Tag Archives: D2

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Solar Photovoltaic Energy Systems

Technical Committee 82 of the International Electrotechnical Commission is charged with preparing international standards for the full length of the solar energy power chain  The span of the power chain includes the light input, the cell itself, and the fittings and accessories to the end use (utilization) equipment.

Strategic Business Plan of IEC Technical Committee 82

The United States is the Global Secretariat for TC 82 through the US National Committee of the International Electrotechnical Commission (USNA/IEC) administered by the American National Standards Institute(ANSI).  Standards Michigan is a long-standing member of ANSI since our “standards journey” began at the University of Michigan in 1993.

The USNA/IEC and participates in its standards development processes; typically collaborating with global research and application engineers in the IEEE Industrial Applications Society and the IEEE Power and Energy Society.   To advance its agenda for lower #TotalCostofOwnership for US real asset executives and facility managers Standards Michigan also collaborates closely with subject matter experts who contribute to, and draw from, the knowledge base in the IEEE Education and Healthcare Facilities Committee (E&H).

The IEC permits public commenting on its draft standards; though you will need to establish login credentials:

IEC Public Commenting

Your comments will be reviewed by the IEC National Committee of the country you live in, which can decide to propose them as national input for the final draft of the IEC International Standard.  This approach makes it easier for individual nations to participate in IEC standards development processes because the resources that national standards bodies need to administer participation resides in Geneva and is managed there.  

“The Eclipse of the Sun in Venice, July 6, 1842” | Ippolito Caffi

We collaborate with the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee which has its own platform to tracking commenting opportunities:

IEEE E&H/USNC/IEC Workspace

As of this posting, no interoperability redlines have been released for public consultation.   In large measure, IEC titles contribute to a level playing field among multi-national electrical equipment manufacturers so we should not be surprised that there are no redlines to review.   When they are released we place them on the agenda of the IEEE E&H Committee which meets 4 times monthly in European and American time zones.

Log in to the E&H Committee meeting

Issue: [18-240]

Category: Electrical Power, Energy Conservation

Contact: Mike Anthony, Jim Harvey, Peter Sutherland


LEARN MORE:

[1] US Commenters must route their comments through the USNA/IEC.

[2] Many product and installation standards are developed by the Association of Electrical Equipment and Medical Imaging Manufacturers (NEMA): CLICK HERE

[3]  NEMA comparison of NEC and IEC electrical safety standards

Dutch Institute for Fundamental Energy Research

 

 

Solarvoltaic PV Systems

“Icarus” Joos de Momper

National Electrical Code Articles 690 and 691 provide electrical installation requirements for Owner solarvoltaic PV systems that fall under local electrical safety regulations.  Access to the 2023 Edition is linked below;

2023 National Electrical Code

2026 National Electrical Code Second Draft Transcript | CMP-4

Insight into the technical problems managed in the 2023 edition can be seen in the developmental transcripts linked below:

Panel 4  Public Input Report (869 pages)

Panel 4  Second Draft Comment Report (199 pages)

The IEEE Joint IAS/PES (Industrial Applications Society & Power and Energy Society) has one vote on this 21-member committee; the only pure “User-Interest” we describe in our ABOUT.  All other voting representatives on this committee represent market incumbents or are proxies for market incumbents; also described in our ABOUT.

The 2026 National Electrical Code has entered its revision cycle.  Public input is due September 7th.

We maintain these articles, and all other articles related to “renewable” energy, on the standing agenda of our Power and Solar colloquia which anyone may join with the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.   We work close coupled with the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee which meets 4 times monthly in American and European time zones; also open to everyone.

 

 

 

 

IBC Electrical (Outdoor Lighting)

2025 Committee Action Hearings – Group B #1

Proposal for Performance-Based Building Premise Wiring | Chapter 27): Monograph Page 754

Electrical building — World Columbian Exposition, Chicago, Illinois 1892

The International Code Council bibliography of electrical safety practice incorporates titles published by the National Fire Protection Association which reference electrical safety science titles published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.  The relevant section of the International Building Code is therefore relatively short:

2021 International Building Code: Chapter 27 Electrical

Note that Chapter 27 provides more guidance on managing the hazards created when electricity is absent*.  Since the National Electrical Code is informed by a fire safety building premise wiring culture; absence of electricity is not as great a hazard as when building wiring systems are energized.  (“So they say” — Mike Anthony, who thinks quite otherwise.)

2024/2025/2026 ICC CODE DEVELOPMENT SCHEDULE

2025 GROUP B PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE I-CODES | Complete Monograph (2630 pages)

Although we collaborate most closely with the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee (four times monthly in Europe and the Americas) we e encourage our colleagues in education communities everywhere to participate directly in the ICC Code Development process.   CLICK HERE to set up an account.

It is enlightening — and a time saver — to unpack the transcripts of previous revisions of codes and standards to see what concepts were presented, what got discussed; what passed and what failed.  We provide links to a few previous posts that track recent action in the ICC suite relevant to electrotechnologies:

Electric Vehicle Charging

Entertainment Occupancies

K-TAG Matrix for Healthcare Facilities

International Energy Conservation Code

The ICC suite of consensus products are relevant to almost all of our work; everyday.   See our CALENDAR that reflects our Syllabus.  Today we deal with electrical safety concepts because technical committees are meeting from November to January to write the 2023 National Electrical Code.  CLICK HERE to follow the action in more detail.


* The original University of Michigan advocacy enterprise began pounding on National Electrical Code committees to install more power reliability concepts in the 2002 Edition with only modest success.  Standards Michigan has since collaborated with the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee to drive “absence-of-power-as-a-hazard” into the National Electrical Code; the 2023 now open for public consultation.


