March 1, 2010
Global Viewpoint
Laissez les Bon Temps Rouler!
The Saints are really marching in now! Who dat? Who dat say gonna beat dem Saints? Their first game was held 43 years ago in the old Sugar Bowl Stadium...
Features
2010 IEEE PES T&D Conference and Exposition
The people of New Orleans are flying high and in great moods. And the director of the IEEE PES North American T&D Conference, Tommy Mayne, said that before...
Standing Tall Against the Elements
After losing more than 120 wood poles to Hurricane Ike in September 2008, Western Kentucky Rural Electric Cooperative Corp. (WKRECC) installed seven RStandard...
X-ray Vision Reveals Splice Condition
When it comes to electric reliability, consumers don't think much about it. More often, they expect it. And these days, consumers have more reasons than...
Corona Rings: Are They Needed?
Since 2006, some utilities have been experiencing an increased number of polymer insulator failures on their 115-kV and 138-kV transmission lines....
Building Transmission in Subarctic Alaska
Construction projects throughout the world have become more complicated and logistically challenging as environmental stipulations grow more demanding....
Controlled Chaos
Utility veterans describe major storm events as organized chaos. Utilities are subjected to virtually every weather condition. In a single year, a utility...
Business Developments
Fingrid Makes Grid Investments in Lapland to Improve Supply Reliability in Finland
Fingrid is making considerable capital investments to reinforce the transmission grid between Finland and Sweden, and also to improve the supply reliability...
FirstEnergy Corp. to Buy Allegheny in $8.5 Billion Deal
On Feb. 11, FirstEnergy Corp. announced it will acquire Allegheny Energy Inc. in a deal valued at about US$8.5 billion that will create a combined company...
Megger Donates to Iowa Wind Energy Program
Iowa Lakes Community College in Estherville, Iowa, U.S., has been awarded a gift in kind collectively totaling US$10,000 from Megger. Megger, which manufactures...
ITC Great Plains Announces Route Selection for Hugo-to-Valliant High-Voltage Transmission Line in Oklahoma
ITC Great Plains LLC has completed route selection for its Hugo-to-Valliant high-voltage electric transmission line project. As part of ongoing community...
KEMA Acquires Czech High-Power Laboratory
Energy consultancy and testing and certification firm KEMA is acquiring the Czech firm Zkusebnictvi (Zku) from OEZ, a subsidiary of Siemens. Prague-based...
FirstEnergy and Allegheny Energy to Combine in $8.5 Billion Stock-For-Stock Transaction
ON February 11, 2010 FirstEnergy (NYSE: FE) and Allegheny Energy, Inc. (NYSE: AYE) today announced that both companies' boards of directors have unanimously...
Smart Grid Initiatives
Glendale Water & Power Awards Contract for Smart Meter Installations
Glendale Water & Power (GWP) has awarded a US$4.2 million contract to Utility Partners of America (UPA) to replace existing electric and water meters...
Fluke Receives Federal Grant to Establish Smart Grid Calibration Technology
Fluke Corp. will receive US$1.4 million in federal funding, made possible by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, to ensure the smart grid is reliable...
S&C Selected as Partner in Smart Grid Coalition
San Diego Gas & Electric, the University of California San Diego and CleanTECH San Diego announced that S&C Electric Co. has been included in a coalition...
Lee County Electric Taps Aclara for Meter Data Management and Customer-Care Tools
Lee County Electric Cooperative (LCEC; North Fort Myers, Florida, U.S.) has chosen the ENERGYprism Customer Care and Energy Vision Operational Efficiency...
Technology Updates
Perfect Power at IIT Celebrates Phase I Completion of Five-Year Project
Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), Galvin Electricity Initiative, S&C Electric Co. and Intelligent Power Solutions LLC announce that the first phase...
Platte River Power Authority Selects CipherOptics for Network Encryption
Platte River Power Authority (PRPA) is protecting its digital control system (DCS) information with the CipherOptics CEP line of standards-based encryptors...
China Southern Power Grid Co. Adopts AMSC D-VAR Solution
American Superconductor Corp. (AMSC) has received a new D-VAR system order to increase the reliability of a portion of the power grid in China operated...
Prysmian Reaches OPGW Milestone
Prysmian Cables & Systems has reached a major milestone with its Optical Ground Wire (OPGW) business with the latest delivery of a system, which takes...
Honeywell Completes Solar Project for the City of Wilmington
Honeywell has installed the first of two solar photovoltaic arrays for the city of Wilmington, Delaware, U.S. The solar installations, which will consist...
SRP Powers Crew Callout with ARCOS
Salt River Project (SRP) doesn't pick up the phone to call its maintenance crews after hours if a transformer goes out or a pole comes down. Instead,...
Quarterly Report
GITA Addresses Today's Challenges
Advances in technology, such as cell phones, traffic network monitoring, electric cars and a myriad of small rechargeable devices, are creating ever-increasing...
Characters with Character
Beating the Odds
Manuchehr Shirmohamadi tackles life just like he approaches an engineering problem, employing formulas, equations and experiments to obtain a satisfactory...
Products and Services
Products & Services
Overhead Conductor Cleaner ACA Conductor Accessories has received exclusive rights in North America to promote ConductaClean, a reliable, cost-effective...
Straight Talk
Get Smart About Smart Grid
During the past three years, Consumers Energy has promoted its employee involvement in interoperability and security standards development for smart grid...
Electric Utility Operations
Mark Bell Jr.
Born in Mesa, Arizona. Describes himself as honest, proud, respectful and thankful. His favorite coworkers are Floyd Far, Scott Olsen and Mark Cunningham,...
AEP Crews Replace Concrete Trench Covers with Fiberglass
Prefabricated concrete cable trench covers, over time, can crack and crumble, which can cause a hazard for station mechanics working in a substation facility....
Linemen Rebuild Line After Forest Fire
About 40 miles of distribution line and 900 utility poles went up in flames in one of California's largest wildfires. Four primary lines were either damaged...
AEP Takes Strides in FR Workwear Program
More than 2,000 people each year are treated in burn centers with severe arc-flash injuries, and five to 10 arc explosions happen in electric equipment...
Parting SHOT
Seattle City Light discovered an oil leak in several locations in a 140-ft section of an underground transmission line in downtown Seattle. The oil was...
