Current Issues & Recent Research

Loading
loading...

Current Issues & Recent Research

June 28, 2026
mike@standardsmichigan.com

No Comments

“The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena,

it will make more progress in one decade

than in all the previous centuries of existence.”

—  Nikola Tesla

​​

Restore NESC Cross-Reference to the Front End of the NEC

Electrical Power System Research

NFPA Electrical Standards Landing Page  Ω NFPA Standards Council  Ω NFPA Fire Safety Landing Page

ASHRAE Landing PageASTM Electrical & ElectronicsIES Illumination

Draft IEEE Paper AbstractsMike Anthony Short Biography | Electrotechnology OEMS

 IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee Recent Meeting Minutes 

Michigan Stadium Scoreboard Tour | March 18

NEC & NESC Crosswalk

Ω


IEEE Southeastern Michigan Section Welcome August 2024

 

 

IEEE & SWE Student Tour of Michigan Stadium Scoreboard | April 2024

IEEE SEM Student Activity 2025

Trending

Electrical Power System Research

NFPA Electrical Standards Landing Page  Ω NFPA Standards Council  Ω NFPA Fire Safety Landing Page

ASHRAE Landing PageASTM Electrical & Electronics

Draft IEEE Paper AbstractsMike Anthony Short Biography | Electrotechnology OEMS

We examine the proposals for the 2028 National Electrical Safety Code; including our own. The 2026 National Electrical Code where sit on CMP-15 overseeing health care facility electrical issues should be released any day now. We have one proposal on the agenda of the International Code Council’s Group B Committee Action Hearings in Cleveland in October. Balloting on the next IEEE Gold Book on reliability should begin.

“Tomorrow’s Girls” | Donald Fagan

Policy:

OUTERNET: Crossing over data gap using cubesats

Department of Energy Portfolio Analysis & Management System

Department of Energy Building Technologies Office

FERC Open Meetings | (Note that these ~60 minute sessions meet Sunshine Act requirements.  Our interest lies one or two levels deeper into the technicals underlying the administrivia)

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Federal Communication Commission Michigan Public Service Commission
December 18 Open Meeting December 5 Open Meeting
August 7 Open Meeting
July 24 Open Meeting July 25 Open Meeting
June 16 Open Meeting January 22: Newly Appointed FCC Chairman Announces Staff Changes June  12 Open Meeting
May 15 Open Meeting May 15 Open Meeting
April 17 Open Meeting April 24 Open Meeting
March 20 Open Meeting
February 20 FERC Open Meeting March 3 Open Meeting
January 16 FERC Press Conference February 27, 2025 Open Meeting

January 23: NARUC Congratulates New FERC, FCC and NRC Chairs

January 22: Newly Appointed FCC Chairman Announces Staff Changes | Related: Falsus in uno, Falsus in omnibus

January 6: City of Ann Arbor Postpones Phase II Study to Municipalize DTE Energy distribution grid

January 27, 10 AM Low-Income Energy Policy Board Meeting: Michigan Public Service commission

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission: January 16, 2025 Open Meeting

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Notice of Request for Comments (Posted November 25, 2024)

Interregional Transfer Capability Study: Strengthening Reliability Through the Energy Transformation Docket No. AD25-4-000

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission | November 21, Open Meeting

Press Conference

Michigan Public Service Commission Meetings

Michigan Public Commission Meeting  February 27, 2025

MPSC DTE CMS Electric Power Reliability Case No. U-21305

Michigan Electrical Administrative Board Meeting February 13, 2025

FCC Open Meeting | November 21 

[Mike Anthony Opinion] on the gales of innuendo against limited federal government voices in federally financed National Public Radio

National Infrastructure Advisory Council: Addressing the Critical Shortage of Power Transformers to Ensure Reliability of the U.S. Grid

H.R. 9603 (September 16): To amend the Federal Power Act to prohibit the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission from issuing permits for the construction or modification of electric transmission facilities in a State over the objection of the State, and for other purposes.

