Electric News

we are busy!!

2011-05-15T22:37:00.000-07:00

     You know the economy is picking back up when you see people opening new business or existing companies in the commercial sector are are expanding. So with that being said, we are extremely busy! We are still working on the San Bernardino County library in the city of Rialto, and working on two projects for Metro Auto Parts Distributors in San Bernardino, and another for the Burlington Coat Factory distribution center also in San Bernardino.

   So as you can see we are picking up work, and we are going to be posting new pictures on our website at www.lwelectrical.com. We are also pleased to announce that we might be opening a shop near the 10 fwy, when and if this happens we will have a grand re-opening and pictures posted of the new building and the grand re-opening.

   So check us out at www.lwelectrical.com, follow us on twitter @repairelectric, and like us on face book at Live Wire Electric Company. Thank You.

updates

2011-05-07T11:49:00.000-07:00

Well we started the remodel of the County of San Bernardino library Rialto. All went well and got phase one of the project complete, and the phase two will be started on the 24th of May. The whole project should be done by June 3rd and the library will re-open on the 4th of June. When pictures are available, we will post.

Now we are working on a project in San Bernardino, Metro automotive parts installing 150kw emergency generator. We are getting the engineering for the project this week, and should actually be starting the installation in three weeks. Again as soon as pictures are available we will post.

Well check us out at www.lwelectrical.com, follow us on twitter @repairelectric, and like us on face book at Live Wire Electric Company. thank you

we will have pics soon

2011-05-01T22:25:00.000-07:00

We will have some pictures of the county work that we have been working on very, very soon. I promise. We are working on more county work this month, and we are now contracting work for metro automotive parts, installing a 150 kw emergency generator for them. So we will have some pictures of that as well. So stay tuned. Anyways, check us out at www.lwelectrical.com, follow us on twitter @repairelectric, and like us on face book at Live Wire Electric Company. Thank you

Live Wire Electric co.

2011-04-17T19:19:00.000-07:00

Call Live Wire Electric co. for all your electrical, solar, and green industries needs. There is no job to big or to small. Service calls start at $99.00, which includes up to one hour of electrical diagnoses and trouble-shooting your electrical problem, and fixed if diagnosed within the hour, (does not include any materials, extra charges will apply).
We also give free estimates (within a 30 mile raduis) for all electrical/ solar and green industries project over $500.00.
So give us a call, check out our website at www.lwelectrical.com, like us on face book Live Wire Electric Company, and follow us on twitter at @repairelectric. Thank you

this is nice!

2011-04-12T00:41:00.000-07:00

Vision InfoSoft’s electrical estimating software suite, Electrical Bid Manager Enterprise, was recently recognized by Contructech Magazine as a 2011 Commercial Top Product!
Each year, Constructech Magazine honors “technology solutions” that have demonstrated the greatest innovations geared toward the construction market. Winners of the top product award are selected based on various criteria, including the product’s overall usefulness and uniqueness to the construction industry. The judges also acknowledge the customer growth rate for the particular product during the past year.
The editorial director of Constructech magazine, Peggy Smedley, stated her positive regards for the 2011 top product winners. She announced last week, “The Constructech Top Products Award winners represent those companies that were able to deliver award-winning solutions regardless of the state-of-the-economy….The companies appearing as part of the 2011 Constructech Top Products have risen to meet the needs of their customers, and they are raising the bar for those around them.”
This award is a true honor to Vision and validates all the hard work we have put into building an electrical estimating software suite that truly conforms to what electrical contractors demand.

That would be nice to have! We do it the old fashion way. Anyways, check us out at www.lwelectrical.com, like us on face book Live Wire Electric Company, and follow us on Twitter @Repairelectric. Thank You.

spring has sprung!

2011-04-03T21:26:00.000-07:00

Well spring has sprung and it is time to have that electrical audit. During the spring and summer months are times when electrical systems fail, breakers stop working, and panels become overloaded. Call Live Wire Electric co and have us come out to your residence or place of business and survey your electrical system. For a small fee, we test and diagnose your electrical system, test breakers, and let you know how during the hot summer months how to save money on your electrical bill. And if there is a problem with your electrical, we will sit down with you show you the problem, and figure a plan to fix your electrical problem on time and on budget. So give us a call, come check us out on face book Live Wire Electric Company, Come follow us on Twitter @Repairelectric, and check us out on the web at www.lwelectrical.com.

this is the future!

2011-03-27T20:29:00.000-07:00

Solar Window Pioneer Announces Pilot Installment Of Solar Windows

Willis Tower.

by Staff Writers San Mateo CA (SPX) Mar 25, 2011 Pythagoras Solar has announced that it has been chosen by Willis Tower, formerly Sears Tower, to collaborate on a pilot project to help deliver on the building's renewable energy and energy efficiency improvement goals. The pilot project, deployed in November last year on the south facing windows of the Willis Tower's 56th floor, uses a building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) solution that has the potential to expand to a surface area allowing over two megawatts of solar power generation. Willis Tower provides an example of how sustainable modernization endeavors are about more than reducing carbon emissions but also about re-investing in the local economy.
Willis Tower is exploring innovative solutions that are directly re-investing in Chicago's new green economy. In addition, this project will illustrate one possible best practice for how to decrease the impact of the built environment on climate change, for easy duplication in other similar structures.
"We are excited to launch this pilot with Pythagoras Solar's leading-edge solar window solutions as a test for not only the energy savings that can be achieved, but the potential they represent to actually generate power through the sun," said John Huston, Executive Vice President of American Landmark Properties, one of the ownership partners of Willis Tower.
"We are incredibly proud to be considered to contribute our part for the 'greening' of the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, the iconic Willis Tower," said Gonen Fink, Co-founder and CEO Pythagoras Solar.
"It is inspiring to see a team not waver in its dedication to making a true and lasting change through smart investments in the right solutions. With its combined benefits, our technology is set to provide Willis Tower with a valuable tool that will help move it toward its energy efficiency goals."
Leveraging mass-scale solar power window installations has a direct impact on improving the energy efficiency and energy generation potential of a building's exterior envelope and windows.
Pythagoras Solar is the first company to offer a fully integrated photovoltaic glass unit (PVGU) that addresses the need for simultaneous benefits of energy efficiency and high power density, while also offering architectural design benefits to increase real estate value and advance Net Zero Energy Buildings (NZB)

