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New Zealand Electrical Institute National Newsletter March 2010

“To advance the science and knowledge of electrical engineering”

COUNCIL

President – Phil Dayson: IPP – Wade Devine: Vice President – Glynn Babington. Councillors: Bill Burn; Alan Blee; Dave Cave: Secretary – Alan Cuthbert:

Dear Members,

Welcome to the February 2010 edition of your National Newsletter. As always please feel free to comment or send in any item to me that may be of interest

INSTITUTE:

The Secretary has been organizing the new proxy voting form to facilitate the mandated implementation of individual member voting

Wade Devine is developing the web site to soon have a members only section – where we can have access to Institute affairs and also have discussions.

The Conference will be on 12th and 13th March at the Airport Gardens Inn, Tidal Road, Mangere, Auckland. See below for the programme; members and visitors are welcome to browse the trade displays on the Friday, but please register for the Conference to access the business to be discussed with EWLG and ES.

INDUSTRY:

It seems that a citation of the new Electricity Safety Regulations 2010 and the accompanying Standards should be made very soon and probably just before Conference. If I read it correctly then the Ministry will have given an imminent deadline for this (as Government seems to be doing with all departments and their “projects”). So timing for an update at Conference from ES will be perfect, particularly as there may not be road shows for the general trade – these may be limited and directed more towards “designers”. And hence an update from EWLG will be timely too as they will be mandated/empowered to implement any changes to registration categories as suggested in past issues of Electron.

Proposed Conference Programme

Friday 12th March

10:00 Welcoming coffee

11:00 Opening of Conference

11:15 EWLG Representative – update on EWLG proposed licensing categories and application

11:45 ES – Peter Morfee or Alan Cuthbert – provide information on updated regulations

12:30 Lunch

13:00 Continuation guest speakers as required / Conference business

14:30 Presentation by Schneider on Smart Circuit-breakers for energy management

15:00 Afternoon tea

15:45 Presentation by ABB on motors, VSDs

16:15 Adjourn

Trade displays and presentations – these will be active throughout the day. At this stage there will be a Schneider trade display, a Mechatronics /MIT active project display, an ABB display (all in adjacent room to conference room), and in the car park a large walk through trailer display of products from Phoenix Connectors. Any members or visitors are welcome to browse through these so please help by spreading the word throughout the trade.

Saturday 13th March

09:00 NZEI business.

10:30 Morning Tea and Dave Cave to present Auckland Branch Patrons Cup (09) to MIT student.

10:45 Presentation by Daniel Woollaston (MIT tutor specializing in distribution) on Samoa distribution system restoration experience. We hope to invite a few Pacifica Group representatives for this presentation.

11:15 NZEI business

Kind Regards, Phil Dayson, President.

NEWSLETTER MARCH 2009

“To advance the science and knowledge of electrical engineering”

COUNCIL FROM 15TH MARCH 2009

President – Phil Dayson: Immediate Past President – Wade Devine: Vice President – Glynn Babbington. Councillors: Bill Burn; Alan Blee; Dave Cave: Secretary – Alan Cuthbert:

CONFERENCE UPDATE

The Institute’s 73rd Annual Conference in Wellington went without a hitch thanks to Harold Knight’s organisation; and the ladies all thoroughly enjoyed their sightseeing day trip, ably assisted by Alan Cuthbert’s wife and friendly tour guide.

You will see the newly elected council members above. It is a great honour for me to hold the office of President this term and I am lucky to have a council made up entirely of past president’s (and volunteers) – we hope to review the Institute’s affairs and make some progress, e.g. with Membership & Publicity. Please feel free to make comment any time. We will be looking into a members’ only website section to give more value and maybe have a chat room and education library.

From Wade Devine’s President’s Report we had discussions on smart revenue meter rollouts. This is not a “national” programme, as some suppliers are not replacing meters. There have been issues with incorrect polarity connections and differences in connection methods. Currently it is not necessary for a CoC to be issued by the meter owner, but this may be updated in the new electricity safety regulations for load monitoring equipment. Read more in Peter Morfee’s (ES) section.