Technical: (Also Electrical Power System Research)

Empower Pre-Trained Large Language Models for Building-Level Load Forecasting

Uptime Institute (via NEXT DC) : AI Inference in the Data Center

Majorana Nanowires for Topological Quantum Computing

Linearized Data Center Workload and Cooling Management

Lex Fridman: DeepSeek, China, OpenAI, NVIDIA, xAI, TSMC, Stargate, and AI Megaclusters 

IEEE: Experts Weigh in on $500B Stargate Project for AI

IEEE: AI Mistakes Are Very Different Than Human Mistakes .  We need new security systems designed to deal with their weirdness

High-Performance Tensor Learning Primitives Using GPU Tensor Cores

Department of Electrical Engineering, Columbia University, New York

Causes and Consequences of Widespread Power Blackout Across Taiwan on 3 March 2022: A Blackout Incident Investigation in the Taiwan Power System

Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei City, Taiwan

 

First Draft Proposals contain most of our proposals — and most new (original) content.  We will keep the transcripts linked below but will migrate them to a new page starting 2025:

Electrical Safety

2026 NEC Standards Michigan proposals | Public Input Report CMP-1

2026 NEC Standards Michigan proposals | Public Input Report CMP-2

Public Input Report CMP-3

2026 NEC Standards Michigan proposals | Public Input Report CMP-4

2026 NEC Standards Michigan proposals | Public Input Report CMP-5

Public Input Report CMP-6

Public Input Report CMP-7

Public Input Report CMP-8

Public Input Report CMP-9

2026 NEC Standards Michigan proposals | Public Input Report CMP-10

2026 NEC Standards Michigan proposals | Public Input Report CMP-11

2026 NEC Standards Michigan proposals | Public Input Report CMP-12

2026 NEC Standards Michigan proposals | Public Input Report CMP-13

Public Input Report CMP-14

2026 NEC Standards Michigan proposals | Public Input Report CMP-15

2026 NEC Standards Michigan proposals | Public Input Report CMP-16

Public Input Report CMP-17

2026 NEC Standards Michigan proposals | Public Input Report CMP-18

Related:

2026 National Electrical Code

N.B. We are in the process of migrating electric power system research to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers bibliographic format. 


Recap of the May meetings of the  Industrial & Commercial Power Systems Conference in Las Vegas.  The conference ended the day before the beginning of the 3-day Memorial Day weekend in the United States so we’re pressed for time; given all that happened.

We can use our last meeting’s agenda to refresh the status of the issues.

IEEE E&H Draft Agenda 28 May 2024

On site conference agenda:

IEEE E&H Conference Agenda 21 May 2024

NESC & NEC Cross-Code Correlation

We typically break down our discussion into the topics listed below:

Codes & Standards:

While IAS/I&CPS has directed votes on the NEC; Mike is the only I&CPS member who is actually submitting proposals and responses to codes and standards developers to the more dominant SDO’s — International Code Council, ASHRAE International, UL, ASTM International, IEC & ISO.  Mike maintains his offer to train the next generation of “code writers and vote getters”

Performance-based building premises feeder design has been proposed for the better part of ten NEC revision cycles.  The objective of these proposals is to reduce material, labor and energy waste owed to the branch and feeder sizing rules that are prescriptive in Articles 210-235.  Our work in service and lighting branch circuit design has been largely successful.  A great deal of building interior power chain involves feeders — the network upstream from branch circuit panels but down stream from building service panel.

Our history of advocating for developing this approach, inspired by the NFPA 101 Guide to Alternative Approaches to Life Safety, and recounted in recent proposals for installing performance-based electrical feeder design into the International Building Code, appears in the link below:

Access to this draft paper for presentation at any conference that will receive it — NFPA, ICC or IEEE (or even ASHRAE) will be available for review at the link below:

Toward Performance-Based Building Premise Feeder Design

 

NFPA 110 Definitions of Public Utility v. Merchant Utility

NFPA 72 “Definition of Dormitory Suite” and related proposals

Buildings:

Renovation economics, Smart contracts in electrical construction.  UMich leadership in aluminum wiring statements in the NEC should be used to reduce wiring costs.