Wouldn't this be something! Well check us out at www.lwelectrical.com, follow us on twitter, and like us on facebook.

new standards

2011-03-19T18:37:00.000-07:00

EPA proposes new emission standards

WASHINGTON DC The Environmental Protection Agency proposed the first national standard for emissions of mercury and other pollutants from coal-burning power plants, a rule that could lead to the early closing of a number of older plants and one that is certain to be challenged by the some utilities and Republicans in Congress.
Lisa P. Jackson, the agency’s administrator, said control of dozens of poisonous substances emitted by power plants was long overdue and would prevent thousands of deaths and tens of thousands of cases of disease a year.
Ms. Jackson pointedly included the head of the American Lung Association and two prominent doctors in her announcement to make the point that the regulations were designed to protect public health and not to penalize the utility industry.
She estimated the total annual cost of compliance at about $10 billion, in line with some industry estimates although some are much higher, and the health and environmental benefits at more than $100 billion a year. She said that households could expect to see their electric bills rise by $3 to $4 a month when the regulation was fully in force after 2015.
Ms. Jackson was acting under a court-ordered deadline to produce a draft rule by March 16.
“Today’s announcement is 20 years in the making and is a significant milestone in the Clean Air Act‘s already unprecedented record of ensuring our children are protected from the damaging effects of toxic air pollution,” she said.
Ms. Jackson said that mercury and the other emissions covered by the rule damaged the nervous systems of fetuses and children, aggravated asthma and caused lifelong health damage for hundreds of thousands of Americans.
She said that installing and maintaining smokestack scrubbers and other control technology would create 31,000 short-term construction jobs and 9,000 permanent utility sector jobs.
Even before the formal unveiling of the rule, some utilities, business groups and Congressional Republicans cast it as the latest salvo in a regulatory war on American industry. They cited a number of recently issued EPA rules, including one on industrial boilers and the first of a series of regulations covering greenhouse gases, which they argue will impose huge costs on businesses and choke off economic recovery.
“EPA admits the pending proposal will cost at least $10 billion, making it one of the most expensive rules in the history of the agency,” a group of utilities, the Electric Reliability Coordinating Council, said in a report. “Adaptation to all the proposed rules constitutes an extraordinary threat to the power sector — particularly the half of U.S. electricity derived from coal-fired generation.”
The group questioned Ms. Jackson’s assertion that the technology needed to reduce emissions of mercury, lead, arsenic, chromium and other airborne pollutants was readily available and reasonably inexpensive. The need to retrofit scores of plants in the same short period of time will tax resources and lead to delays, it said.
A spokesman for the utility industry’s largest trade group, the Edison Electric Institute, said it would be easier for some utilities to comply than others, particularly those that rely more heavily on nuclear power and those that have switched to natural gas for part of their generating capacity.
One utility executive said compliance would not be unduly burdensome.
“We know from experience that constructing this technology can be done in a reasonable time frame, especially with good advance planning,” said Paul Allen, senior vice president and chief environmental officer of Constellation Energy. “And there is meaningful job creation associated with the projects.”
Public health advocates said utilities had delayed the rules for more than two decades with court challenges and lobbying campaigns.
“If you think it’s expensive to put a scrubber on a smokestack, you should see how much it costs to treat a child over a lifetime with a birth defect,” said Dr. O. Marion Burton, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, who stood with Ms. Jackson in announcing the rule.
Roughly half of the nation’s more than 400 coal-burning plants have some form of control technology installed, and about a third of states have set their own standards for mercury emissions. But the proposed rule is the first national standard and will require all plants to come up to the standard of the cleanest of current plants.
The new rules bring to a close a bitter legal and regulatory battle dating back to the passage of the 1970 Clean Air Act, which first directed the EPA to identify and control major industrial sources of hazardous emissions.
By 1990, however, federal regulators had still not set standards for toxic emissions from power plants, and Congress, in the face of stiff resistance from utilities and coal interests, passed legislation directing the EPA to study the health effects of mercury and other emissions, and to detail the cost and effectiveness of control technologies.
In 1998, the agency finally complied, delivering a comprehensive report to Congress detailing the health impact of numerous pollutants, including mercury, which by then had been linked conclusively in multiple studies to serious cognitive harm to fetuses.
In December 2000, in the last days of the Clinton administration, the EPA finally listed power plants as a source of hazardous air pollutants under the Clean Air Act.
The Bush administration EPA faced its own deadlines to devise and put into effect controls for power plant pollution. But rather than issue emissions standards in line with federal law, in 2005, top agency officials instituted a controversial cap-and-trade program for mercury, despite a warning from agency lawyers that the move would throw the issue back into the courts and almost certainly be reversed.
As predicted, a coalition of states and environmentalists sued the agency, arguing that the cap-and-trade program would not limit other toxic emissions like arsenic and would allow the dirtiest power plants to pay for the right to pollute, putting nearby communities at risk. In 2008 a federal judge ruled against the EPA, giving the agency three years to develop standards for mercury and other pollutants.
The long delay has meant that emissions of some major pollutants have grown in recent years. The EPA’s most recent data shows that from 1999 to 2005, mercury emissions from power plants increased more than 8 percent, to 53 tons from 49 tons. Arsenic emissions grew even more, rising 31 percent, to 210 tons from 160 tons.
The EPA will take public comment on the proposed regulations for the next several months. It anticipates publishing a final rule at the end of this year or early next year. The rule would take effect fully three or four years later.