As part of Alan Cuthbert’s secretary’s report we heard of progress with the pending regulations changes (Electricity Safety Regulations should be introduced later this year). The “over complicated industry” and a need to be more simplified was discussed. The feeling was that we are not much further developed than with past electrical regulations. In fact it does look like we are returning to a more prescriptive regime with the prescription being in the new Standards so they will be cited in entirety, making them a “must have” document. If done properly this could be a good move – I remember many complaining about losing the prescriptive approach some years ago when the format was changed. And also apart from periodic amendments, we need to keep a watch on Standards – let’s hope we see an end to the constant wholesale changes. It may be that the reduced generation levy funding of Standards will significantly reduce these changes in the current economic climate.

The Employer Licensing regime EWRB discussion document is still open for comment until the end of March. To comment you will find a section on the EWRB website.

Peter Morfee:

As EWRB did not attend we had a longer than planned session with Mr. Morfee, and all agreed it was worthwhile.

Peter acknowledged the Institute’s input to industry urging us to continue to make submissions etc, as these are taken seriously.

ES (Energy Safety) update – his time is split between ES & MED e.g. with trade negotiations with China – their agencies will now be able to do investigation on New Zealand’s behalf in China; it took 4 years to get both governments to sign agreement and ES now gets access into their standards.

New wiring rules AS/NZS3000 have been extensively revised, and the new Electrical Safety Regulations will be totally rewritten, with wording & layout different but technical content similar. Licensing categories e.g. are revoked as they come under EWRB responsibility. Works, distribution and installations are likely to be separated out into separate parts. Certification will remain in regulations, whilst technical requirements will be in joint standards. ES is working with the Standards process to include wider RCD requirements, other than socket outlets up to 20A installations in commercial installations, e.g. areas where young children congregate (Australia has already adopted for joint use in Amendment no. 1).

All the proposals regarding the use of enhanced protection by RCDs for areas in which young children congregate are the subject to public comment for AS/NZS 3000 amendment no. 1 on the Standards NZ website, comments close 9 April.

Supply systems other than MEN systems will be allowed (this will be a learning curve for those not used to European systems) using the Part 1 provisions of AS/NZS 3000:2007.

The caravan link issue: there is no justification from a government regulatory impact study for comprehensive retrofitting of RCDs to caravans or caravan parks. Provision is being made to permit the caravan neutral to earth connection (link) to be removed and hasten a transition, as it is better to have no link than risk a live shell with a polarity reversal.

There is a need for a major information campaign to cover the new provisions. It is recommended that a new WOEF be issued following testing when a link is removed.

An alternative currently permitted and for which a set of installation notes has been prepared, by the fitting of an RCBO in the caravan, will not be mandatory. However is strongly recommended that all earthing connections must be thoroughly tested when prescribed electrical work has been carried out.

All new service pillars will have to have a 30mA RCD device fitted when being installed.

All the proposals regarding the removal of the neutral to earth connection (link) are subject to public comment on amendment A for AS/NZS 3001:2008 on the standards NZ website, comments close 1 April.

Instant fines regime will exist, so the advice will be to work to technical requirements of AS/NZS3000 part 1; you can be innovative (called a performance based approach) but declare that on a CoC to the owner (as long as electrical safety is assured that will be OK). The new regime will say that the designer must certify a Part 1 design; this could also be a basic installation created by the installing electrician or a total industrial/commercial design by an engineer; all must be inspected and certified.

So it appears there will be a choice of either the prescriptive route or the performance based route (but “performance based” will not be allowed in high risk areas including domestic).

There is an international move considering TPS conductor colours and the possible implementation of black (old) and blue (new) for neutral.

The colour code flexibility is likely to be removed from domestic wiring in NZ due to the Do-It-Yourself provisions available in New Zealand. No firm decision has been made yet, but a final decision is expected by the time of the release of the new Electrical Safety Regulations. It will require extensive guidelines how to deal with a colour transition – as recently occurred in Britain.

The new AS/NZS 3000 is more prescriptive, with more guidance & more answers how to do the work, as with much older regulations. It seems the reasoning is to move away from a regime where it is required to prove work is unsafe, to where the work is more prescribed and so if not done that way it will be unacceptable. The changes to regs & standards are being driven because it is felt their formats should be more applicable.

We discussed double pole RCDs as being necessary in New Zealand. A recently released RCD is interesting in that the neutral pole of the RCD is not fault current rated, but the Active pole is fault rated and opens & quenches an arc before the Neutral pole is then rapidly opened before defibrillation time. So fault rating only applies to one pole and if the supply or load polarity is reversed, then RCD attempts to break the neutral pole but when live opens through a non-fault current rated breaker it is liable to destroy the RCD.

