Energy User News articles from December 2001

Energy User News archives from December 2001

RTO Fever Energizes FERC Agenda As New Chairman Takes Reins.(Teh agency moves to form regional transmision organizations)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), under new chairman Pat Wood III, appears to have put its campaign to organize the nation's electric power transmission under a handful of large regional transmission organizations (RTOs) into...

ISH NA Exhibitor List Tops 120.
December 1, 2001... TROY, MI--Messe Frankfurt announced the number of ISH NA exhibitors now exceeds 120. Exhibit reservations and requests for information increased strongly following the ASA Convention in October. According to Messe Frankfurt's Dirk Ebener,...

California's Path 15. (Eun Ticker).(The electric transmission bottleneck will be upgraded)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... California's Path 15 electric transmission bottleneck will be upgraded under a $300 million deal with Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) and six other parties, Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham announced. Path 15 is an 84-mile stretch of...

A new Alaska pipeline. (Eun Ticker).(Makes little sense according to some)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... A new Alaska pipeline to carry natural gas makes little sense now considering the highly volatile--and currently low--gas prices, major producers said October 3, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Some members of Congress and the Bush...

FuelCell Energy, Inc.. (Eun Ticker).(receives order for fuel cell power plant)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... FuelCell Energy, Inc. has received an order from PPL Spectrum, Inc., a subsidiary of PPL Corp., for the purchase of a 250-kW fuel cell power plant slated for installation at the United States Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod located in...

Constellation Energy Group Inc.. (Eun Ticker).(cancels plans to split into two independent businesses)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... Constellation Energy Group Inc. has canceled its plan to split into two independent businesses, citing a failing economy and an uncertain energy market, the Baltimore Sun reports. Constellation had said it would split into two publicly traded...

The Union of Concerned Scientists. (Eun Ticker).(believes the US could produce 20% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... The Union of Concerned Scientists projects that the United States could produce at least 20% of its electricity from wind, solar, geothermal, and other renewable energy sources by 2020. The group is urging the federal government to adopt such...

Trigen Energy Corp.. (Eun Ticker).(inducted as founding partner of Environmental Protection agency voluntary partnership program)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... Trigen Energy Corp., White Plains, NY, has been inducted as a founding partner of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) latest voluntary partnership program, the Combined Heat and Power (CHP) Partnership. The EPA provides...

EUN Calendar. (News).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... DECEMBER 11-13 Power-Gen International, Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, NV. For more information, visit: pe.pennnet.com/Events/pe/powergenintl_2001/pe_pgen2001_main.cfm. JANUARY 31-February 2 Facility Energy Cost...

Bush to Nominate Kelliher to Open FERC Seat. (News).(President George Bush, Joseph Kelliher, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... WASHINGTON, DC--President George Bush announced that he intends to nominate Joseph Kelliher to fill the fifth seat on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which has been empty since former FERC Chairman Curtis Hebert resigned in August....

EUN Names Energy Manager of the Year. (News).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... Atlanta, GA--EUN publisher Peter E. Moran presented James Scott, director of public works at Tobyhanna Army Depot, with the publication's prestigious Energy Manager of the Year award at a breakfast held October 26th, 2001, at the World Energy...

Building A Data Center: A Construction Minefield; Critical construction projects require special expertise. (Power Quality and Reliability).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... While every design and construction project presents its own unique set of problems, few can rival the myriad of complex challenges involved in the construction of a modern data center, data farm, or telecom hotel. Although differing greatly...

The Password Is Security: Policymakers must recognize the interconnection between security and reliability. (Editorial).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... Kevin Heslin The administration continues to urge all Americans to resume their normal lives. Pundits say that getting on with business is the best way to show the terrorists that they have failed. The President, after coming out for...

California: A Gold Rush for Reciprocating Engine Generators; Golden State provides opportunity for clean-burning recips.
December 1, 2001... Energy consultants believe that a window of opportunity now exists in California for small, reciprocating engine generators to serve electric load, despite reservations about environmental restrictions. High electric prices for retail...

Energy Management Outsourcing Can Save Dollars: Maintaining expertise on staff can be an expensive proposition.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... Crescent Real Estate Equities had an energy problem. The real estate investment trust's energy costs were climbing significantly and future costs were unpredictable. To solve the problem, Crescent signed a five-year master utility management...

Making Economic Sense of Electricity Prices: There's a pattern to be seen if you know where to look.(Statistical Data Included)
December 1, 2001... When electric prices quadruple over the course of a few months, many campanies that are unhedged and unprepared get hurt. Because prices will probably rise again, companies that can make economic sense of price spikes will be better prepared...