New York Times

just a quick one

2011-03-07T11:36:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note, we would like to thank all the new customers this week that called Live Wire Electric co and received top quality customer service and superior electrical technicians. We are still waiting for the complete remodel of the San Bernardino Library city of Yucaipa before we post the pics of the commercial work and data/ networking work we did for them.
Again call us at 909 528 4444 or contact us at our web site www.lweletrical .com and find out why we are the best electricians with the superior customer service. Let us help you with all your energy needs. don't forget to ask us about solar design and installations.

new month

2011-02-27T22:53:00.000-08:00

Hello again, we are getting this solar rolling now!! We want to thank Lauren of Yucaipa for giving us a shot and learning the truth about solar electricity (pv). Now You can too!! Give us a call (909) 528-4444 or visit our web site at www.lwelectrical.com and find out the truth for yourselves. We will do a free yea i said free energy analysts and show you from a non-bias showing of your system, its output, and your savings and a complete rebates you'll receive from state and federal rebates. All you have to do is give us a call, and have your electrical bill from the past 12 months on hand, and we can give you an energy analysis. So why wait any longer, why have questions lingering, wouldn't you want to know the truth! Give us a call today.

commercial work

2011-02-19T18:23:00.000-08:00

We have been busy with lots and lots of electrical commercial work. We have been installing new circuits and new outlets and new lighting for the County of San Bernardino library Yucaipa. We also installed new I.T. networking runs as well. We also ran some new networking and data lines for a Burlington Coat Factory this week. So this week has been very busy with upgrading electrical and networking and data installations! When are you going to call to see if your electrical or data/networking system needs an overhaul? Give us a call and we can help with all those needs and more, Always check us out @ www.lwelectrical.com for contacting us or finding out all our services, follows us on twitter @repairelectric, and become our friend on our facebook. Call us and find out why we are the best.

wow!!!!

2011-02-12T18:34:00.000-08:00

We are on a roll!! We would like to thank Frank in Fontana, Summer in Yucaipa, Matt in Irvine, and Matt in Redlands. We are now working on a project for the county of San Bernardino library, city of Yucaipa next week. We Will have some before and after pictures posted on our web site www.lwelectrical.com. So check us out and give us a call and see why so many others have experienced why we are the #1 electricians in Southern California.

super bowl weekend!!

2011-02-05T13:46:00.000-08:00

Just want to give a quick shout out to all our new customers that called us for their electrical needs! Now it is Superbowl weekend and if u need last minute help setting up that large flat screen tv or hooking up all those cables for your surround sound, give us a call! We specialize in installing flat screen tv on the walls and concealing all those wires and moving electrical outlets and cable connections discretely so your home entertainment system looks and sounds its best for the big game!! So give us a call and find out why we are the best electrical specialist in the Inland Empire! Go Packers!!!

For more info on home electrical service click here.

new customers!!!

2011-01-31T19:33:00.000-08:00

we have been busy with all kinds of work!! H&R Block in Fontana for their service work, a Mr. Hawk in San Bernardino for the panel upgrade, (see the pictures posted very soon on our web-site) Mrs Cairrer in Yucaipa for all the lighting on her house (inside lighting and outdoor lighting) and Jim in Yucaipa for some electrical outlets. So lets keep this going and keep that phone ringing for electrical services. Thank you to all those who trust and believe in our superior customer service and top notch training and education in the electrical field.

new work for the new year!

2011-01-20T08:38:00.000-08:00

We have been slowly becoming more busy as the new year keeps coming along. We have been particularly busy here in Yucaipa. Installing lots and lots of outdoor lighting, and doing service work! We are posting some of this outdoor lights on our website, so go and check out our work! Maybe you as well need or want to beef up your outdoor lighting for security reasons, or just to beautify your home. Also been been doing some custom parking lot lighting as well in Redlands, we should be posting that as well. Don't forget we have a boom lift that reaches 50ft and a crane lift that goes 110ft! We can install parking lot lights and electrical store front signs for your business. So keep the hits coming and check out our website at lwelectrical.com for money saving coupons and much more. thank you!

What is a Smart Meter and Why Use Them?

2011-01-19T08:24:00.000-08:00

A smart meter is usually an electrical meter that records consumption in intervals of an hour or less and communicates that information at least daily back to the utility for monitoring and billing purposes. Smart meters enable two-way communication between the meter and the central system. Unlike home energy monitors, smart meters can gather data for remote reporting.

Since the inception of electricity deregulation and market-driven pricing throughout the world, utilities have been looking for a means to match consumption with generation. Traditional electrical meters only measure total consumption and as such, provide no information of when the energy was consumed. Smart meters provide an economical way of measuring this information, allowing price setting agencies to introduce different prices for consumption based on the time of day and the season.

Electricity pricing usually peaks at certain predictable times of the day and the season. In particular, if generation is constrained, prices can rise from other jurisdictions or more costly generation is brought online. It is believed that billing customers by time of day will encourage consumers to adjust their consumption habits to be more responsive to market prices.

Regulatory and market design agencies hope these "price signals" will delay the construction of additional generation or at least the purchase of energy from higher priced sources, thereby controlling the steady and rapid increase of electricity prices.

Image courtesy of Wikipedia

check this out!!

2011-01-18T09:07:00.000-08:00

Solar Storm Risks Bring Disaster Plans

By HENRY FOUNTAIN

Published: November 16, 2010

ON a March night 21 years ago, a storm brought Quebec’s electric power grid to its knees.

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The Forecast: Damaging Currents With a Chance of Blackout

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It wasn’t snow, ice or wind that caused Hydro-Québec‘s high-voltage transmission system to go down, blacking out millions of customers for nine hours or more. It was a solar storm — a blast of electrically charged gas from the sun that disrupted the Earth’s magnetic field and made the grid go haywire.

As bad as this “space weather” was — it even damaged a giant transformer at a nuclear power plant in New Jersey, hundreds of miles from Quebec — scientists and engineers say much more severe storms have occurred in the past, before the development of high-voltage power grids, and are possible in the future.

In a worst case, a major geomagnetic storm “could be perhaps the largest natural disaster this country could face,” said John G. Kappenman, a consultant to the power industry. It could cause regionwide or larger blackouts, potentially for months, and affect grids on other continents as well.

While the electric power industry learned much from the 1989 disturbance, and Hydro-Québec and other utilities took steps to be better able to cope with such events, experts say that no grid anywhere is fully protected from a severe geomagnetic storm. It is difficult even to assess the risks of such events, which are very rare and potentially catastrophic.