There is an international network group, e.g. the Chinese alerted ES to TPS supplies being imported into NZ with 1.8mm2 c.s.a. but stated as (and marked) 2.5mm2, and 0.9mm2 for stated (and marked) 1.5mm2. This warning system enabled its supply to the New Zealand market being prevented.

Testing will be prescribed electrical work, as will inspection & certification.

Alan Blee quizzed the various methods/standards internationally for wire colours, RCDs failing tests (he had 5 already in service from a recent job that all failed) and should we have followed the European way. It is recognized that more and more varied equipment will be coming into NZ but our flexibility is assisting NZ commercially.

Also we are making changes not previously known and at great speed, e.g. with flammable refrigerants, installing insulation and so on and this presents hazards.

A national programme to jointly deliver the updates from Standards NZ and ES will occur but details are yet to be finalized. It is already allowed for apprentices to be taught from the new AS/NZS 3000, as it is a more teachable document, and to be examined on the new AS/NZS 3000:2007 for EWRB registration purposes.

It looks like a more risk-based approach – not the all-practicable steps method as with DOL legislation.

OTHER BUSINESS

It was noted through Bill Burn that Southland Branch stays active & takes the Institute seriously, having a strong voice with safety & standards.

An issue with the Institute-produced PEGs (Plain English Guides) is that references in Standards are now changing; so PEGs are currently on hold and may be useful when re-issued in the future to use as supplemental guides/training aids with new regs/standards.

Nat Cert 5 replaces Advanced Trades. The Inspector’s Course is 14 credits towards Level 5- a new feature will be an optional Inspectors’ Course without the practical part, so it can be delivered remotely – the practical done separately.

Hazardous Areas ETITO Committee; Wade Devine will either attend or be a corresponding member.

Building Industry Review Committee; a watching brief is held by Alan Cuthbert – energy efficiency / energy consumption requirements for an increasing range of electrical equipment, destroys the concept of all controlling electrical legislation for electrical work being contained in a single document system i.e. Standards.

Harmonics – wind farms, energy efficient lighting, heat pumps with no choke to save money, VSDs (although this is being fixed now) are all adding to harmonic components of voltage waveforms – be aware that suppliers may start start charging more due to increasing harmonic content appearing in distribution systems, as upsizing of transformers, for example, will be needed.

T5 fluorescent lighting technology – is dimmable & long lasting. The electronic ballast German Alto fittings have been very good at the Tiwai Point smelter, operating for over 4 years, 24/7.

NoM 3 – Rules Committee Sec15 Procedures at Meetings / a method of introducing proxy voting as mandated from last years’ conference, generated much debate. The motion was passed and so “one member one vote” will be implemented through mail proxy votes if a member does not wish to attend at Conference. Other NOMs mainly to tidy up the rules wording in line with this were also passed.

Remits No. 1 / No. 2 were carried –that we represent to Electricity Commission that metering installations be added to Electricity Governance Rules to identify them as part of an installation, therefore the safety outcomes be covered in the new Electricity Safety Regulations; and that the installation main switch should give total disconnection in the event of an emergency; also to consider the vast variances in connection methods and try to standardize more; and to mandate the shrouding of basic insulation.

Remit No. 3 was lost – suggesting extending maximum suggested test intervals for appliances in the workplace in some cases, & work cafeterias/kitchens to have their own intervals of 2 years.

Remit No. 4 carried – to question EWRB about seeming disparity between inspector & electrician fines. However there was much discussion around inspectors not knowing a job as well as an electrician, and the fines benchmarks in the latter part of the year being higher, combined with electrician fines mostly being in the latter part of the year.

There was discussion around the Education Trust and suggestions how we might utilize funds for education for the benefit of all members and thus increasing the membership. The Martin Smith Award is for educational articles no more than 3,000 words and presented at the annual conference, but has not been claimed for a long time. Last year the trustees allowed $200 to be presented with the Gooder Award, same with the General Cable & Schneider Awards.

