Utility Automation & Engineering T&D articles from October 2008

Utility Automation & Engineering T&D archives from October 2008

For the love of power.(FROM THE EDITOR)(International Council on Large Electric Systems)(Editorial)
October 1, 2008... When I was a kid, I really liked Fred Astaire movies. I know that's odd for an '80s child, but it's true. I'm revealing my secret here and now. "Shall We Dance" was my very favorite, probably for that scene where he and Ginger Rogers hoof it on...

Letter to the editor.(Letter to the editor)
October 1, 2008... From: Michael Howard Sent: Monday, August 18, 2008 1:59 PM To: Kathleen Davis Subject: Get a Grip, Al. Ms. Davis, I wanted to take the time to commend you on your letter entitled Get a Grip, Al, in this month's issue...

3M conducts transmission reinforcement project.(NEWS)(Brief article)
October 1, 2008... BC Transmission Corp. (BCTC), the transmission system operator for the province of British Columbia, is installing 3M's light-weight, high-capacity electricity conductor, 3M aluminum conductor composite reinforced (ACCR). BCTC will deploy 3M...

Report blames two utilities for 2007 San Diego wildfires.(NEWS)
October 1, 2008... Improperly maintained power lines sparked three San Diego County wildfires that killed two people, destroyed 1,347 houses, caused power outages, forced evacuations and injured some 40 firefighters in October 2007, state regulators said. ...

CIGRE brings the world, and art, to France.(NEWS)(International Council on Large Electric Systems)(Conference notes)
October 1, 2008... CIGRE (Conseil International des Grands Reseaux Electriques or the International Council on Large Electric Systems) is a permanent international, non-government, not-for-profit association founded in France in 1921. These days, it's one of the...

A chat with NREL director Dan Arvizu.(NEWS)
October 1, 2008... Editor's note: This is part two of a four-part UAE news series. Senior editor Kathleen Davis talks with NREL director Dr. Dan Arvizu about connecting renewables to the grid. In this second part of the series, Dr. Arvizu examines ways to make...

Hearing Examiner recommends approval of Allegheny Line.(NEWS)(Brief article)
October 1, 2008... Virginia's Hearing Examiner recommended that the State Corporation Commission authorize construction of the 500-kv Virginia segments of the Trans-Allegheny Interstate Line (TrAIL). In his report, Hearing Examiner Alexander F. Skirpan Jr....

Alabama Power exec gets awards, reveals his secrets.(NEWS)
October 1, 2008... Robin Hurst, Alabama Power's senior vice president for power delivery, received the IEEE Power and Energy Society's "Leadership in Power" award at the 2008 IEEE Power and Energy Society's General Meeting held in Pittsburgh this July. The award...

ComEd offers a peek at its prettiest substations.(SUBSTATION AESTHETICS)(Commonwealth Edison Co.)(Interview)
October 1, 2008... ComEd gave us a look at some of its best substation designs in Chicago this month. Blending art and utility seems almost natural when one looks at the substation designs at the Magnificent Mile and the South Loop. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]...

Is your SCADA obsolete?(SUBSTATION AUTOMATION)
October 1, 2008... As the business processes of utilities evolve, stakeholders require substation control and data acquisition (SCADA) to support a growing number of higher-level applications. The demands on system functionality increase dramatically and the...

Asset-management strategies enable utilities to optimize.(ASSET MANAGEMENT)
October 1, 2008... Power utilities are closely examining ways they can ensure future reliability and availability. Many companies in the manufacturing and process industry sectors have already established histories of operational excellence initiatives to drive...

AMR vs AMI.(ADVANCED METERING)(automatic meter reading)(advanced metering infrastructure)
October 1, 2008... The advent of automatic meter reading (AMR) came about in the mid-'80s, and more prominently in the early 1990s as an automated way to collect basic meter-reading data. The term and technology behind advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) began...

Afraid of AMI commitment?(ADVANCED METERING)(advanced metering infrastructure)
October 1, 2008... For almost 30 years now, I've been a part of an industry that has evolved from electro-mechanical meters read by "sneaker net" to advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) systems. While the advanced metering market has continued to evolve (and is...