“The concern for a utility is for these high-impact, low-probability events,” said Luke van der Zel, a technical executive with the Electric Power Research Institute. “Mitigation becomes challenging.”

What’s more, said Mr. Kappenman, while the power industry has spent billions of dollars to “harden” systems against hurricanes, blizzards and other Earth-based storms, “from the standpoint of space weather, I would argue that we have just not understood the threat.”

While grids in higher latitudes are especially vulnerable, the growth of the transmission network in the United States, which now includes about 200,000 miles of high-voltage lines, has increased the risk that a severe storm here will cause crippling damage. “The larger you make the grid, the larger it acts like an antenna to disturbances in the Earth’s magnetic field,” said Mr. Kappenman, who served on a committee that produced a report on the risks for the North American Electric Reliability Corporation.

Higher-transmission voltages — favored by utilities because they result in lower energy losses — have also made grids more susceptible to damage from solar storms, said Sean Eagleton, a section manager for engineering with Con Edison, the New York-area utility company. “Engineers are involved in tradeoffs,” he said. “In the process of making the system more efficient, they make it more vulnerable.”

But given the social and economic havoc that a blackout of months could wreak, engineers and scientists are starting to look more closely at the threat from a severe geomagnetic storm. Efforts are under way to improve forecasting, to give utilities more precise information about when and where a solar storm will hit and how severe the impact will be, so that grid operators can take defensive measures. And utilities and researchers are working to devise equipment and procedures to better enable transmission systems to ride out a major event.

Economics are a big issue, Mr. van der Zel said, and the costs of retrofitting hundreds or thousands of high-voltage transformers, for example, would need to be analyzed.

“The end goal is to have a risk assessment and a mitigation methodology,” he added. “It’s a complex issue. It’s not like many other risks that utilities deal with.”

A geomagnetic storm begins with an enormous burst of electrically charged gas, or plasma, from the sun. The gas travels very quickly — on the order of a million miles an hour or faster — and if it happens to be aimed at Earth, can reach the planet in as little as a day.

Then, strange things happen to the Earth’s orderly magnetic field. It begins to fluctuate, creating differing electric potentials on the Earth’s surface. From this point, a simple law of electricity follows: If the potential at one end of a transmission line is higher than the potential at the other end, dozens or even hundreds of miles away, a current will flow through the line.

It is these currents that can cause problems. They are so different from the normal currents in high-voltage lines that they interfere with the operation of the transformers — the voltage boosters or reducers — that are an essential part of the grid. Transformers can overheat and become damaged, or develop other problems that can cause switches within the system to trip automatically. Voltage throughout the grid can begin to drop, and unless more power can be quickly brought online — either by starting up more generators or shunting it from another system — the grid can collapse.

That’s what happened in Quebec in 1989, and it took only 92 seconds. Fortunately most of the transformers were not permanently affected. But in a much more severe storm — similar to one that occurred in 1859, when other than telegraphs there was little electrical equipment to be damaged — transformers may be destroyed or become otherwise inoperable. These are not off-the-shelf products: a typical high-voltage transformer can weigh several hundred tons and is designed and built (at a cost of up to $10 million or more) for a particular installation. So it may take months to replace them.

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That’s why Mr. Kappenman and others are working on ways to keep geomagnetically induced currents out of transmission lines to begin with. A device called a capacitor could be installed near each vulnerable transformer to effectively block currents from entering the transmission lines.

Capacitors are usually fairly small — the ones on the circuit board inside a typical radio are usually smaller than a fingertip. But in transmission systems, the equipment would be roughly the size of a washing machine, and the capacitors would need to be able to be bypassed in a fraction of a second to allow conventional currents through.

“That makes for an active device, one that looks at what current is flowing and makes decisions in real time,” Mr. van der Zel said. “That’s a lot more expensive than a passive device.”

Mr. Kappenman estimated that in the United States alone, about 5,000 vulnerable transformers would have to be retrofitted, at a cost of perhaps $100,000 each, plus installation. It would make little sense to retrofit only a few transformers; the rogue currents created by an extreme solar storm could flow here and there throughout the grid, damaging unprotected equipment.

Mr. Eagleton said Con Edison had been working with Mr. Kappenman and others and planned to test blocking devices on a few transformers. The utility already has some current-blocking experience, he said: it has to keep the current used in New York’s subways, which is in some ways similar to those created by a solar storm, out of the regular transmission lines.

Mr. Eagleton said Con Edison had also worked with transformer manufacturers on design issues. With the difficulties of transporting and installing equipment in the New York City area, the utility at one time had ordered shorter transformers, so that they would fit under bridges and be otherwise easier to handle. “But now we’ve moved to a design that’s a little taller, and a little less vulnerable to geomagnetic disturbance,” he said.

No one is really certain, however, how a redesigned or retrofitted transformer will perform in a severe storm. “Unfortunately, the only way to know is to experience it,” Mr. Eagleton said.

But more thorough research can help, Mr. van der Zel said. “If we had a very, very large storm, would the entire grid collapse? The answer is we don’t really know, because we don’t have a very accurate complete network analysis. That is something that’s desirable.”

More immediate, and less costly, help can come in the form of better forecasting. At NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., Antti Pulkkinen and other researchers are working to do that, running data from sun-sensing satellites in simulations that are more and more sophisticated. The project, called Solar Shield, is still experimental, but as the models are refined, Mr. Pulkkinen said, it should become fully operational within the next few years.

With it, he said, “we can calculate exactly when this thing is going to happen and what is going to happen.” Extremely precise information about a storm that is about to hit would give grid operators time to take measures to add redundancy to their systems — like putting transmission lines that had been shut down for maintenance back on line, or preparing idle generators to start up again.

In the worst case, Mr. Pulkkinen said, operators might even decide to power down their systems completely, thinking that a brief, deliberate shutdown was a far better outcome than a long blackout.

