The 2008 Victorian NECA Excellence Awards were held on 8 August to recognise the high quality of work carried out by Victorian electrotechnology contractors.

According to environment lobbyist group Total Environment Centre (TEC), Australia’s carbon-intensive electricity industry is proposing to rip off consumers despite government support for free pollution permits and other compensation to coal-fired generators.

Over 400,000 tonnes of the ACT’s greenhouse gas emissions were abated in 2007, according to the Minister for the Environment, Water and Climate Change, Jon Stanhope.

A two-day WorkSafe Victoria campaign targeting construction sites in South Yarra has identified a large number of safety breaches.

The 2008 Excellence Awards for the electrical and communications industry in Queensland were held on 1 August, with four companies recognised for significant achievement in the last 12 months.

The NECA Queensland Apprentice Awards were held 1 August to recognise hard-working apprentices for their achievements in the electrical and communications industry.

Street lights around Canberra are being replaced with more energy-efficient globes, with more than 1700 lights replaced to date and a further 5100 lights to be replaced this year.

The number of ACT households opting for GreenPower has increased by almost 150% over the past two years, with over 10,200 customers (8% of all energy customers) using it.

The National Association of Electrical Distributors (NAED), a US-based trade association for the electrical distribution industry, reported in its 2008 Performance Analysis Report that the US electrical distribution industry’s financial performance remained solid despite current US economic conditions.

The Legrand Slide Connect G2 emergency exit sign has won the Award for Excellence in Sustainable Design at the 2008 Australian International Design Awards.

According to a recent report in The Boston Globe, the combination of increased copper prices and record housing foreclosures in the US state of Massachusetts has resulted in an ‘epidemic’ of house thefts.

Australand has appointed HPM Legrand as its preferred national supplier, with the partnership commencing 1 July 2008.

Tyco Electronics’ networking division AMP Netconnect has launched a new website — www.ampnetconnect.com.au — configured as an information-driven portal where businesses can find useful technical details.

Energy-efficient lighting provider Ilum-a-Lite has been announced as a finalist in the 2008 Telstra Business Awards in both the Social Responsibility and Micro-Business categories.

A recent report from Ovum Research analysing the current status, as well as the future, of optical fibre stated that, at the end of 2007, nearly 29 million subscribers worldwide were connected with fibre infrastructure, mostly via FTTH (fibre-to-the-home) or FTTB (fibre-to-the-building).