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.
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?
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.
Since so much of what we do in standards setting is built upon a foundation of a shared understanding and agreement of the meaning of words (no less so than in technical standard setting) that time is well spent reflecting upon the origin of the nouns and verbs of that we use every day. Best practice cannot be discovered, much less promulgated, without its understanding secured with common language.
“303.1.4: Accessory religious educational rooms and religious auditoriums with occupant loads less than 100 per room or space are not considered separate occupancies.” This informs how fire protection systems are designed.
“305.2.1: Rooms and spaces within places of worship proving such day care during religious functions shall be classified as part of the primary occupancy.” This group includes building and structures or portions thereof occupied by more than five children older than 2-1/2 years of age who receive educational, supervision or personal care services for fewer than 24 hours per day.
“308.5.2: Rooms and spaces within places of religious worship providing [Group I-4 Day Care Facilities] during religious functions shall be classified as part of the primary occupancy. When [Group I-4 Day Care Facilities] includes buildings and structures occupied by more than five persons of any age who receive custodial care for fewer than 24 hours per day by persons other than parents or guardians, relatives by blood, marriage or adoption, and in a place other than the home of the person cared for.
Tricky stuff — and we haven’t even included conditions under which university-affiliated places of worship may expected to be used as community storm shelters.
Public response to Committee Actions taken in Orlando in April will be received until July 8th.
Because standard development tends to be a backward-looking domain it is enlightening to understand the concepts in play in previous editions. The complete monograph of proposals for new building safety concepts for places of worship for the current revision cycle is linked below:
A simple search on the word “worship” will reveal what ideas are in play. With the Group B Public Comment Hearings now complete ICC administered committees are now curating the results for the Online Governmental Consensus Vote milestone in the ICC process that was completed December 6th. Status reports are linked below:
A quick review of the appeals statements reveals some concern over process, administration and technical matters but none of them directly affect how leading practice for places of worship is asserted.
We are happy to get down in the weeds with facility professionals on other technical issues regarding other occupancy classes that are present in educational communities. See our CALENDAR for next Construction (Ædificare) colloquium open to everyone.
“One of the Family” 1880 | Frederick George Cotman
NFPA 150 Fire and Life Safety in Animal Housing Facilities Code has entered its s025 revision cycle. Many education communities are responsible for animal safety in academic units, research enterprises. museums and even — as in the United Kingdom — large farm animals that wander freely on campus with students, faculty and staff. The number of colleges and universities that permit students to live with their pets has expanded; and with it the responsibilities of university administration.
From the document scope:
This standard shall provide the minimum requirements for the design, construction, fire protection, and classification of animal housing facilities. The requirements of NFPA 150 recognize the following fundamental principles:
(1) Animals are sentient beings with a value greater than that of simple property.
(2) Animals, both domesticated and feral, lack the ability of self-preservation when housed in buildings and other structures.
(3) Current building, fire, and life safety codes do not address the life safety of the animal occupants. The requirements found in NFPA 150 are written with the intention that animal housing facilities will continue to be designed, constructed, and maintained in accordance with the applicable building, fire, and life safety codes.
The requirements herein are not intended to replace or rewrite the basic requirements for the human occupants. Instead, NFPA 150 provides additional minimum requirements for the protection of the animal occupants and the human occupants who interact with those animals in these facilities.
A full description of the project is linked below:
We provide the transcript of the back-and-forth on the current 2022 edition to inform how education communities can contribute to the improvement of this title; a subject that stirs deep feelings about animal safety in research enterprises.
Public comment on the Second Draft of the 2025 Edition will be received until March 27, 2024.
We have been advocating risk-informed animal safety concepts in this document since the 2013 Edition and have found that it is nearly impossible to overestimate the sensitivity of educational communities to the life safety of animals — either for agriculture or medical research.
We maintain the entire NFPA catalog on the standing agenda of our Prometheus colloquia. See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.
Category: Fire Protection, Facility Asset Management, Academic, Risk Management
Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Josh Elvove, Joe DeRosier
More:
”Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.„ Psalms 51:10
Have a blessed Sunday all who feed humanity! #dairy#beef … pic.twitter.com/BG68A4Sn5h
Open source standards development is characterized by very open exchange, collaborative participation, rapid prototyping, transparency and meritocracy. The Python programming language is a high-level, interpreted language that is widely used for general-purpose programming. Python is known for its readability, simplicity, and ease of use, making it a popular choice for beginners and experienced developers alike. Python has a large and active community of developers, which has led to the creation of a vast ecosystem of libraries, frameworks, and tools that can be used for a wide range of applications. These include web development, scientific computing, data analysis, machine learning, and more.
Another important aspect of Python is its versatility. It can be used on a wide range of platforms, including Windows, macOS, Linux, and even mobile devices. Python is also compatible with many other programming languages and can be integrated with other tools and technologies, making it a powerful tool for software development. Overall, the simplicity, readability, versatility, and large community support of Python make it a valuable programming language to learn for anyone interested in software development including building automation.
As open source software, anyone may suggest an improvement to Python(3.X) starting at the link below:
Python can be used to control building automation systems. Building automation systems are typically used to control various systems within a building, such as heating, ventilation, air conditioning, lighting, security, and more. Python can be used to control these systems by interacting with the control systems through the building’s network or other interfaces.
There are several Python libraries available that can be used for building automation, including PyVISA, which is used to communicate with instrumentation and control systems, and PyModbus, which is used to communicate with Modbus devices commonly used in building automation systems. Python can also be used to develop custom applications and scripts to automate building systems, such as scheduling temperature setpoints, turning on and off lights, and adjusting ventilation systems based on occupancy or other variables. Overall, Python’s flexibility and versatility make it well-suited for use in building automation systems.
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