Copper can’t be mined fast enough to electrify the United States

Daleep asked Mike to do a Case Study session on the NEC lighting power density change (NEC 220-14) for the IAS Annual Meeting in October.  Mike agreed.

Exterior Campus & Distribution:

Illumination.  Gary Fox reported that IEEE 3001.9 was endorsed as an ANSI accredited standard for illumination systems.

2024-ICPSD24-0012 PERMANENT DESIGN OF POWER SYSTEMS Parise

This paper details primary considerations in estimating the life cycle of a campus medium voltage distribution grid.   Some colleges and universities are selling their entire power grid to private companies.  Mike has been following these transactions but cannot do it alone.

Variable Architecture Multi-Island Microgrids

District energy:

Generator stator winding failures and implications upon insurance premiums.  David Shipp and Sergio Panetta.  Mike suggests more coverage of retro-fit and lapsed life cycle technicals for insurance companies setting premiums.

Reliability:

Bob Arno’s leadership in updating the Gold Book.

Mike will expand the sample set in Table 10-35, page 293 from the <75 data points in the 1975 survey to >1000 data points.   Bob will set up meeting with Peyton at US Army Corps of Engineers.

Reliability of merchant utility distribution systems remains pretty much a local matter.  The 2023 Edition of the NESC shows modest improvement in the vocabulary of reliability concepts.  For the 2028 Edition Mike submitted several proposals to at least reference IEEE titles in the distribution reliability domain.   It seems odd (at least to Mike) that the NESC committees do not even reference IEEE technical literature such as Bob’s Gold Book which has been active for decades.  Mike will continue to propose changes in other standards catalogs — such as ASTM, ASHRAE and ICC — which may be more responsive to best practice assertions.  Ultimately, improvements will require state public utility commission regulations — and we support increases in tariffs so that utilities can afford these improvements.

Mike needs help from IEEE Piscataway on standard WordPress theme limitations for the data collection platform.

Mike will update the campus power outage database.

Healthcare:

Giuseppe Parise’s recent work in Italian power grid to its hospitals, given its elevated earthquake risk.  Mike’s review of Giuseppe’s paper:

Harvard Business School: Journal of Healthcare Management Standards

Mike and David Shipp will prepare a position paper for the Harvard Healthcare Management Journal on reliability advantages of impedance grounding for the larger systems.

The Internet of Bodies

Forensics:

Giuseppe’s session was noteworthy for illuminating the similarity and differences between the Italian and US legal system in handling electrotechnology issues.

Mike will restock the committee’s library of lawsuits transactions.

Ports:

Giuseppe updates on the energy and security issues of international ports.  Mike limits his time in this committee even though the State of Michigan has the most fresh water international ports in the world.

A PROPOSED GUIDE FOR THE ENERGY PLAN AND ELECTRICAL INFRASTRUCTURE OF A PORT

Other:

Proposals to the 2028 National Electrical Safety Code: Accepted Best Practice, exterior switchgear guarding, scope expansion into ICC and ASHRAE catalog,

Apparently both the Dot Standards and the Color Books will continue parallel development.  Only the Gold Book is being updated; led by Bob Arno.  Mike admitted confusion but reminded everyone that any references to IEEE best practice literature in the NFPA catalog, was installed Mike himself (who would like some backup help)

Universities with Quantum Computing Facilities

Papers in Process:

Impedance Grounding Papers 1 and 2 with David Shipp.  Previous Discussion:

https://ieeetv.ieee.org/channels/ieee-region-events/uc-berkeley-s-medium-voltage-grounding-system

Over Coffee and Beers:

Mike assured Christel Hunter (General Cable) that his proposals for reducing the 180 VA per-outlet requirements, and the performance-base design allowance for building interior feeders do not violate the results of the Neher-McGrath calculation used for conductor sizing.  All insulation and conducting material thermal limits are unaffected.

Other informal discussions centered on the rising cost of copper wiring and the implications for the global electrotechnical transformation involving the build out of quantum computing and autonomous vehicles.  Few expressed optimism that government ambitions for the same could be met in any practical way.

