Today we scan the status of the literature governing the specification, installation, operation and maintenance of the larger commercial-scale generators that provide backup power for emergency egress, hospitals, data centers, critical operations and the like. These are three phase units – larger than residential generators (in kilowatts terms) but smaller than regulated utility generators. This topic is further breakdown of coverage in previous sessions, spanning decades. Use the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.
IEC 60034 – Rotating Electrical Machines (General requirements for electric machines, including generators).
ISO 8528: Reciprocating Internal Combustion Engine Driven Alternating Current Generating Sets
NEMA MG 10012-2023: Safety Standard for Construction and Guide for Selection, Installation, and Use of Electric Motors and Generators
ANSI C84.1 – Voltage ratings for electric power systems and equipment.
UL 2200: Standard for Stationary Engine Generator Assemblies
UL 142 – Safety standard for fuel tanks used in generator installations.
IEEE 446: Recommended Practice for Emergency and Standby Power Systems for Industrial and Commercial Applications
ASCE 24: Flood Resistant Design and Construction
ASME B31.9 – Building Services Piping (applies to piping for fuel and exhaust systems in commercial buildings).
NFPA 37: Standard for the Installation and Use of Stationary Combustion Engines and Gas Turbines
NFPA 70: National Electrical Code
NFPA 110 & 111: Standard for emergency and standby power systems.
ANSI/NETA Acceptance Testing Specifications
EPA Regulations (e.g., 40 CFR Part 60) | EPA Tier Regulations – Emission standards for diesel and gas-powered generators in the U.S.
OSHA 29 CFR 1910 – Occupational safety and health standards for electrical systems, including generators.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is an independent agency within the U.S. federal government that regulates interstate transmission of electricity, natural gas, and oil. It oversees wholesale energy markets, pipeline infrastructure, and hydroelectric projects, ensuring fair rates and reliability. While independent, FERC operates under the Department of Energy’s umbrella but does not take direct orders from the executive branch.
FERC enforces energy laws, approves infrastructure projects, and regulates market competition. FERC plays a crucial role in balancing economic, environmental, and energy security concerns, aiming to maintain a stable and efficient energy system across the United States. Since the U.S. shares interconnected electricity grids with Canada and Mexico, FERC’s decisions on transmission rules and pricing affect energy flows and grid reliability in both countries.
Our interest lies in closing a technical gap that exists upstream from the building service point and downstream from the utility supply point. Some, not all of it, can be accomplished with titles in the IEEE catalog.
Given the dominance of vertical incumbents in the electric power domain, we have submitted a tranche of reliability concepts into the ASHRAE, NFPA and ICC catalogs — not so much with the expectation that they will be gratefully received — but that our proposals will unleash competitive energies among developers of voluntary consensus standards.
In power system engineering, availability and reliability are two important concepts, but they refer to different aspects of the system’s performance.
Reliability:
Reliability refers to the ability of a power system to perform its intended function without failure for a specified period under given operating conditions. It is essentially a measure of how dependable the system is.
Reliability metrics often include indices such as the frequency and duration of outages, failure rates, mean time between failures (MTBF), and similar measures.
Reliability analysis focuses on identifying potential failure modes, predicting failure probabilities, and implementing measures to mitigate risks and improve system resilience.Availability:
Availability, on the other hand, refers to the proportion of time that a power system is operational and able to deliver power when needed, considering both scheduled and unscheduled downtime.
Availability is influenced by factors such as maintenance schedules, repair times, and system design redundancies.
Availability is typically expressed as a percentage and can be calculated using the ratio of the uptime to the total time (uptime plus downtime).
Availability analysis aims to maximize the operational readiness of the system by minimizing downtime and optimizing maintenance strategies.
Reliability focuses on the likelihood of failure and the ability of the system to sustain operations over time, while availability concerns the actual uptime and downtime of the system, reflecting its readiness to deliver power when required. Both concepts are crucial for assessing and improving the performance of power systems, but they address different aspects of system behavior.
Comment:These 1-hour sessions tend to be administrative in substance, meeting the minimum requirements of the Sunshine Act. This meeting was no exception. Access to the substance of the docket is linked here.
On Monday June 13th, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission commissioners informed the House Committee on Energy and Commerce that the “environmental justice” agenda prohibits reliable dispatchable electric power needed for national power security. One megawatt of natural gas generation does not equal one megawatt of renewable generation. The minority party on the committee — the oldest standing legislative committee in the House of Representatives (established 1795) — appears indifferent to the reliability consequences of its policy.
“Our nation’s continued energy transition requires the efficient development of new transmission infrastructure. Federal and state regulators must address numerous transmission-related issues, including how to plan and pay for new transmission infrastructure and how to navigate shared federal-state regulatory authority and processes. As a result, the time is ripe for greater federal-state coordination and cooperation.”