Mr. Pulkkinen said two developments were helping to improve the forecasts: more and better data from satellites, and improved processing ability. “To run these large-scale space simulations, you need a lot of horsepower from your computers,” he said, adding that “we are now for the first time applying physics-based models to forecast the impact of solar activities on the power grid.”

Mr. Eagleton, of Con Edison, said forecasting had something else going for it as well. “One thing about the sun being 93 million miles away,” he said, “it gives you some time.”

a new year

2011-01-08T01:00:00.001-08:00

a new year

2011-01-08T01:00:00.000-08:00

happy holidays!

2010-12-25T09:57:00.001-08:00

We at Live Wire Electric co. would like to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday. Merry Christmas and Happy New Years from our family to your family!

we r on a roll

2010-12-14T00:53:00.000-08:00

We have been super-busy this holiday season. We would like to thank all the customers that have chosen Live Wire Electric co for all their electrical needs!! We should have some pics of the latest jobs we have done. Also check out our site for the Holiday coupon for an exclusive discount for your holiday lights installed. So check us out and give us a call and find out why we are the best electrical service in southern California.

workin hard!!

2010-12-05T11:33:00.000-08:00

We are working hard this December with holiday lights and landscaping lights. We will be posting some pics here soon of a recent lighting job we just completed. We are also working in San Bernardino this coming week on the Men's big and tall sign off the 215fwy. So give us a call and let our superior customer service and knowledge of electrical and lighting to help your holiday shine oh so bright.

happy thanksgiving

2010-11-27T18:41:00.001-08:00

we at live wire electric co would like to wish everyone a safe and happy thanksgiving.

smart grids

2010-11-19T19:20:00.000-08:00

Small Measures

Oct 20, 2010 4:57 PM, By Beck Ireland, Staff Writer

Smart grid implementation strategy focuses on microgrids

The national power grid comprises more than 9,200 electricity-generating units with more than 1 million megawatts of generating capacity connected by more than 300,000 miles of transmission lines, according to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Since 1982, the increase in peak demand for electricity has exceeded transmission growth by almost 25% a year. In fact, of the five major blackouts in the last 40 yr, three occurred within the last decade. As a result, each day, approximately 500,000 Americans spend at least 2 hr without electricity, and power outages are estimated to cost the U.S. economy more than $150 billion a year. In addition, there are claims that the infrastructure is vulnerable to major weather events and terrorist attacks.

To address these concerns, the DOE Modern Grid Strategy (previously the Modern Grid Initiative) was launched at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) in January 2005. The mission assigned to the team was to “accelerate grid modernization in the United States.” Recently, the program has been renamed the Smart Grid Implementation Strategy (SGIS). Its focus is to “accelerate the transition to a smart grid in the United States through the development of implementation strategies and tools.” As such, the team has turned its attention to providing tools, materials, and expertise to assist with advancing smart grid implementation.

According to the DOE, this implementation involves adding new sources of electrical generation, including renewable energy sources; improving power quality; supporting a wholesale market with a variety of price options; expanding data acquisition and data sharing across business units to improve load factors, lower system losses, prevent energy theft, and dramatically reduce outage durations; improving asset management and reducing maintenance and capital costs; incorporating cyber security standards to make the system resilient to attack and provide for rapid restoration capabilities; and providing consumers with the ability to become informed, involved, and active consumers through access to in-home displays, web portals, demand response (DR), and distributed energy resource options (More Than Meters).

More Than Meters

Smart meters are often mistaken for the primary component of a smart grid, but they’re just one of many technologies. The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) has grouped smart grid technologies into five areas:

Integrated communications consist of technologies such as broadband-over-powerline, fiber to the home, and hybrid fiber coax (HFC) architecture, all of which will serve as the foundation for intelligent electronic devices (IEDs), smart meters, and advanced control center technology.
Sensing and measurement technologies consist of wide-area monitoring systems, dynamic line rating technologies, fiber-optic temperature monitoring systems, and special protection systems.
Advanced components consist of technologies, such as fuel cells, microgrid technologies, ultracapacitors, and NaS batteries.
Advanced control methods consist of digital protective relays, substation and distribution automation, dynamic distributed power control devices, and weather prediction/integration tools.
Improved interfaces and decision support technologies affect a person’s ability to interface and work with the grid, and include the most advanced smart grid applications, such as artificial intelligence-driven data reduction, holographic video, and advanced speech recognition.

Millions of meters

In 2009, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) allotted $3.4 billion for 100 projects under the DOE Smart Grid Investment Grant (SGIG) program. The funds will be matched by $4.7 billion in private investments. Ranging from $400,000 to $200 million, the grants will reach every state except Alaska. See the list of project selectees

The majority of the funds will accommodate upgrades to electric utility power systems, including the installation of more than 200,000 smart transformers, which will allow power companies to replace older units before they fail. Electric utilities will also install more than 850 sensors across the electric grid within in the contiguous United States, making it possible for grid operators to better monitor grid conditions and allow them to better integrate intermittent renewable energy power sources, such as wind and solar power. In addition, electric utilities will install nearly 700 automated substations, which will make it possible for power companies to respond faster and more effectively to service outages when inclement weather brings down power lines or causes electricity disruptions.

The grants will also support the installation of smart grid components for consumers, including more than one million in-home energy displays, 170,000 smart thermostats, and 175,000 other load control devices to enable consumers to reduce their energy use. The funding will help expand the market for smart washing machines, clothes dryers, and dishwashers, so that U.S. residents can further monitor and control their energy use and lower their electricity bills (Smart Appliance Standards). Such smart grid technologies can also better accommodate the use of plug-in electric vehicles (EVs) and the production of renewable energy from customer-owned systems, such as solar arrays. Finally, the smart grid grants will pay for installing more than 2.5 million smart meters, which allow electric utility customers to access pricing information and avoid using excess electricity during peak usage times when it is most expensive.

Smart Appliance Standard

Currently, the American Society of Heating and Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) and the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) are jointly developing a standard to provide a common basis for electrical energy consumers to describe, manage, and communicate about electrical energy consumption and forecasts.

