Schneider Electric has formed an alliance with SkillsTech Australia, Queensland’s largest trade and technician training TAFE institute, to address Australia’s engineering skills shortage. [ + ]

Winners of the NECA annual electrical industry Excellence Awards and Apprentice of the Year Awards for the ACT were announced on Friday. [ + ]

The TAFE NSW Riverina Institute has been awarded the 2012 Australian Business Award for Environmental Sustainability for adopting a number of energy-efficiency measures. [ + ]

Eaton Corporation has announced the inaugural Australia Data Centre Tech Days, to be held in Sydney on 18 and 19 September. [ + ]

An alleged thief got more than he bargained for on Tuesday night, receiving an electric shock while trying to steal copper cabling from an unoccupied Adelaide factory. [ + ]

As many as one in five energy bills are incorrect, says Energy Action, and with 13% of users being overcharged, it’s worth double-checking for discrepancies. [ + ]

Sydney-based energy efficiency and lighting solutions company enLighten Australia is expanding operations into West Australia and Victoria amid growing private and public sector uptake of LED lighting. [ + ]

Two electrical engineers have won an award for their paper on an economically feasible way to store solar energy in existing residential power networks. [ + ]

The Australian Solar Energy Society (AuSES) has been renamed as the Australian Solar Council. [ + ]

Master Electricians Australia has slammed the workplace agreement for the Victorian electrical contracting industry, calling it ‘backwards-looking’ and arguing it will increase red tape. [ + ]

Philips recently broke ground on its LED Professional Lighting Solutions manufacturing facility in Chengdu High-tech Industrial Development Zone. [ + ]

JMC Steel Group has announced that Jim Hays will now manage its electrical portfolio of products manufactured under the Wheatland Tube and Picoma brands. [ + ]

A research partnership between the University of Huddersfield and Indian scientists is aiming to improve the size and capacity of lithium batteries to overcome disruptive power cuts in northern India. [ + ]

While intelligent building design and the use of smart grids are seen as the way forward for energy efficiency and facilities management, the potential risk of malicious attacks on these systems is frequently overlooked. [ + ]

The Melbourne Water Data Centre has been awarded the Victorian iAward for Sustainability and Green IT at the recent 2012 iAwards. [ + ]