At the July 20th meeting of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Tristan Kessler explained the technical basis for a Draft Final Rule for Improvements to Generator Interconnection Procedures and Agreements, On August 16th the Commission posted a video reflecting changes in national energy policy since August 14, 2003; the largest blackout in American history.
The average professional in this country wakes up in the morning, goes to work, comes home, eats dinner, and then goes to sleep, unaware that he or she has likely committed several federal crimes that day. Why? The answer lies in the very nature of modern federal criminal laws, which have exploded in number but also become impossibly broad and vague.
In Three Felonies a Day, Harvey A. Silverglate reveals how federal criminal laws have become dangerously disconnected from the English common law tradition and how prosecutors can pin arguable federal crimes on any one of us, for even the most seemingly innocuous behavior.
The volume of federal crimes in recent decades has increased well beyond the statute books and into the morass of the Code of Federal Regulations, handing federal prosecutors an additional trove of vague and exceedingly complex and technical prohibitions to stick on their hapless targets.
The dangers spelled out in Three Felonies a Day do not apply solely to “white collar criminals,” state and local politicians, and professionals. No social class or profession is safe from this troubling form of social control by the executive branch, and nothing less than the integrity of our constitutional democracy hangs in the balance.
Sporty weather season in the United States inspires a revisit of best practice for designing, building and maintaining the systems that provide limited electricity when the primary source fails. We have been active in the development of this and related titles for decades and have presented several proposals to the technical committee. Public input for the 2028 Revision will be received until June 4, 2025.
Electrical building, World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago (1892)
The scope of NFPA 110 and NFPA 111 are close coupled and summarized below:
NFPA 110 Standard for Emergency and Standby Power Systems. This standard contains requirements covering the performance of emergency and standby power systems providing an alternate source of electrical power to loads in buildings and facilities in the event that the primary power source fails.
NFPA 111 Stored Electrical Energy for Emergency and Standby Power Systems. This standard shall cover performance requirements for stored electrical energy systems providing an alternate source of electrical power in buildings and facilities in the event that the normal electrical power source fails.
Public comment on the First Draft of the 2025 Edition will be received until May 31, 2023.
We have advocated in this standard since 1996 and still use the original University of Michigan Workspace; though those workspaces must be upgraded to the new Google Sites during 2021. We provide a link to the Standards Michigan Workspace and invite you to join any of our electrical colloquia which are hosted jointly with the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee four times per month in European and American time zones. See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.
Issue: [96-04]
Category: Electrical, Risk
Contact: Mike Anthony, Robert Arno, Neal Dowling, Jim Harvey, Robert Schuerger, Mike Hiler
Copper can’t be mined fast enough to electrify the US
Copper cannot be mined quickly enough to keep up with current U.S. policy guidelines to transition the country’s electricity and vehicle infrastructure to renewable energy, according to a University of Michigan study.
What makes #icecream so irresistible? 🍦😋🍦It’s the fascinating #chemistry at play, balancing fat globules, air & ice crystals to perfection – basically, ice cream isn’t just a treat, it’s a chemistry masterpiece!😉Check out this cool visual by @compoundchem@ndbrningpic.twitter.com/1qKLQaBF8k
UNESCO mun mæla með námskeiði í umhverfis- og auðlindafræði við Háskóla Íslands um hafið og sjálfbærni í tengslum við Áratug hafsins á vegum stofnunarinnar.
👇https://t.co/SgFdRNVgxTpic.twitter.com/WZXTH5YMDZ
🧸🩹Fyrir um 14 árum kom Guðrún Edda Min Harðardóttir með bangsann sinn til skoðunar á Bangsaspítala læknanema í HÍ. Nú um helgina var hún hinum megin við borðið og hlúði að fársjúkum böngsum og dúkkum á spítalanum sem fyrsta árs læknanemi.https://t.co/wZLPthMi2Kpic.twitter.com/aYl1YrE1pb
The National Institute of Standards and Technology seeks information to assist in carrying out several of its responsibilities under the Executive order on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence issued on October 30, 2023. Among other things, the E.O. directs NIST to undertake an initiative for evaluating and auditing capabilities relating to Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies and to develop a variety of guidelines, including for conducting AI red-teaming tests to enable deployment of safe, secure, and trustworthy systems.
Did you know? If you’ve seen clocks advertised to consumers as “atomic clocks,” those are actually listening to NIST radio stations’ time signals so they can count the seconds accurately. pic.twitter.com/hTTO0smikl
— National Institute of Standards and Technology (@NIST) January 31, 2024
New update alert! The 2022 update to the Trademark Assignment Dataset is now available online. Find 1.29 million trademark assignments, involving 2.28 million unique trademark properties issued by the USPTO between March 1952 and January 2023: https://t.co/njrDAbSpwBpic.twitter.com/GkAXrHoQ9T