ASHRAE/NEMA Standard 201P, “Facility Smart Grid Information Model,” will define an object-oriented information model to enable appliances and control systems in homes, buildings, and industrial facilities to manage electrical loads and generation sources in response to communication with a smart electrical grid and to communicate information about those electrical loads to service providers.

“Smart grids lead to smart meters lead to smart systems,” says Lynn G. Bellenger, 2010–2011 ASHRAE president. “As the smart grid adjusts to suit load distribution and maintain power quality and reliability, one of the steps will be to communicate with building metering systems which, in turn, will communicate with building systems and equipment. This ties into demand-response (DR) control to reduce peak demand. One day in the future, we likely will have real-time pricing with dramatic differences in power costs dependent upon the time of day or grid load.”

According to Jim Lewis, manager, High Performance Buildings, NEMA, “NEMA and the members of their smart grid and high-performance buildings councils see the creation of this standard as a strategic element in driving development of a nationwide smart electrical grid while increasing energy efficiency, occupant productivity, and cost effectiveness in safe, secure buildings.”

The proposed ASHRAE/NEMA standard will coordinate with work by the North American Energy Standards Board to develop a basic energy-usage data model standard and create a facilities data model that provides additional energy usage data for commercial and industrial buildings.

Glendale Water & Power (GWP), Glendale, Calif., was the first utility in the nation to receive funding under ARRA, signing a contract for a $20 million federal SGIG to help implement its $51-million grid initiative. Currently, the city is undergoing a demonstration of smart meters, which included the installation of a meter data management system, 1,000 electric meters, 500 water meters, and 300 in-home displays. The city plans to have all meters replaced by September 2011.

In addition to replacing all electric and water meters with new smart meters, receipt of the $20 million in DOE grant funds will allow GWP to expand the project scope and accelerate implementation to include distribution automation, new enterprise data storage systems, residential and small business smart grid devices, thermal energy storage, DR, and expanded Wi-Fi backhaul. The city expects the plan to take up to 10 yr to fully implement.

The bigger they are. The implementation of a national smart grid will require the efforts of all key stakeholders, including regulators, utilities, investors, and consumers. Unfortunately, such a large, coordinated effort comes with barriers to adoption of new technologies and upgrades. In a recent survey of 20 industry leaders of electric utilities, half the respondents reported rate cost as the strongest barrier to smart grid projects within their organization. Technology immaturity was also named as a key barrier but was rated a “top barrier” for fewer respondents.

In addition, the need for open standards, regulatory matters, and consumer privacy issues have been cited as major challenges to overcome. However, the biggest obstacles may be awareness and perception. In a recent report commissioned by GE Energy, more than three-fourths of consumers in the United States are not familiar with the term “smart grid.” Fewer than 10% of those surveyed reported they have heard of the smart grid and have a good understanding of what it is.

Among those who report an understanding of the smart grid, almost all believe that such a grid would offer real benefits. They understand real-time reporting across the national electrical network would mean fewer power outages and quicker power restoration when outages occur. Many realize that peak-use-based pricing can save them money by allowing them to choose when and at what price to use electricity.

In an effort to break through some of these barriers, the DOE, under the Smart Grid Regional Demonstration Grant (SGRDG) program, awarded $620 million among 32 awardees in November 2009. (For a list of grant awards, visit http://www.oe.energy.gov/recovery/1255.htm.) These smart grid demonstrations are taking place at a number of U.S. locations and include a variety of electric utility distribution system designs, climate zones, and technologies. Individual demonstrations are expected to be focused on the integration of specific feeder types that serve residential neighborhoods, a mix of residential and commercial customers, or mostly commercial customers. Among other things, this demonstration project is expected to help enable electric utilities to use existing and new utility-owned communication investments; public communication infrastructure investments; available and emerging smart home and building technologies, such as programmable thermostats and energy display devices; and collaborate with other utilities, standards bodies, and industry organizations.

The federal government has allotted $3.4 billion to upgrade the nation’s aging electrical infrastructure.

However, there are already several examples of small-scale smart grids at work. American Electric Power (AEP) has worked for several years to connect microgrids to the larger grid as part of DOE’s Consortium for Electric Reliability Technology Solutions (CERTS), which Pike Research, the Boulder, Colo.-based market research and consulting firm that provides in-depth analysis of global clean technology markets, says is one of the first to connect microgrids to the primary national grid.

Microgrids, sometimes called islands, are modern, small-scale versions of the centralized electricity system. They are set up to achieve specific local goals, such as reliability, carbon-emission reduction, diversification of energy sources, and cost reduction, established by the community being served. Like the bulk power grid, smart microgrids generate, distribute, and regulate the flow of electricity to consumers, but do so locally. Microgrids have been used for some time as safeguards against power outages and other disruptions in circumstances where reliable, continuous electricity is critical, such as hospitals and data centers.

The military also has adopted the technology at some locations, and the U.S. industrial sector, which uses about 25% of the country’s total electricity output, is seeing advantages from microgrids. Although some microgrids are connected to the larger electrical grid system, in some cases, they are designed for a community’s independence from its local electric utility. Marin Clean Energy, in Marin County, Calif., is an example of a community choice aggregation (CCA) public power entity that is allowed under California law to buy and sell electricity from wholesale power markets on behalf of residents instead of from the local electric utility — in this case, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E). The county also hosts a microgrid demonstration project that links five municipal buildings.

Micro vision

Microgrids now account for 772MW of power-generating capacity, according to Pike Research, which is expecting more than 2,000 microgrid sites to be operational worldwide by 2015 — up from fewer than 100 in 2010. The research firm is forecasting the microgrid market will segment as follows:

Institutional/campus microgrids with a single owner.
Commercial/industrial microgrids with multiple owners.
Community/utility microgrids tied to the larger utility grid infrastructure.
Remote off-grid systems that will be increasingly common in developing countries
Military microgrids that can support remote base operations without a fuel supply.

Pike Research anticipates the institutional/campus single-owner microgrids will be the largest segment with 53% of deployments by 2015, followed by commercial/industrial with multiple owners at 39% of the deployments.