Member recruitment has mainly been coming from Institute funding ($3000) of the informational blue sheet that went out in Electron (this has brought in 30 members so far) and refresher courses (mainly Wellington Branch). The intention of Trust funds are to support higher learning of our members and some suggestions were: maybe produce guidelines to regs/standards; contribute to Nat Cert or level 5 type course for someone; PEG education for AS/NZS 3000 changes in the number of compulsory tests; a DVD for education, e.g. compulsory testing on insulation resistance, Schneider training DVDs on circuit breaker discrimination… have these interactive on a members area of our website; how to use IT search engines… and so on. If anyone has ideas please drop Alan Cuthbert or myself a note.

We had interesting talks under Topic Discussions from Bill Burn and his experiences in contracting, from Malcolm Teasdale around the electrics involved in the railways and from Robin Johnson with looking after apprentices for the supply industry – and dealing with their motivation.

Capitation limits from branches to the Institute – to be fixed at half-yearly council meeting in Wellington – will be $57 full members & $30 retired members/students, which allows your branches to keep their subs reasonable.

The Annual Conference in 2010 will be at the Airport Gardens Hotel, Tidal Road, Mangere, Auckland, on 12th -14th March – room rates are $95, and $100 with breakfast. We hope to have a few trade shows too.

Other General Business:

David Barnes volunteered to take over from H Knight organizing the 2011 conference in Wellington.

All connection diagrams for caravan generators or inverters from inverters or generator sets will be in the new AS/NZS 3001; 2008 standard, as will the connection diagrams for boats in marinas in the AS/NZS 3004 series.

We will be petitioning the ministry that proposed regs/standards changes should be consolidated before issue to stop this continuous roundabout of changes –and hopefully we will be able to keep the newer more prescriptive style (like it used to be some years ago).

Kind Regards,

Phil Dayson, Ed.

This report is not official minutes or verbatim quotes and is to be used as discussion information only.

New Zealand Electrical Institute National Newsletter June 2008

“To advance the science and knowledge of electrical engineering”

COUNCIL FOR 2008

Wade Devine – President:

Joe Heappey – IPP:

Phil Dayson – Vice President:

Councillors: Glynn Babbington; Russell Bailey; Dave Cave:

Harold Knight – Secretary:

OBITUARY – Jack Bicker, 10th June 1927 to 11th June 2008.

It is with great regret that I must report the death of one of our most revered members and past presidents, Jack Bicker. Jack valiantly fought illness but was sadly taken from us by Mesothelioma – a form of cancer that is almost always caused by previous exposure to asbestos. He leaves behind many memories and a legacy of influence in the industry through his progression from apprenticeship, to supervision and management, to tutoring and organisation with BOP Polytechnic, involvement with Youth Skills, and of course involvement with our Institute.

Please do visit the wonderful website that his family has created as a memorial and tribute to this honourable gentleman’s life.

It does far more justice to Jack’s memory than could ever be written here.

Our sympathies have been extended to Jack’s family.

The NZEI 2008 Half Yearly Council Meeting

The National Council of the NZEI half yearly meeting is being held in Wellington on Sunday 3rd August and Monday 4th August 2008. Branch members are able to attend this meeting if desired. Please contact Harold Knight for venue details and times.

A few issues to follow through concerning EWRB and from John Sickels discussions at our AGM last March are:

Proposed amendment to the category of electrical service technician:
- Electrical Service Technician – Unlimited
- Electrical Service Technician – Appliance Servicing
- Electrical Service Technician – Electronic Testing
- Electrical – Service Technician – System Servicing
Situation of retired electricians undertaking electrical work
The Board wanting your feedback if you think that there should be supervision included in competency based training;
Standards – the access through websites contract is up for negotiation – the Board is asking is it still worthwhile;
Supervision, testing & design to be captured as prescribed work.

John Sickels is scheduled to attend on the Monday morning 4th August.

The Committee’s discussion on our Institute’s representation on your behalf to government and its officers will be vigorous.

Examples are: Unskilled vs. Skilled people and unfair discrimination; DIY Attitudes and electrical safety including hardware stores untrained staff giving dangerous advice; blatantly illegal and dangerous work; inadequate investigation into HV accidents.

Also consideration is underway to devise a method for one member one vote by postal and proxy system.

Craftsman Training Foundation

Dave Cave reports that John Lamb was welcomed on to the Board as the Institute’s representative and he is already making his mark.