Informing customers when the lights go out: Kansas City Power & Light's outage communication service.(CASE STUDY)
October 1, 2008... Not too long ago, customer service was synonymous with personal service. Knowledgeable company representatives promptly answered customer calls. Today, we live in an age of nested "if-then" statements where consumer service has been replaced...

Detecting high-impedance faults.
October 1, 2008... Providing safe and reliable service is the goal of electric utilities. This goal is compromised when utility equipment fails or foreign objects and wildlife provide an alternative path for electrons to flow. These short circuits (technically...

Digital voltmeter.(New Products)
October 1, 2008... HD Electric Co.'s new DVM-80T digital voltmeter & phasing set with capacitive test point mode is a new addition to their digital voltmeter line. This compact unit is designed to measure voltages up to 40kV and 80kV with a pair of add-on...

Aluminum modular tower.(New Products)
October 1, 2008... SBB designs and manufactures Emergency Restoration Systems (ERS). These temporary aluminum modular towers are now being used in almost 20 countries not only to quickly replace damaged transmission towers and facilitate maintenance work without...

Hardened Ethernet switches.(New Products)
October 1, 2008... Bandwidth-hungry video surveillance is one of the fastest growing applications for IP switches. GarrettCom Inc. now offers a suite of products, including its new high-bandwidth industrial-hardened Ethernet switch, unique switch-level multicast...

Residential disconnect meter.(New Products)
October 1, 2008... Landis+Gyr Inc. announced their FOCUS AX solid-state residential electric meter, an advanced disconnect meter, is available to the market and orders are now being accepted. The FOCUS solid-state electric revenue meter was originally released in...

PoE unmanaged switch.(New Products)
October 1, 2008... With regard to the increased demand for PoE technology, MOXA provides a complete end-to-end solution for any IEEE802.3af PoE compliant unit and Ethernet-enabled device. The EDS-P308 is an eight-port smart Ethernet switch that features PoE on...

Stand-alone AMI module.(New Products)
October 1, 2008... MU Net Inc., a provider of Internet protocol (IP) and other standards-based AMI solutions including IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee, has announced the immediate availability of its new WebGate TotalPoint ZigBee module, a stand-alone, high-power IEEE...

Calendar.(Calendar)
October 1, 2008... OCT. 13-15 EMACS 2008: The Customer Experience Conference, Chartwell, www.emacsconference.com, Austin, Texas. OCT. 21-23 POWER-GEN Asia, PennWell Corp., www.powergenasia.com, Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia. OCT. 21-23 ...

Featured Topic.(WHAT'S NEW A www.UtilityAutomation.com)
October 1, 2008... Take a second to listen to the well-attended summer webcast, "California Dreaming." Recorded in late August, two California lOUs discussed where they were with their massive AMI projects, the benefits they achieved, and the lessons they learned...

Currents: the energy news podcast.(WHAT'S NEW A www.UtilityAutomation.com)
October 1, 2008... Episode 11--AMI in New England There are a lot of words and acronyms that may not mean the same thing to the listener that they do to the speaker. AMI (advanced metering infrastructure) is like that. On this episode, we tell you about one...

Top 5 Articles on UtilityAutomation.com.(WHAT'S NEW A www.UtilityAutomation.com)
October 1, 2008... 1. FERC encourages MidAtlantic grid investment The Federal Energy Regulatory (FERC) granted Pepco Holdings Inc.'s request to implement a transmission rate incentive plan for eight transmission projects in Maryland, New Jersey and the...

Featured video.(WHAT'S NEW A www.UtilityAutomation.com)
October 1, 2008... CIGRE Brings the World to France UAE senior editor Kathleen Davis spent a week in Paris with CIGRE representatives from more than 80 countries to discuss international grid issues at Session 42, CIGRE's biennial tech conference and...

Quick vote.(WHAT'S NEW A www.UtilityAutomation.com)(Survey)(Brief article)
October 1, 2008... International investors see the U.S. utility sector as an attractive opportunity for expansion, but from Puget Energy to Energy East, there's opposition to these "takeovers." Should we be concerned? No, money's money. We re part of the...