At a Capitol Hill briefing recently hosted by the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, the smart microgrid design emerged as the vision for transforming the electricity system and improving the value proposition for customers. Presenters from the Galvin Electricity Initiative, Pareto Energy, and the Intel Open Energy Initiative outlined plans for wide-scale implementation of microgrid development and the policy changes needed to make this vision a reality. As the Senate starts debating the Kerry-Lieberman climate change bill, microgrid advocates want to ensure language supporting microgrid adoption is included.

The Galvin Electricity Initiative, founded in 2005 by former Motorola Chief Robert W. Galvin, whose vision of better meeting the needs of the electric consumer in the new century, focuses on consumers, such as homeowners and businesses. It shows them the potential of improvement through three strategies: raising awareness, drive regulatory reform, and rapid prototyping. The initiative has been involved in three prototypes to date.

Since 2006, the initiative has been working with the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), Chicago, on a microgrid design — or what the initiative refers to as a Perfect Power System. Instead of just incrementally upgrading the system, however, the team at IIT had a vision: Create a next-generation system formed from a smart system of microgrids. The redundant loop system with smart switches in the loops will both update and add to existing infrastructure to create a reliable, efficient, and environmentally friendly system.

“They own their own distribution system, so they’re responsible for the safety, reliability, and cost-effectiveness of that distribution system,” says John Kelly, deputy director at the initiative. “They’re also responsible for the efficiency of the power delivery and the cleanliness of the power being delivered.”

On projects such as these, the organizations are led by in-house electrical engineers and electricians, and they also subcontract to outside firms. “They have to have a core knowledgeable staff, but they do have to go outside for detailed design and construction,” he says. “The leadership still comes from within.”

Libertyville, Ill.-based Aldridge Electric recently completed work on the third phase of the IIT pilot project. The Aldridge Electric crew worked weekends and off-campus hours to safely complete the installation of all the electrical switchgear, controls, and medium-voltage and fiber-optic cable.

Solar panels and wind turbines will be installed in the final phase of the project, allowing IIT to be able to sell electricity back to local energy markets. “What we’re seeing is these microgrids are buying the type of energy they want,” says Kelly. “They don’t necessarily have to pay more to get clean energy.”

In addition, the system will automatically isolate cable failures and reroute power flow to prevent local building outages, protecting valuable experiments conducted at the university that rely on a stable power source. The IIT team estimates that the project will pay for itself within 5 yr following its completion, generating at least $10 million over 10 yr through grid infrastructure improvements and the ability to purchase electricity based on real-time prices rather than a traditional contracted average.

holidays are here?

2010-11-13T11:21:00.000-08:00

We at Live Wire Electric co. know that most people love the holidays. We to love the getting together with family, friends, and even strangers. So we know that decorations are going to up around the house, that holiday lights will be strung, and that a lot of electricity uses. We here at Live Wire Electric co. know that these economic times are hard and rough for us all, but you don't want to sacrifice your holiday cheer! So here with Live Wire Electric co., we are offering a seasonal deal! We will install all your electrical lighting, all your holiday decorations, and test your electrical system to make sure you and your family have a safe and happy holiday season! Go to our website lwelectrical.com and see our money saving coupons and ask about our hourly rate as well. Have a happy and safe holiday season.

solar news for nov 2010

2010-11-05T17:47:00.000-07:00

Easy Fabrication of Non-Reflecting and Self-Cleaning Silicon and Plastic Surfaces

ScienceDaily (Nov. 4, 2010) — The Microfabrication group of Aalto University which specializes in microfabrication and microfludics has developed a new and rapid method for fabrication of non-reflecting and self-cleaning surfaces. Surface properties are based on the nanostructured surface. The research results were just published in the journal Advanced Materials.

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Matter & Energy

Reference

The most laborious part the fabrication process was excluded when the Aalto University's Microfabrication group developed a novel maskless method for fabrication of pyramid-shaped nanostructures on a silicon surface using deep reactive ion etching. The nanostructured silicon wafer can be further used as a template to create an ealstomeric stamp, which can be used to replicate the original non-reflective and self-cleaning nanostructure into the different polymers.

Smooth silicon surfaces are mirror-like and they reflect more than 50 percent of incoming light, while nanostructured silicon and polymeric surfaces are almost completely non-reflecting. The reflectance is reduced at broad wavelength range due to smooth refractive index transition from air to substrate because of the nanostructures, says Lauri Sainiemi from Microfabrication group.

Non-reflecting surfaces and their fabrication methods are hot research topics because they are needed in realization of more efficient solar cells. Similar nanostructured silicon and polymeric surfaces can also be utilized in chemical analysis, because low reflectance is needed in analysis procedure. The second beneficial property of the surfaces is self-cleaning, which is based on nanostructures, which are coated with a thin low surface energy film.

The applications of the developed nanofabrication methods for silicon and polymers range from sensors to solar cells. The biggest strength of the fabrication methods is their scalability and possibility to large scale industrial manufacturing. I believe that there is interest because our fabrication methods enable simple and low-cost manufacturing of nanostructures on large areas and the methods are compatible with single-crystalline, poly-crystalline and amorphous silicon as well as wide variety of different polymers, concludes Sainiemi.

The group has already developed surfaces for chemical analysis of drugs in collaboration with other research groups and that research will continue in future. An interesting novel field is the development of more effective self-cleaning and dirt-repellant surfaces that would especially benefit solar cell research. The fabrication of water-repellent surfaces is fairly straightforward, but liquids with low surface tension can still contaminate the surface. At the moment we are developing novel surfaces that also repel oily liquids.

happy halloween!!

2010-10-29T17:56:00.000-07:00

hey everybody. We have been working hard this week to provide superior electrical and energy services to all our customers. i want to give a shout out to some of our new customers that have called for our professional and top quality services. Frank from San Bernardino, The Burlington coat factory in both Moreno valley and apple valley, Nada from Rancho Mirage (what up girl!!), and everyone else who has either enquire about our services. Lets keep it going, refer a friend, check us out on face book and follow us on twitter. Remember, it is the holiday season and we can help with all your decorating ideas, as to make sure that circuit can handle an electrical load of 5,000 lights, or installing those light and ornaments on that 2 story roof. Give us a call or check us out @ lwelectrical.com and find out why we are the best at providing the best customer service and the best electrical technicians in southern California.

this is where it starts!!!

