent once it is up and running; however, data released this week only served to...

Published Fri, Oct 03 2008 2:43 PM by Brian Lego

Filed under: Economics

If You Want Electricity, You Need Transmission Lines

Even in the worst of economic times, Americans need electricity. We might cut back on our use of it -- and NEMA's members are doing their part to help reduce U.S. consumption (see, for example, Dain Hansen's blog entry of August 20) -- but for the foreseeable future we'll continue relying...

Published Wed, Oct 08 2008 11:48 AM by Stephen Gold

Filed under: General

Nanotech Start-ups: Can Other People Build It?

I read an excellent article from the October 3, 2008 edition of the N.Y. Times Magazine about the world of budding renewable energy companies and the role and function of venture capital companies in supporting them in their efforts to commercialize products. The article provided four basic questions...

Published Thu, Oct 09 2008 10:57 AM by Leibowitz, Mike

Filed under: Smart Grid, renewable energy, Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles, Safety and Standardization, wind

EU Electromechanical Shock Protectors Not Fully Protective

In the recent ElectroIndustry article [September 2008 Issue, "International Standards: A Look Back to the Future"] there is a highlight of an important distinction between GFCIs and RCDs. However the explanation - "...each technology can ultimately comply with the basic requirements in...

Published Wed, Oct 22 2008 3:40 PM by Gettman, Kenneth

2007…..2012……2017 WHERE DID THE TIME GO??

Interestingly enough, we all tend to put things off until the last minute. Individuals do this, companies do this and even nations do this. There are two CANENA developed standards that have been published for more than 18 months. To date however, no products have been evaluated to these new standards...

Published Thu, Oct 23 2008 11:37 AM by Buckson, William

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