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In spite of the names of “building attachments” and “secondary elements” usually given to nonstructural components and equipment, they are far from being secondary in importance. In the worst case of critical facilities, the failure of equipment strongly impacts on the postearthquake functionality, causing the loss of essential services or businesses. Such considerations highlight the need for a seismic qualification of equipment as the essential means to demonstrate its adequacy to perform the required function during the expected earthquake event. In this paper, the authors deal with a new approach to the problem of seismic qualification, in which the seismic demand posed to the component is defined in terms of equipment seismic levels (ESLs), whereas its inherent seismic capacity is classified in terms of equipment qualification categories. The determination of the ESL, which is the subject of this paper, has to satisfy the requirements prescribed by the codes for the seismic design of equipment. A comparative study of the current seismic codes in the USA and in Europe is hence carried out in order to critically assess their provisions and to develop a methodology that can be implemented straightforwardly also by designers not having expertise in the field of earthquake engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper outlines a means to manage electrical competence in an international oil company (IOC), and it begins to explore the connections that may be possible to the industry in general and a possible role for the Petroleum and Chemical Industry Committee (PCIC) in this process. A key objective is to allow new employees in the electrical discipline to add value to the business as quickly and effectively as possible. This sometimes involves the acquisition of new knowledge and behaviors. Some resources and programs are available in the open market, but these are usually not well matched to the specific needs of the industries covered by the oil, gas, and chemical sector, i.e., the focus is more often on utility companies. By sharing the needs of this IOC and the initial response from PCIC Europe, it is hoped to stimulate further thinking and possible alignment on this important subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses historical and technical events in the U.S. and Europe over the last few years that are aimed at modernizing the electric power grid. The U.S. federal government has ratified the “smart grid initiative” as the official policy for modernizing the electricity grid including unprecedented provisions for timely information and control options to consumers and deployment of “smart” technologies. European countries are unified in researching and developing related technologies through various structures supported by the European Union. This paper presents the development of smart grids and an analysis of the methodologies, milestones, and expected evolutions of grid technologies that will transform society in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The USA and Europe use different standards to provide electrical safety for employee workplaces. This paper examines the two standards NFPA70E and EN 50110, shows some of the similarities and differences, and looks at the possibilities for a gradual harmonization between the two systems. The paper would contribute to improve the electrical safety continuity in the worldwide globalization efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The solutions recommended by international roadmaps and technical reports on smart metering refer to interval metering with time resolutions higher than 15 min to 1 h as traditionally used. Based on the characteristics of the users’ power patterns in distribution networks, this article shows that in practical cases the resolutions of the traditional metering are not sufficient to assess peak power and network losses effectively. Effective interval metering solutions should have resolutions of one minute or less. Moreover, this article shows the advantages of assessing the average power peak (amplitude and duration) and estimating the network losses through innovative solutions beyond interval metering, based on event-driven energy metering. The use of EDM significantly enhances the quality of pattern representation and reduces the amount of data required with respect to high-resolution interval metering. Based on the Pareto analysis of conflicting objectives, a novel procedure to set up the EDM thresholds is presented. The applications shown use real data and refer to a single user, some users connected to a distribution network feeder, and many users connected to a large distribution system. The EDM benefits are quantified using specific indicators that consider energy losses and peak power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy transition toward smart grids with deep impact of renewables, energy storage systems, and electric vehicle charging stations will increasingly promote the establishment of energy communities that own portions of the electricity grid. The energy communities will consist of clusters of multiunit buildings and or single residential units aggregated sharing a common or multiple medium and low voltage (MV/LV) electrical substations. The size and impact of the location of these MV/LV substations can constitute a barrier especially for highly urbanized contexts where it is very complicated to provide technical spaces inside buildings for large technical systems like transformers, MV switchgear, etc. The idea of this work consists of developing a compact outdoor MV/LV substation to reduce the overall dimensions and to make the execution modularized to facilitate management and maintenance. Also an investigation of energy exchange between multiunit buildings, which are considered as the real energy community case study. The main objective for this case study is to minimize the operation cost of the system by maximizing the self-consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]