Are students avoiding use of Chat GPT for energy conservation reasons?  Mike will be breaking out this topic for a dedicated standards inquiry session:

GPT Power Grid

Education & Healthcare Facility Electrotechnology Committee

Workspace IEEE 1366: Guide for Electric Power Distribution Reliability Indices

Largest U.S. Electric Utility Companies Ranked by Generation Capacity  For IEEE 493 update we seek outage data from the 100 largest campus power system experts.

Sport News

June 28, 2026
mike@standardsmichigan.com
No Comments

“Man’s life is brief, but through contests he touches the eternal.”

— Pindar, ‘Nemean Ode 6.23-24’

Michigan State University | Ingham County

Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Skiing Association

College Bowl Games

Fernando Mendoza’s post game interview after winning the Big Ten
byu/justletmeregisteryou insports

 

 

 



Michigan Girl, Our Michigan Girl….

Sport Standards

 

 

Mixed Gender Sport by Design

Engineering in Sport



“Rowing is more poetry than sport.” — George Pocock (‘Boys in the Boat’ 2024), a British-born boat builder, rowing coach, and influential figure in American rowing, best known for his craftsmanship of racing shells and his philosophical approach to the sport.

Winter Sport

“There is no greater glory for a man than that which he wins with his own hands and feet.” (Homer, Iliad c. 8th Century BCE)

Trees

June 28, 2026
mike@standardsmichigan.com
, , , , ,
No Comments

“Landscape with a clump of trees” 1844 Théodore Rousseau

 

 

“Keep a green tree in your heart

and perhaps a singing bird will come”. 

— Chinese proverb

 

The condition of campus gardens, trees and landscaping is a central element of ambiance, brand identity, environmental instruction and even revenue to education communities when tied to charitable donations.   The Tree Care Industry Association (TCIA) is trade association of 2300 private tree care firms that is also an ANSI-accredited standards developer.  It has several titles relevant to education communities and posts drafts of best practice titles at the link below:

Current Projects & Public Review Periods

Last year we tracked a revision of TCIA A300 that asserted leading practice for lightning protection has been released for public consultation.   The consultation period closed and, like many standards setting organizations, leading practice discovery has been impeded by the circumstances of the pandemic.

We encourage our colleagues in business units responsible for lawns, trees, gardens and pathways to participate in the TCIA standards development process (Learn more HERE).  Stakeholders in any interest category may communicate directly with Amy Tetreault at the Tree Care Industry Association, (603) 314-5380, atetreault@tcia.org, 136 Harvey Rd # 101, Londonderry, NH 03053.

"Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment, until it becomes a memory" - Dr. Seuss"Wherever you go becomes a part of you somehow" - Anita Desai“It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart” ― Rainer Maria Rilke

We maintain the TCIA standards catalog on our periodic Bucolia and Pathway colloquia.   See our CALENDAR for the next online meting; open to everyone.

 

Issue: [Various]

Category: Bucolia, Pathways

Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Jack Janveja, Richard Robben


LEARN MORE:

A Brief History of Isaac Newton’s Apple Tree

Nursery Stock

Colloquy (June)

June 26, 2026
mike@standardsmichigan.com
No Comments

Open agenda; Not Too Organized. Whatever anyone wants to talk about.  We do this once at irregular points every month.  Use the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.

“A Day in June” 1913 George Bellows

Summer Hours at our Eisenhower Parkway Office: 8:30 AM – 4:00 PM

Join us for lunch 11:45 AM – 1:15 PM every 3rd Wednesday

University of Michigan Golf Course Lounge

 

Retrodiction

Education & Healthcare Facility Electrotechnology Committee

 

Standards June

June 26, 2026
mike@standardsmichigan.com

No Comments

Bucolia (OED adj. pl.) “pastoral, relating to country life or the affairs and occupations of a shepherd,” 1610s, earlier bucolical (1520s), from Latin bucolicus, from Greek boukolikos “pastoral, rustic,” from boukolos “cowherd, herdsman,” from bous “cow” (from PIE root *gwou- “ox, bull, cow”) + -kolos “tending,” related to Latin colere “to till (the ground), cultivate, dwell, inhabit” (from PIE root *kwel- (1) “revolve, move round; sojourn, dwell”).