Building and automated process information service. (Monitoring & HVAC).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... Building and automated process information service integrates pulse and analog signals from existing sensors and meters to produce one uniform report. It eliminates the need for costly customized software, which has been a significant...

Automatic transfer switches. (Monitoring & HVAC).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... Automatic transfer switches are available in single- and dual-operator automatic and two-, three-, or four-pole configurations for emergency and standby power systems. The switches are labeled for use with any circuit breaker with...

Duct wrap insulation. (Monitoring & HVAC).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... Duct wrap insulation, a blanket-type fiberglass insulation for HVAC ductwork, is described in a two-page spec sheet. The insulation, which is easily fit and installed by contractors, can reduce heat loss and gain from equipment and ductwork,...

Power quality meter. (Monitoring & HVAC).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... Power quality meter helps facility engineers identify and analyze power problems before damage to capital equipment or operational shutdowns occur. It also is suited for applications such as emergency load shedding, demand management, or load...

Three-phase uninterruptible power system. (Monitoring & HVAC).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... Three-phase uninterruptible power system is a mid-sized UPS system (30-130 kVA) for critical applications such as data centers, industrial facilities, and telecom sites that require continuous systems availability. The system uses online...

Evaporative cooling media. (Monitoring & HVAC).(Munters Moisture Control Services product information)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... Evaporative cooling media were developed for applications requiring UL 900 Class II fire rating or compliance with NEPA codes. They are commonly used for humidification after gas-fired furnaces, as pre-coolers for large natural gas compressor...

Water-cooled global scroll compressor chiller. (Monitoring & HVAC).(McWuay)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... Water-cooled global scroll compressor chiller features an energy efficiency ratio (EER) of 15.2 at full load and 17.8 EER at part load (IPLV). The unit meets or exceeds ASHRAE Standard 90.1-1999, according to the manufacturer. Two tandem...

Water-cooled screw chiller. (Monitoring & HVAC).(York)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... Water-cooled screw chiller provides energy efficiency and energy savings at both design and off-design conditions. Integrated part load value (IPLV) ratings exceed those of many constant-speed centrifugal chillers by as much as 30%, the...

Source transfer switch. (Monitoring & HVAC).(MGE product information)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... Source transfer switch (STS) will automatically and instantaneously transfer up to 1400 VA of load power at 12 A from a preferred source to an alternate. Using an STS is a simple way of adding a second input power source to a...

Air conditioning system. (Monitoring & HVAC).(Sanyo)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... Air conditioning system makes it possible to connect a series of multiple indoor evaporator units with a capacity of up to 135% of the outdoor condensing unit's maximum capacity. With an indoor unit of 12,000 Btu/hr, it is possible to connect...

High-efficiency air filter. (Monitoring & HVAC).(Camfil Farr)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... High-efficiency air filter provides energy efficiency and long service life in a compact, V-bank design, its maker claims. Used in place of box-type filters or other ASHRAE-rated products, the filter is said to be ideal for air-starved...

Senate Energy Chair Pulls Plug on Energy Bill and ANWR Drilling, For Now. (News).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... WASHINGTON, DC--Sen. Jeff Bingaman (DNM) the chairman of the Senate Energy Committee announced October 9 that he was halting work on a national energy bill, which Alaska Sen. Frank Murkowski had hoped to use to open the Arctic National...

The Impact of September 11 on Energy Security and Supply. (News).(Cambridge Energy Research Associates report)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... CAMBRIDGE, MA--The events of September 11 without doubt will impact many areas of the energy industry, including security and supply sectors, according to Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) in a release dated October 4. Key...

Lynch to Lose Job? (News).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... E&E Publishing reported that California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) President Loretta Lynch may be on verge of losing her job. The reported cited unnamed sources who said that "Lynch is on the outs with Gov. Gray Davis (D) and that the...

Customer Choice Would Advance Renewable Energy, DOE's National Labs Say. (News).(Department of Energy national laboratories report)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
December 1, 2001... GOLDEN, CO-Giving consumers a greater choice of how their electricity is generated could boost solar, wind, and other "green power" sources 40% by the end of the decade, according to a new study released October 30 by two U.S. Department of...

Southern Company Calls for Federal Attention to Transmission. (News).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... Southern Company released two reports on November 1 focusing on critical issues facing the nation's electric transmission system. The Southern Company concluded that federal policymakers needed to pay more attention to the transmission...

Weather Hedge Prices.(Brief Article)(Illustration)(Statistical Data Included)
December 1, 2001... Weather Hedge Prices OPTIONS Station Structure Location WBAN Type Period Strike Premium Tucson, AZ 23160 HDD Call Nov 1-Mar 2 1650 $97,500 LaGuardia, NYC 14732 ...