Under floor Insulation Installation

The Institute has written its concerns to ES & EECA regarding recent fatalities from installing under floor insulation, and urged that only non-conductive materials and fixings be recommended and promoted in future with appropriate guidelines.

Items of Interest

Electric Car Industry Start-Up for New Zealand?

New Zealand could soon be building its own electric cars.

Carbon News recently reported that entrepreneur and engineer Ian Macrae, who funded Waikato University’s New Zealand Eco Ultra-Commuter electric vehicle project, met with a United Kingdom car maker with a view to establishing a United Kingdom-Australia-New Zealand consortium.

The consortium would produce an electric car and electric car technology in New Zealand, according to Mike Duke, Senior Lecturer in mechanical engineering at the University.

“It’s looking promising,” says Mr. Duke, who stresses that the idea is being developed outside government.

Wave Energy Trials Under Way in Wellington

A uniquely Kiwi wave energy generator is harnessing the power of waves in Evans Bay, Wellington.

The device has been developed by Wave Energy Technology New Zealand (WET-NZ) – a partnership between Crown Research Institutes Industrial Research and NIWA, and the Wellington power consultancy Power Projects Ltd.

The generator in Evans Bay is an experimental prototype. At a quarter of full-size, it is the product of four years of intensive research and development, funded by the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology.

The experimental generator is capable of a peak output of only around 2kW of electricity (enough to run two typical homes) but is allowing the project scientists and engineers to refine its design so that it can be scaled up in size.

The consortium’s ultimate aim is to produce commercial devices, each capable of producing at least 100 kW, that could supplement energy supplies for large cities or meet all the energy needs of remote communities, such as offshore islands.

Wellington’s Southern Landfill Becomes Electricity Generator

In a new energy project officially launched in April, greenhouse gas from Wellington’s Southern Landfill is being used to generate electricity.

Wellington Mayor Kerry Prendergast and Todd Energy Managing Director Richard Tweedie presided at the official opening of the 1 MW generator plant, which is expected to generate around 8 GWh of electricity per year – enough to power 1,000 households – for the next 20 years. The generator is driven by a large internal combustion engine designed specifically to run on gas produced in the landfill. “This landfill has been in use for over 30 years and is now producing a significant amount of landfill gas every year – including methane,” says Mr. Tweedie. “Methane is a significant greenhouse pollutant and harnessing it to produce electricity makes good sense from both an economic and environmental viewpoint.”

New Zealand Energy Quarterly released

The Ministry today released the New Zealand Energy Quarterly for the March 2008 quarter.

This quarter:

Petrol and diesel prices continued to rise, although motorists were still somewhat shielded from increases due to the high value of the New Zealand dollar compared with the US dollar.

New Zealand’s oil production continued at near record levels as a result of the Tui oil field coming online in mid 2007.
Oil exports were more than four times higher compared to the March quarter 2007.
Thermal electricity generation was significantly higher than during the March quarter 2007 due to low hydrological inflows.
Whirinaki, New Zealand’s diesel-fired reserve generator ran at record levels.
Emissions from electricity generation were up almost a third compared with the March quarter 2007.

The New Zealand Energy Quarterly is part of a suite of energy publications produced by the Ministry. It is free to download or subscribe to by going to www.med.govt.nz/energy/nzeq/. The Ministry also provides up-to-date information via its Energy Data web pages at www.med.govt.nz/energy/data/.

And most of all don’t forget to regularly check out our own website and use its links;

Kind Regards,

Phil Dayson

Ed.

New Zealand Electrical Institute National Newsletter February 2008.

When you read some of the issues concerning conference, industry representation and changes at the end of this newsletter, you will understand the need for us all to pull together with one voice and recruit to increase our membership – an appeal I throw out to you all.

Welcome to the National Branch newsletter.

Under floor foil insulation installation hazard.

Following up from the previous newsletter, some ideas are being circulated to possibly address this issue relating to the recent tragic deaths from electrical shock whilst stapling the foil into place: fitting an RCD to the under floor circuits; capping the cables; earthing/bonding the foil before stapling; plastic staples; not to begin until an electrical worker has isolated or moved any cables; not to be livened again until an electrical worker inspects, tests and verifies safety.

Will you please give this some thought and even if informally, fire back a few comments?