Father Marquette Catholic Academy | Marquette County Michigan

Bucolia 100

Anglo-americká vysoká škola, z.ú. Czech Republic

Family Walking Tour

University of Michigan Nichols Arboretum

Lawn & Garden Tools

Universiteit Twente | Overijssel Nederland

Arboreta

IMI International Management Institute Switzerland

Beneath our feet

bucolia stg

Louisiana State University

Monticello

Upper Wharfedale Primary Federation School District Yorkshire Dales

Oxford’s Living Libraries: Botanic Garden and Harcourt Arboretum

Washington University in St. Louis Missouri

World Soil Museum

University of Kansas | Douglas County

Nursery Stock

Notre Dame Kylemore Abbey

Landscape Guidelines

University College Cork

Landscape & Horticulture Services

Northern Michigan University | Marquette County

Trees

Lake Superior State University | Chippewa County Michigan

Bulletin Board

June 26, 2026
mike@standardsmichigan.com
No Comments

NIST | USPTO | ANSI | IEEE | ICC | ASTM | ASHRAE | UL | TIA | ASME | ASCE | AGA

Michigan Standards Developers : NSF | ACI | NETA | ASABE | HL7 | RIA | JCSEE | BIFMA | PJRFSI | SAE

Global: SA | BSA | NSAI | CSA | CEN & CENELEC | ISO & IEC*


 

APPA was founded at the University of Michigan| See our ABOUT

 

 


* ISO and IEC have opted out of the X-social media platforms.  FYI: X is 13 times the size of BlueSky in terms of scale and reach.

2025-2026 Student Paper Competition

June 26, 2026
mike@standardsmichigan.com
, , , ,
No Comments

ANSI Rebrands Flagship Conference: ANSI Innovation Summit Replaces World Standards Week

“Boy Writing with Sister” 1875 Albert Anker


 

ANSI Student Paper Competition paused for 2025

No award for the 2024 cycle (per COE Chairperson)

“A Girl Writing; The Pet Goldfinch” 1870 Henriette Browne

 

The Society for Standardization Professionals Paper Competition 2025

 

 


Updated January 7, 2024

 

For nearly twenty years now,  the American National Standards Institute Committee on Education administers a student paper competition intended to encourage understanding of the global standards system that also provides a solid prize — in the $1000 to $5000 range.  The topic of the 2024 Student Paper Competition will be What Role Do or Could Standards Play in Safe and Effective Implementation of Artificial Intelligence Applications/Systems?

Student Paper Competition Flyer 2024 – Entries due 7 June 2024

For the past six years Standards Michigan has hosted Saturday morning workshops to help students (and faculty) interested in entering the contest.   We will soon post those dates on our CALENDER.  We typically host them — three sessions ahead of the deadline — on Saturday mornings.

We provide links to previous paper winners and refer you to Lisa Rajchel: lrajchel@ansi.org for all other details.

Related:

 

“Normal” Things Americans Do That The Rest Of The World Will Never Understand

ANSI Accredited Standards Developers | Contact Information

2023 Student Paper Competition

2022 Student Paper Competition

2020 Student Paper Winner / Remanufacturing

2020 Student Paper Winner / Road Traffic Safety

ANSI 2019 Student Paper Winner: Cybersecurity & Ukraine Power Grid Attack

2019 Student Paper Winner / Standards in Crisis Prevention & Response:

2018 ANSI Student Paper Winner / Internet of Things

2017 ANSI Student Paper Winner / Cyborg Gen 2330

2016 Student Paper Winner | Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness

2016 Student Paper Winner / World Without Standards

United States Standards Strategy

Animals 300

June 25, 2026
mike@standardsmichigan.com

No Comments

Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare

Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals

 

“The Peaceable Kingdom” 1833 Edward Hicks

Today we scan the status of literature that informs the safety and sustainability of the built environment for animals large and small.  Animals are found in education communities as pets. sporting partners, agricultural research and teaching settings, as medical research subjects and clinical care facilities.  ANSI-Accredited standards developers with a footprint in this domain are listed below:

American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers

Agriculture

ASHRAE International

Plant and Animal Environment

Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers

Animal Kingdom: A Large and Diverse Dataset for Animal Behavior Understanding

International Code Council

Form v. Function | Function v. Form

National Fire Protection Association

Animal Safety

Underwriters Laboratories

Government agencies at all levels borrow from best practice recommendations in the catalog of the foregoing standards developers.  Conversely, those same standards developers borrow from the best practice recommendations from the same government agencies.

