Industry News
Metronode signs $182m data centre contract with NSW Government
Metronode, a subsidiary of Leighton Contractors, has signed a $182m contract with the New South Wales Government under the Data Centre Reform project for the provision of two managed data centres in NSW. The company will build two new large-scale, energy-efficient data centres in NSW - one located in Sydney’s inner west at Silverwater and the other in the Illawarra region at Wollongong’s southern suburb of Unanderra - as a part of the contract. When fully developed, each data centre will be capable of supporting up to 9 MW of IT load. [ + ]
Rittal officially opens its Data Centre Container at CeBIT
Rittal launched its Data Centre Container (DCC) yesterday at CeBIT, with Senator Kate Lundy cutting the ribbon to officially open the DCC. [ + ]
Schneider and Krohne collaborate on automation and instrumentation solution
Schneider Electric has announced a partnership with Krohne that the companies say will provide customers with a complete automation and instrumentation solution, which will include Schneider’s PlantStruxure process automation architecture and Krohne’s instrumentation offer. [ + ]
Finepoint’s Circuit Breaker Test & Maintenance Training Conference
Finepoint’s 19th Annual Circuit Breaker Test & Maintenance Training Conference will be held over 1-5 October in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. [ + ]
Australia has a "skills opportunity", not skills shortage, claims Chris Evans
In a speech at a Mainstream Maintenance and Reliability Networking Conference in Perth, Senator Chris Evans said that, rather than a skills shortage, Australia is facing a "skills opportunity". [ + ]
CEDIA Award winners announced
The winners of the CEDIA Electronic Lifestyles Awards were announced in Brisbane on Wednesday 9 May in front of 300 industry professionals. This year's awards had 77 project entries from 28 companies and from five countries: Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand and Taiwan. The winners of the CEDIA Electronic Lifestyles Awards were announced in Brisbane on Wednesday 9 May in front of 300 industry professionals. This year's awards had 77 project entries from 28 companies and from five countries: Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand and Taiwan. [ + ]
Small and medium businesses receive $20m worth of energy-efficiency grants
The federal government has pledged over $20 million in grants to help small and medium businesses and community groups improve energy efficiency. [ + ]
Schneider Electric IT appoints State managers for ACT and WA
Schneider Electric IT has announced the regional appointments of Olaf Moon as State Manager, ACT and Federal Government and Graeme Ridler as State Manager, WA. [ + ]
Industry welcomes Tasmanian government’s decision to reform electricity market
The Tasmanian government’s decision to reform its electricity market has been welcomed by the Energy Retailers Association of Australia (ERAA) following an expert panel review of the market. The decision will see the government introduce changes such as selling Aurora Energy’s customer base and introducing full retail competition (FRC) for the state by February next year. [ + ]
Malaysia outpaces Singapore, Australia and NZ in NBN deployment
Malaysia is “comfortably outpacing” other countries in the Asia Pacific region with its High Speed Broadband (HSBB) network being built by Telekom Malaysia, according to recent figures released by Informa Telecoms & Media. [ + ]
ABB Australia acquires Bob White Electrix and LE Jarvis
ABB Australia has acquired Bob White Electrix and LE Jarvis for an undisclosed amount as part of a strategy to broaden its motor and generator repair and service business in Australia. ABB anticipates the acquisition will close in July. [ + ]
Eaton to exhibit ePDUs and solutions for virtualised data centres at CeBIT
Eaton Corporation will exhibit its new set of enclosure power distribution units and showcase a range of solutions for virtualised data centres and IT infrastructure at CeBIT 2012. [ + ]
ABB delivers advanced asset management solution to Australian electricity companies
Power and automation technology group ABB has signed an agreement with SPARQ Solutions, the IT services provider for Australian electricity distributors Energex and Ergon Energy. Under the terms of the agreement, SPARQ has licensed Ellipse 8, the latest release of the Ventyx enterprise asset management (EAM) and resource planning (ERP) solution. [ + ]
Energy supply industry urges WA government to abandon re-merger
The energy supply industry has continued to urge the WA government not to allow the re-merger of Verve Energy and Synergy, following an Economic Regulation Authority (ERA) report that said the re-merger would not address the real drivers of rising energy costs. [ + ]
Philips appoints new ANZ Managing Director
Royal Philips Electronics has announced the recent appointment of Alan McCarthy as managing director of Philips Electronics ANZ and general manager Philips Healthcare ANZ, effective 16 January 2012. [ + ]