Website Reminders:

Don’t forget to make use of the NZEI website. It has a great link – Summary of Changes to the Electricity Act, Electricity Regulations

Another recently new website that may be of interest is Transpower’s projects site, Grid New Zealand (www.gridnewzealand.co.nz). Latest updates include grid reinforcement from Albany to Penrose Lower South Island and Wairakei Ring projects and the HVDC Pole 1 (Cook Strait Link) replacement issues.

The coming National AGM and Conference is in Christchurch at the Latimer Hotel, Latimer Square, on 7th & 8th March 2008.

And it promises to be a most lively one again too.

Remit No1 from Canterbury Branch encompasses the issues raised earlier around the under floor foil issues. Other emits from Southland Branch raise points about industry representation and protecting the electrical workers’ rights and also refresher course frequency.

Council nominations already submitted reflect the current council status.

Notices of Motion have been submitted around proposed rule changes.

There is much concern around changes to Regs & Standards. AS/NZS 2007 and companion booklets are completed and published (available from your friendly wholesaler at a mere nearly $300!). IEC systems are now allowed, such as TN-C-S. Do you know what these are? Design is being captured more by governance, but how prepared will you be to correctly and safely work with systems other than MEN. Consider that when you read the next sentence.

The Regulations are to be somewhat revised later this year in order to cite AS/NZS 2007, allow EWRB to govern and alter registration criteria to, for example, meet technology developments and to include aspects of the Energy Safety Review Bill such as $10,000 fines.

In 2010 the Act will be amended, and so will possibly generate more changes…

Interested? You should be!

As our President has so pertinently reminded us in his Conference Report.

Our Secretary Harold Knight has represented the Institute in replying to the “Proposed Electrical safety Regulations Discussion Document”. Some concerns raised are: the homeowner being perceived to be allowed to do more than should be legally permitted; network owners should be more proactive as advisors on public and worker safety and follow up more thoroughly on issues…

Thank you Harold.

You will also see an excellent article on proposed regulations changes in the latest Electrical + Automation Technology magazine.

Engineer’s joke:

A priest, a doctor and an engineer are playing golf. They get held up by a particularly slow group of players.
Eventually they come across the green keeper and so complain to him.
The green keeper says they are a group of fire-fighters who lost their sight whilst saving the club house from a fire a few years previously, and so the club allows them to play for free anytime.
The priest says it is sad and will say a special prayer for them.
The doctor agrees and promises to contact a consultant to see if anything can be done to help them.
The engineer asks why they can’t just play at night.

Please, if you have any comment, information, stories, questions and so on, drop me or any council member a line.

Kind Regards,

Phil Dayson, Ed.

National Newsletter November 2007.

Housing New Zealand has highlighted a possible electrical hazard

in respect of retrofitting foil insulation directly under timber flooring and others who may be at risk.

NZS 4246:2006 covers the hazards in relation to under floor foil installations. The Health and Safety Act may put onus on contractors to ensure that they have procedure in place to identify this particular potential hazard and mitigate against it. Trades people and others accessing the under floor area that has the foil installed should be aware of the potential hazards and any procedures that have been put in place to keep themselves and others safe.

Who might need to access the under floor area?

Plumbers / gas fitters/ drain layers, electricians, carpenters, staff removing rubbish from underneath a building, staff involved in re piling, SKY TV staff, telecom etc.

Also tenants who may use this area for storage / workshop if it has a walk in access to part of the under floor area.

A few issues concerning Government and Standards that may interest you:

Continuance of Supply Review of the Electricity Act

The government is reviewing Section 62 of the Electricity Act 1992, to ensure the continued supply of electricity to consumers, and in particular those in remote rural areas, from March 2013.

Currently subsection 6 of Section 62 of the Act provides for the repeal on 31 March 2013 of the obligation of lines companies to supply line services to properties that were being supplied on 1 April 1993. Persons connecting to lines post-April 1993 are not affected, as the terms and conditions around the continuance of supply should be part of their electricity connection agreement. The objective of the review is to consider what arrangements should be put in place to ensure that affected consumers continue to have access to an electricity supply that is efficient, fair, reliable and delivered in an environmentally sustainable manner beyond 2013.

Feedback on discussion document: The Ministry of Economic Development is considering feedback on a discussion paper outlining a number of potential options for access to electricity supply for affected consumers, including continuing supply with no expiry date, extending a transition period beyond 2013, choosing to supply using lines or alternative systems, providing a subsidy for supply from all electricity users, and lines companies providing assistance to consumers to manage transitions to alternate systems.