Use the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.

Sunday, Animal, Farm, Agri august

More

The Ethics of Farming Animals

Animal Welfare Act

National Research Council: Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals

National Library of Medicine: Regulation of Animal Research

Most education communities use the foregoing regulations upon which to build their own standards.  For example:

George Washington University

Stanford University

University of Michigan

Michigan State University


 

Terrestrial Animal Health Code

Rewind: Animals 100

Higher Education Laboratories

June 25, 2026
mike@standardsmichigan.com

No Comments
The International Code Council (ICC) introduced dedicated provisions for higher education laboratories in 2018. This includes Section 428 in the International Building Code (IBC) (laboratory suites in Group B occupancies) and the new Chapter 38 in the International Fire Code (IFC).  These provisions allow colleges/universities to use “laboratory suites” (instead of stricter control areas) with higher maximum allowable quantities (MAQs) of hazardous materials, without triggering a high-hazard (Group H) occupancy classification, provided enhanced fire safety, separation, ventilation, emergency power, and other requirements are met.
§
The 2027 revision of the IBC is in production and will be released for public use in early 2027.  

Update: October 25, 2025

 

2024 GROUP A PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE I-CODES: Complete Monograph (2658 pages)

Note the following changes in the transcript above:

Section 702 (Rated Construction), FS44-24 Installer Qualifications (typical marketmaking), Section 3801 (Materials exceeding the Maximum Allowable Quantity), F59-24 (Battery Containment Areas), F81-24 (Health Care Facility Plugs), F112-24 (Lithium Ion Battery Labs), F197-24 (Market making, laboratory oven protection study), F235-24 (Hazardous Materials Classifications & quantity limits).


Safety and sustainability concepts for research and healthcare delivery cut across many disciplines and standards suites and provides significant revenue for most research universities.  The International Code Council provides free access to current editions of its catalog of titles incorporated by reference into public safety law.  CLICK HERE for an interactive edition of Chapter 38 of the 2021 International Fire Code.

During today’s colloquium we will examine consultations for the next edition in the link below:

2021 International Fire Code Chapter 38 Higher Education Laboratories

We encourage our colleagues to participate directly in the ICC Code Development process.   The next revision of the International Fire Code will be undertaken accordingly to next ICC Code Development schedule; the timetable linked below:

2024/2025/2026 ICC CODE DEVELOPMENT SCHEDULE

We encourage directly employed front-line staff of a school district, college or university that does not operate in a conformance/compliance capacity — for example, a facility manager of an academic unit — to join a committee.  Not the Fire Marshall.  Not the Occupational Safety Inspector.  Persons with job titles listed below:

  • Fire Safety System Designer
  • Fire Alarm Technician (Shop Foreman)
  • Building Commissioner
  • Electrical, Mechanical Engineer
  • Occupational Safety Engineer

These subject matter experts generally have a user-interest point of view.

Contact Kimberly Paarlberg (kpaarlberg@iccsafe.org) for information about how to do so.

 

Related:

 2021 International Mechanical Code

2021 International Plumbing Code

2021 International Energy Conservation Code

Issue 16-69

Category: Fire Safety, Facility Asset Management

Colleagues: Joe DeRosier, Josh Elvove, Mark Schaufele

Archive / Higher Education Laboratories

Meeting Point

Danse de recherche sur le cancer

* Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) Survey

Layout mode
Predefined Skins
Custom Colors
Choose your skin color
Patterns Background
Images Background
Standards Michigan
error: Content is protected !!
Skip to content