2010-10-23T11:09:00.000-07:00

NEW DELHI: The government will make it mandatory for mobile phone towers to be powered by solar energy, hoping to cut pollution and tamp down a key driver of diesel consumption in the country. But this would raise construction costs by up to 50% for cellphone operators such as Bharti, Vodafone and Reliance Communications . “We are working on a new scheme that will support adoption of greener practices by telecos while rolling out their services for...

and when this is successful there it will be done here in the U.S. So hopefully this will bring more jobs to the U.S. and help our economy

Lets keep this going!!!!!

2010-10-15T09:31:00.000-07:00

We are proud to announce all the new customers we have serviced this week. To see the superb customer service, and top quality professionalism that only Live Wire Electric co brings each and every time we come to your house or place of business. So keep our phone ringing and find out why we are the best @ energy solution and electricians in Southern California. No matter how big or how small your project may be, we offer energy solutions for all your needs. We would like to give shout outs to some of our new satisfied customers for this week. Mark in Winchester, Ca., Maynor in Rancho Cucamonga, Ca., Latasha in Moreno valley, Ca., Karen in Beaumont, Ca., and Tom in San Bernardino, Ca.!!! Thank you all for letting us bring you professional trouble shooting and customer service!! So lets keep this going and give Live Wire Electric co a call today!!

new customers

2010-10-08T23:25:00.000-07:00

we are very happy and pleased with some customers we received this week!! i would like to thank Michelle for giving us the opportunity to bid a job for her in Redlands. Mark for the service call we did in Winchester, and mike for the minor clean up, and installation of electrical on his mobile home!! Again u can find us on face book and follow us on twitter!! also check us out @ mineeds.com for money savings coupon for your next project at your home or business! lets keep that phone ringing and prove to you why we are the best electrical/home repair contractors in southern California!!

we are live!!!

2010-10-04T21:53:00.000-07:00

we are now live and running on facebook and twitter!!! come and check us out on both of these sites and make comments or share your stories about our services for you to the world!!

Companies, Homeowners Go Green with Solar Power

2010-09-26T12:41:00.000-07:00

Across the nation, businesses and homeowners are adopting solar power to reduce their carbon footprint and help the environment.

In California, for example, hundreds of businesses have adopted solar power. California is one of the country's hottest solar markets, thanks to a bevy of rebates and incentives. A guideline requiring that utilities in the state buy 33 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2020 has contributed to California's solar build-up, too - and the California Air Resources Board made that guideline an official rule this week.

The new rule, ARB chairman Mary D. Nichols said, "will help clean our air and bring new solar and wind energy facilities to California with thousands of jobs in construction, operation and spin-off industries."

Just this week, Frito-Lay North America announced that it would install even more solar capacity at its manufacturing plant in Modesto, California.

The plant has used solar thermal collectors since 2008 to heat cooking oil - and now, it's installing a 1-megawatt solar photovoltaic system, as well. The array will reduce the facility's use of grid-sourced energy by as much as 25 percent.

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New Store Installs Solar Power

2009-09-30T13:44:00.000-07:00

The new Kohls in Sacramento that just opened installed a solar array on its roof! Congragulations on choosing solar and being part of the solution on making our earth a better place to live! Thank You!

for yucaipa residents!!

2009-09-16T21:52:00.000-07:00

the city of yucaipa is loaning 1.25m dollars to home owners to invest in renewable energies!! the way it works is you must get an approved system with an approved contractor to install. then you go to the cty hall of yucaipa and fill out all the info that they require. then what they do is if you qualify, you get the loan from the city that you pay back in 5yrs, 7yrs, 10yrs, or 20 yrs @ 7% interest on your property tax each time you pay your property tax. if you sell the home, the next owner resumes the debt. all you need to do is pay the payment when you pay your property tax. for more questions about this program, please call the city of yucaipa city hall for more info.

what a tragedy!!

2009-09-05T09:40:00.000-07:00

my heart felt, sincere remorse and symphothy goes out to those that were in involed in the fires throughout southern california. In the station fire and the two yucaipa fires and the hemet fires!! I want to thank the brave firefighters that risk there lives everyday to save lives and homes!! and my condolisenses to the fallen firefighters that lost their lives in the station fire!! god bless them and all their familys! We here at Live Wire Electric co want to thank them for the life dedication to what they do!!

lets go solar!!

2009-08-30T18:28:00.000-07:00

solar electricty is becoming more effecient than ever!! the price is getting lower and lower as far as cost for system and installation purposes are concerned, and the rebstes and government kick-backs are getting higher and higher once you do install! so give live wire electric a call for your free outdoor inspection!!

State PUC Want Energy-Saving Programs

2009-08-28T08:20:00.000-07:00

California energy regulators have proposed a sweeping, $2.9 billion package of programs to slash the amount of electricity and natural gas the state uses in the next three years, potentially saving as much power as the output from three power plants.

The proposal from the California Public Utilities Commission would try to wring energy savings from homes and businesses alike. Some houses would be retrofitted with energy-efficient lights, windows and air conditioning to cut their power use by at least 20 percent.

The proposal, issued by the commission on Tuesday, would increase by nearly one-third the amount that Californians spend on energy efficiency. The money would come from utility bills, with $1.2 billion paid by customers of Pacific Gas and Electric Co. alone.

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PG&E, SCE Seek Grants for Energy Storage

2009-08-28T07:31:00.000-07:00

Two California power companies have applied for Department of Energy funding to develop energy storage systems for renewable power.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) applied for $25 million in grants to design an underground reservoir for compressed air, and Southern California Edison (SCE) applied for $25 million for an enormous battery system to be built by A123 Systems.

PG&E's system would use excess energy produced by wind or solar power to pump air into an underground storage space. When winds die down, or during hours of darkness, the compressed air would be released through a turbine to produce electricity. The total cost of the project is estimated to be around $300 million.

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