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1. Cooper Industries Sold to Eaton for $11.8
Billion - The
acquisition will allow Cleveland-based Eaton, an industrial manufacturer, to
further expand its power management reach and its electrical business. The acquisition is expected to close by the
end of 2012, after which Eaton and Cooper will be combined as a new company,
expected to be called Eaton Global Corporation Plc., incorporated in Ireland,
where Cooper is currently incorporated. Alexander Cutler, Eaton’s CEO and
chairman, will lead the combined company.
Based on 2011 revenues, Eaton and Cooper combined would have revenues of
$21.5 billion that year. http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2012/05/21/cooper-industries-sold-to-eaton-for.html
2. Electric
Rates Going Up in 2015 - Your electric rates are
going up but not until 2015. That year, electric bills are set to be about $130
a year more than now, according to the results of annual auction that decides
which electricity providers will be paid for committing to run their power
plants so the lights stay on. 5/18 McClatchy-Tribune Regional News
3. Coal
Plant Closures Could Send Electricity Costs Soaring - Residential electricity
prices are expected to spike by more than 10 percent beginning in 2015, with
consumers paying between $150 and $330 a year more than this year, as coal
plants, the least expensive producers of electricity, continue to close. 5/18 McClatchy-Tribune Regional
News
4. California Poised to Issue 2013 Title 24
Building Efficiency Standards - The California Energy Commission is in the final stages of
adopting changes to the 2008 Building Energy Efficiency Standards contained in
the California Code of Regulations (CCR), Title 24, Part 6 (also known as the
California Energy Code). The revised standards were approved May 9, 2012 and
are scheduled to take effect in January 2014. Mandatory requirements also include the use
of daylighting sensors to adjust lighting systems near windows to produce more
or less light based upon the amount of natural light entering the space. 5/21 Glass on Web
5. Smart Buildings: Ten Trends to Watch in 2012 and
Beyond - Demand for efficient HVAC and lighting
systems, as well as other types of hardware like controls and submeters, is
growing as the value proposition for energy efficiency is proven again and
again. In addition, advances in software for building energy management
systems (BEMS) as well as for building design (through building information
modeling, or BIM) are making it easier to design and maintain high performance
buildings. This white paper report from Pike Research examines these trends
worldwide. http://www.pikeresearch.com/research/smart-buildings-ten-trends-to-watch-in-2012-and-beyond
6. Existing-Home Sales Increased 3.4% in April - According to the tally from the national Association of Realtors,
there’s the beginning of a return to normalcy taking place across housing. Existing-home sales in April rose to a
seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.62 million, up 3.4% from a downwardly
revised 4.47 million in March. Compared with a year ago, existing starts are up 10.0%. The national median existing-home price for
all housing types jumped 10.1% to $177,400 in April from a year ago; the March
price showed an upwardly revised 3.1% improvement. 5/22 HCN
7. JEDEC
Publishes Five International Thermal-Testing Standards For LEDs - The JEDEC Solid State Technology Association,
the standards organization based in Arlington, VA, has announced the
publication of a new series of standards for component-level testing of
high-brightness/power LEDs. Development within JEDEC’s JC-15 Committee involved
LED industry leaders, and resulted in the new JESD51-5x series of standards
aimed at thermal characterization of power LED components. The four standards,
JESD51-5, JESD51-50, JESD51-51, JESD51-52 and JESD51-53, are in compliance with
the International Commission on Illumination's (CIE) existing LED measurement
recommendations. http://www.jedec.org/standards-documents/results/jesd51-5
8. EC&M's Top 30 Rankings of Electrical Design Firms - The companies on EC&M’s 2012 Top 30 Electrical Design
Firms list earned $1.1 billion in revenue related to electrical design services
in 2011. By comparison, last year, 27 design firms reported $553.9 million in
revenue related to electrical design services for 2010. In addition, the 17
design firms on this year’s list that also reported revenue related to
electrical design services in last year’s survey averaged a year-over-year
increase of 6.1%. http://ecmweb.com/images/205ecmCStable1.gif
9. Speaking
Out: LEDs: The Time is Now - LED usage in commercial lighting is expected
to grow at an annual rate of 39 percent for the next three years, putting LED
commercial lighting sales at $4.5 billion a year by 2015 (from a report
published by the Strategies in Light conference). The overall market for LED
products for applications such as backlighting for televisions, laptops and
mobile devices is declining due to the saturation of the TV market, which will
cause a flood of LED components into the commercial lighting market bringing
lower prices and increasing adoption rates. In 2010, the global LED market—all products included—increased by 93 percent (Strategies in Light report).
Such impressive growth rates for products using LED technology have brought
major global attention from electronics manufacturers eager to enter large
markets that previously had barriers to entry, such as the U.S. commercial and
residential construction markets. http://ewweb.com/mag/electric_leds_time/
10. NEMA Lighting System Index Jumps 5.2% - The National Lighting Bureau (NLB) reports that first-quarter 2012 NEMA Lighting Systems Index (LSI) performance bested fourth-quarter
2011’s by 5.2%, a gain that NLB Executive Director John
Bachner characterized as “cause for optimism, especially
in light of encouraging year-over-year data.” Bachner noted that year-over-year performance, while strong at 3.7%, was less robust than
quarter-over-quarter performance because of “intervening quarterly
fluctuations. Nonetheless, year-over-year and
quarter-over-quarter performance, taken as a whole, is extremely positive.” http://www.nlb.org/Index.cfm?pid=10213