N.B.

Assuming building interior fire safety issues can be managed, one way of getting more electric vehicle charging stations built around campus is to install requirements into the building code — thereby putting the construction cost, operation, maintenance and risk upon real-asset Developers and Owners. Code change submittals for the Group A tranche of titles will be received until January 8, 2024.

 

Information & Communication Technology Cabling

Balloting on the first stage of development of the 2023 National Electrical Code is underway now and will be completed by March 26th.  We collaborate with several experts in the IEEE who are the leading voices in standards setting for ICT infrastructure present in education communities.  The issues are  many and complex and fast-moving.   We provide transcripts and a sample of the issues that will determine the substance of the 2023 Edition.

Code Making Panel No. 3 Public Input Report

A sample of concepts in play:

Temperature limitations of Class 2 and Class 3 Cables

Fire resistive cabling systems

Multi-voltage (single junction, entry, pathway or connection) signaling control relay equipment

Listing of audio/video power-limited circuits

Code Making Panel No. 16 Public Input Report

A sample of concepts in play:

Definition of “Communication Utility”

Mechanical execution of work

Listed/Unlisted cables entering buildings

Underground communication cabling coordination with the National Electrical Safety Code

Public comment on the First Draft of the 2026 revision will be received until August 24, 2024.  We collaborate with the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee which hosts open colloquia 4 times monthly in European and American time zones.   See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.

"One day ladies will take their computers for walks in the park and tell each other, "My little computer said such a funny thing this morning" - Alan Turing

“Backup” Power Systems

Image Credit: Unknown

We use the term “backup” power system to convey the complexity of electrical power sources when the primary source is not used; either as a scheduled or an unscheduled event.   Best practice literature in this domain has been relatively stable, even though challenged by newer primary source of power technologies.   We are running our daily colloquium in parallel with the recurring 4 times monthly meetings of the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee.   You are welcomed to join us with the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.

Emergency & Standby Power Systems

2026 National Electrical Code Workspace

IEC 60947-6-1 Low-voltage switchgear and controlgear – Part 6-1: Multiple function equipment – Transfer switching equipment

 

2028 National Electrical Safety Code

Electrical Resource Adequacy

NESC & NEC Cross-Code Correlation

 

Baseball Lighting

The College World Series begins this weekend in Omaha between Louisiana State University and Coastal Carolina.

 

Baseball is a pastoral game and lighting changed the experience of it. Since a baseball is less than 3-inches in diameter and routinely travels 400 feet at 100 miles per hour, illumination design must have outfielders in mind as well as other players and spectators.

“Baseball at Night” | Morris Kantor (1934)

 

 

 

“Baseball is ninety percent mental

and the other half is physical.”

– Yogi Berra

 

After athletic facility life safety obligations are met (governed legally by NFPA 70, NFPA 101, NFPA 110,  the International Building Code and possibly other state adaptations of those consensus documents incorporated by reference into public safety law) business objective standards may come into play.  For business purposes, the documents distributed by the National Collegiate Athletic Association inform the standard of care for individual athletic arenas so that swiftly moving media production companies have some consistency in power sources and illumination as they move from site to site.  Sometimes concepts to meet both life safety and business objectives merge.

 

During the spring baseball season the document linked below provides guidance for illumination designers, contractors and facility managers:

NCAA Best Lighting Practices

Athletic programs are a significant source of revenue and form a large part of the foundation of the brand identity of most educational institutions in the United States.   We focus primarily upon the technology standards that govern the safety, performance and sustainability of these enterprises.  We cover the objectives of the energy conservation advocates in separate posts; notably advocates using the International Code Council and the ASHRAE suite to advance their agenda to press boxes and the entire baseball experience (interior and exterior) site in separate posts.

We collaborate very closely with the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee where subject matter experts in electrical power systems meet 4 times each month in the Americas and Europe.

See our CALENDAR for our next Sport colloquium  We typically walk through the safety and sustainability concepts in play; identify commenting opportunities; and find user-interest “champions” on the technical committees who have a similar goal in lowering #TotalCostofOwnership.

Issue: [15-138]*

Category: Electrical, Energy Conservation, Energy,  Athletics & Recreation

Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Jim Harvey, Jose Meijer, Scott Gibbs, George Reiher


More

Comparison of MH and LED performance for sport lighting application

A novel smart energy management system in sports stadiums

Tracking pitches for broadcast television

Stadium Lights

Outdoor Lighting Design Guide

Sport Lighting

 

 

Emergency & Standby Power Systems

FREE ACCESS: 2025 Standard for Emergency and Standby Power Systems

Public Input for 2028 Revision Received Until June 4, 2025

Academy of Art University | San Francisco County

Elevators rely on electricity to function, and when there’s a power outage, the main source of power is disrupted. Modern elevators often have backup power systems, such as generators or battery packs, to lower the cab to the nearest floor and open the doors, but these systems may not work optimally, or be connected to all elevators or may not exist in older or less well-maintained buildings.

Today we start with getting the source of power right; leaving complicating factors such as alarms, reset and restart sequences.   NFPA 110 is the parent standard which references NFPA 70.

NFPA 110 FREE ACCESS

UpCodes Access

Ω


Public Input Report | 5 October 2022

Second Draft Meeting Minutes | 2 February 2023

Public Input No. 31-NFPA 110-2022 [ Section No. 3.2.4 ] | Page 7

National Electrical Code CMP-12


Bibliography

An Overview of NFPA 110

Type 10 Requirements for Emergency Power Systems

Bibliography: Microgrids

Canadian Electrical Code

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