There is no preferred option identified at this stage. Input is sought from all interested parties on a number of questions in relation to the options outlined, as well as any other feasible options for supply that may be identified by stakeholders.

Submissions on the discussion paper were due to the Ministry of Economic Development by Friday 28 September.

A few Electrical Standards under consideration following public comment:

DR07161 – Low-voltage switchgear and control gear assemblies Part 5: Particular requirements for assemblies for power distribution in public networks (IEC 60439-5, Ed. 2.0(2006) MOD) (Revision of AS/NZS 3439.5:2001)

Requirements for cable distribution cabinets in public places, but accessed by skilled persons.

Comment on this draft closed on Friday 29 June 2007.

DR07162 – Low-voltage switchgear and control gear assemblies Part 4: Particular requirements for assemblies for construction sites (ACS) (IEC 60439.4, Ed. 2.0 (2004) MOD) (Revision of AS 3439.4 1995)

To specify requirements for type-tested assemblies for construction sites.

DZ7901 – Electricity and Gas Industries – Safety Management Systems for Public Safety

No abstract available.

Standards superceding existing Standards; revised Standards have been implemented for many areas we may find ourselves involved with from time to time, or regularly as specialists.

Some are:

Hand-held motor-operated electrical tools; circular saws except those used with abrasive wheels; kitchen machines; room heaters; drives for rolling shutters, awnings, blinds and similar equipment

Public comment has closed for DZ6110 – Electrical Installations – Floor and Ceiling Heating Systems.

NZS 6110 provides guidance for the installation of floor and ceiling heating systems. It specifies how floor and ceiling heating systems can be installed when they are either a complete appliance or part of an appliance.

The purpose of the revision is to align NZS 6110 with international standards such as IEC 60364-7-753 Requirements for special installations or locations – floor and ceiling heating systems, which was published in 2005.

Occupational Safety

New Publication

AS/NZS 1891.1:2007 – Industrial fall-arrest systems and devices – Harnesses and ancillary equipment

Specifies requirements for the materials, design, manufacture and testing of harnesses, lanyards, pole straps, safety belts and ancillary equipment and superseded many previous Standards

Electrical

New Publications

AS/NZS 60079.1:2007 – Electrical apparatus for explosive gas atmospheres – Equipment protection by flameproof enclosures’d’

AS/NZS 61000.3.2:2007 – Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) – Limits – Limits for harmonic current emissions (equipment input current less than or equal to 16 A per phase)

If you would like to take the opportunity to review the many drafts and provide comments in the future, you can download them free from the Standards New Zealand website.

NOTE - Drafts are sorted in closing date order.

If you have any problems downloading the draft Standard call 0800 STANDARDS (0800 782 632).

You can either comment online by clicking on ‘Enter Comments Online’ or by downloading and completing a comment form and sending it to:

Jillene Everett, Project Administrator.

+64 4495 0918 jillene.everett@standards.co.nz

Don’t forget to make use of the NZEI website. It has a great link – An Overview to Industry on the Energy Safe Review Bill as considered by Government Select Committee. — Link not working

Not addressed in the Bill, the government has decided to transfer responsibility for Plumbers, Gas Fitters and Drain Layers from the Ministry of Housing to the Department of Building and Housing. The link site gives reasons and has a sections covering: Q&A; purpose of the paper; structure of the Bill; the legal process.

Another recently new website that may be of interest is Transpower’s projects site, Grid New Zealand (www.gridnewzealand.co.nz). They say it provides easily accessible information on all their proposed and committed projects, and probably covering proposed and possible investments within a 10 year horizon. It is supposedly being regularly updated to provide a constant and current snapshot of any transmission project proposed or underway in NZ.

The coming National AGM and Conference is in Christchurch at the Latimer Hotel, Latimer Square, on 7th & 8th March 2008.

Engineer’s joke:

A mathematician, a physicist and an engineer were all given a red rubber ball and asked to find its volume.

The mathematician carefully measured the diameter and evaluated a triple integral.

The physicist filled a beaker with water, put the ball in the water, and measured the total displacement.

The engineer looked up the model and serial number in his red rubber ball table.

Please, if you have any comment, information, stories, questions and so on, drop me or any council member a line.

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