Degree Days For Selected Cities. (Statistics, Trends and Energy Data).(Brief Article)(Illustration)(Statistical Data Included)
December 1, 2001... DEGREE DAYS For Selected Cities October Monthly Monthly Deviation Monthly Deviation City Total from North from Last Year Atlanta 174 36 88 Baltimore...

Spot Market Gas: Posted Prices. (Statistics, Trends and Energy Data).(Brief Article)(Illustration)(Statistical Data Included)
December 1, 2001... Spot Market Gas: Posted Prices November prices represent estimates of median prices for one-month spot transactions. Prices are not offers. Pipeline Nov-00 Oct-01 Nov-01 ANR, La. 4.45 1.75...

Ranking of Gas Utility Prices By State Commercial. (Statistics, Trends and Energy Data).(Brief Article)(Illustration)(Statistical Data Included)
December 1, 2001... Ranking of Gas Utility Prices By State Commercial Rank State Price/Mcf 1 Hawaii $17.24 2 Maine $13.39 3 New Hampshire $12.87 4 Rhode Island $12.25...

Ranking of Electricity Prices Commercial. (Statistics, Trends and Energy Data).(Illustration)(Statistical Data Included)
December 1, 2001... Ranking of Electricity Prices Commercial Rank Cts/kWh ST UTILITY % Total kWh 1 19.02 HI Maui Electric 0.067% Co., Ltd 2 18.24 AK Alaska Power Co ...

Controls upgrade: Money in the Bank.(Bank of America Tower gets digital control system upgrade)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
December 1, 2001... Seventeen years ago, the Bank of America Tower was the tallest building in the Pacific Northwest. Standing 76 stories tall with over 1.5 million sq ft of space, it still has that honor. Back then, its original Alerton (r) direct digital...

Esteemed MA college gets wired for a new millennium.(Mount Holyoke College)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
December 1, 2001... Mount Holyoke College is a small women's liberal arts college located in South Hadley, MA, with an enrollment of about 2,000 students. Mount Holyoke was the first of the Seven Sisters - the female equivalent of the formerly all-male Ivy...

Controls guide translates to good info in German, Chinese. (BAC net news).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... The NIST Information Report 6392, "GSA Guide to Specifying Interoperable Building Automation and Control Systems Using ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 135-1995, BACnet," is now available as a downloadable PDF file in three languages: Chinese, German,...

Return to China finds growth in business, enthusiasm. (BAC net news).
December 1, 2001... As the summer wound to a close in North America, a contingent of the BMA leadership traveled to China, a nation they found to be in the "springtime" of its embrace of BACnet technology. Meeting and sharing ideas with interested parties from...

Workshop provides compatibility testing. (BAC net news).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... Last month, the BACnet Manufacturers Association (BMA) and the BACnet Testing Laboratories (BTL) sponsored the second BACnet Interoperability Workshop in Manchester, NH. The workshop allowed fourteen BMA corporate member companies to test the...

The Time for Interoperability is NOW.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... What is interoperability? In building automation system (bas) terms, interoperability is the sharing of, and acting upon, information between different manufacturers' systems, such as fire/life safety, hvac, lighting, security, and...

Wireless access. (BAC net product).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... WebCTRL [TM] is a browser-based, remote access building control technology that allows users to access and control a building automation system (bas) without the need for special software or plugins. The system can be used on several...

Building management. (BAC net product).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... The Continuum [TM] bas features a totally modular plug-and-play design, a 32-bit CPU with Flash memory, and a Windows NT front-end workstation. Other features include an open ODBC-compatible database, built-in OLE automation for custom...

Building controller. (BAC net product).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... The new MACH-Global building controller is designed to support multiple BACnet and LAN technologies. Users can achieve forward compatibility using BACnet over Ethernet, B/IP, MS/TP or PTP; and backward compatibility with previous generation...

Vav controller. (BAC net product).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... The company's new BACtalk(R) VAV-SDA controller controls variable-air volume (vav) boxes equipped with variable-speed fans or analog valves and is designed to eliminate the need for external pressure sensors. Other features include an...

Web-enabled building control. (BAC net product).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... Vykon [TM] is a Web-enabled application that allows users to manage a building's comfort in real-time over the Internet, from anywhere in the world. Features include the ability to access multiple system protocols, control costs through...

BACnet router. (BAC net product).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... The BR2 can be connected to LANs containing a variety of network traffic, as well as to dedicated BACnet networks. Other features include interoperability between equipment and systems from a wide range of suppliers, is BBMD (BACnet Broadcast...