NEMA Currents Blog

Banking on a Solution

With a new administration often comes new ideas, but it appears the Obama administration is working on yet another version of a financial industry rescue - let's call it TARP 3.0. The main piece of this package would be an " aggregator " bank that would serve as a dumping ground for banks'...

Published Fri, Jan 30 2009 9:47 AM by Lego, Brian

Filed under: Economics

HOW MUCH IS A TRILLION DOLLARS?

Whats's a trillion dollars? As we all become bombarded by the daily media blitz regarding the continuing saga in the varying amounts contained in projected stimuli (AKA Bailout) bills and financial shortfalls identified in millions, billions and even trillion dollar amounts, we run the risk of becoming...

Published Thu, Jan 29 2009 2:43 PM by Buckson, William

Smart Grid Gets Another Boost from the President

Let me speculate that a year ago most politicians or members of the media had no idea what Smart Grid was, much less the details about why we need to modernize our electric grid. That's all changed, and while NEMA can take credit for some of the increased exposure, it helps when the guy with the...

Published Wed, Jan 28 2009 7:23 AM by golds

Filed under: Smart Grid

Investigators call Soldier’s electrocution “negligent homicide”

The death of a soldier electrocuted while showering at a military facility in Iraq a year ago may be changed from accidental death to negligent homicide. Army criminal investigators say that KBR, the largest US contractor in Iraq, may have failed to have qualified electricians and plumbers undertaking...

Published Mon, Jan 26 2009 8:33 AM by Winstanley, Gerard

Filed under: Electrical Safety, Building Codes, Safety and Standardization, Standardization

Quicksilver and Your New Light Bulbs

A non-NEMA colleague recently told me that she had installed "some of those funny new light bulbs." According to NEMA Business Information Services, the U.S. market penetration of compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) reached 25 percent recently. However, that number indicates that a majority of...

Published Fri, Jan 23 2009 3:39 PM by updykec

Filed under: Energy Efficiency

Free Falling

Another month and another abysmal report on the housing market. How bad was it? Total December housing starts dropped to a record low for the fourth consecutive month. For the year as a whole, housing starts plummeted below the previous low water mark set back in the dark days of the early 1980s recession...

Published Fri, Jan 23 2009 1:15 PM by Lego, Brian

Filed under: Economics

Phantoms and Vampires

Several months ago I wrote about a new utility program my family has joined that gives us more information about our electricity usage. So on Tuesday we received our bill for the mid-December to mid-January period. On the back of the statement was a helpful reminder about the "energy "vampires"...

Published Thu, Jan 22 2009 3:30 PM by updykec

Filed under: electricity

Energy Storage Technology Is Vital For "Smart" Grid Efforts

NEMA is taking the lead in making Smart Grid and Energy Storage technologies a reality. The NEMA Energy Storage Council (ESC) has held successful meetings where attendees have drafted a list of application categories that help define where Energy Storage (ES) and Distributed Generation (DG) technologies...

Published Wed, Jan 21 2009 12:08 PM by Schweitzer, Eric

Filed under: Energy Efficiency, Smart Grid, Electrical Grid, Economy, Environment, Regulation, transmission, grid, Intelligent Transportation Management, Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles, NARUC, electricity, demand response, wind, DC power distribution, Economics

Kudos to the European Commission on Revising the Metric Labeling Directive

We've just gotten word from our friends in Europe that the EU metric labeling directive has finally been modified FROM requiring all products (and product packaging, training materials, other collateral materials, etc.) entering the EC after December 31, 2009 to use only metric measures and nomenclature...

Published Wed, Jan 21 2009 8:23 AM by Scolnik, Alvin

Filed under: Regulation, Trade

A New President, A New Era -- for the Electric Grid

President Barack Obama took office at 12 noon today (even though he wasn't sworn in until 12:03). I was delighted that in his inaugural speech , he expressed the need to rebuild America -- and specifically, the electric grid. Here's what he said: The state of the economy calls for action, bold...

Published Tue, Jan 20 2009 12:30 PM by golds

Filed under: Electrical Grid

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