Royal Philips Electronics announced on Dec. 8 that Zia Eftekhar has been appointed CEO of Philips Professional Luminaires North America, effective Jan. 1. Eftekhar will succeed Kaj den Daas, a 33-year veteran of Philips Lighting, who will continue as chairman of Philips Lighting North America and concentrate particularly on supporting the company’s legislative activities and participation in industry associations such as the National Electrical Manufacturers Association and the National Association of Electrical Distributors.
Eftekhar is a 40-year veteran of the lighting industry and currently CEO of the Philips Lightolier Group, the single largest business within Philips Professional Luminaires. Since 1992 he has been the president of Lightolier and a Director of The Genlyte Group, the publicly traded parent of Lightolier acquired by Philips in 2008. Eftekhar played a crucial role in the integration of the Genlyte businesses into Philips, and in his new role he will lead the drive to further grow Philips’ leadership position in professional lighting systems and solutions in North America.
Archive for December, 2009
Philips Names Zia Eftekhar CEO of Professional Luminaires Business for North America
Cooper Industries Opens B-Line Factory in Saudia Arabia
Cooper Industries, Houston, has opened a new manufacturing facility located in Dammam, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The new facility is Cooper’s first in region and will function as a 100 percent U.S.-owned entity operating within Saudi Arabia, which represents one of the first of its kind in this region. The new facility will significantly reduce Cooper’s delivery lead times for product orders and specification configurations in the region. Located less than 12 miles from Saudi Aramco headquarters in Dhahran, the Cooper facility will offer an extensive line of electrical products, components and engineering services for the region’s growing oil and gas market. The new 50,000-square-foot facility has been delegated as an Aramco-approved facility for Cooper B-Line produced products, which involved passing the Saudi oil company’s strenuous quality management assessments and strict Saudisation provisions. Details
Smart Grid Live: Big Apple and Garden State Now Sharing Electrical Power
Power grids in New Jersey and New York City are now talking to each other and dispatching energy more efficiently and reliably using breakthrough GE smart grid technology and capital, the company announced today. Three massive “variable frequency transformers” are converting up to 315 megawatts of electricity – enough for up to 300,000 homes – from the power system in New Jersey and feeding it to New York City. Details
ESCO ConEdison Solutions Beefs Up Texas Operations
ConEdison Solutions, an energy-service company (ESCO) that’s a subsidiary of New York’s ConEdison utility, is expanding its Texas presence to include not only the performance contracting typical of most ESCOs but also the supply of electricity to a broad range of commercial, institutional and government customers. The firm has delivered energy services to hundreds of institutional clients across the country, including universities, school systems, and local, state and federal governments. On the electricity supply side of its business, ConEdison Solutions provides competitively priced electricity supply to business and mass market customers in 11 states and the District of Columbia.
Textron promotes Greenlee’s Scott Hall to Industrial Segment President
Greenlee, Rockford, Ill., announced today that Scott Hall, who has been serving as president, has been promoted to president of Textron’s Industrial Segment. Textron is Greenlee’s parent company. The promotion was made by new Textron Chief Executive Officer Scott Donnelly as part of his newly-created Executive Leadership Team.
As president of Textron’s Industrial Segment, Hall will oversee the Textron businesses that manufacture and market branded industrial products worldwide, including E-Z-GO, Jacobsen, Greenlee and Kautex. He will continue his role as the president of Greenlee.
Lunera Lighting Expands Rep Network
Lunera Lighting, Redwood City, Calif., a manufacturer of next-generation digital LED lighting, has expanded its sales channel to include a comprehensive regional network of experienced lighting specialists. Lunera’s sales network is now nationwide and includes the following companies; The Dulanski Group (New York), Associated Lighting Representatives (N. California), Sesco Lighting (Florida), Chicago Lighting (Illinois), and Performance Lighting Systems (S. California). The Lunera website has additional information on the company’s sales network.
Border States to distribute Visible Light Solar Technologies
Border States, Fargo, N.D., continues to break new ground in the renewable energy market. Border States is the only traditional full-line electrical distributor on the list of new distributors put out today by Visible Light Solar Technologies, an Albuquerque-based manufacturer of lighting that combines solar power with LEDs to replace HID and high-pressure sodium lamps. The rest of the distributors appear to be a combination of startups, solar specialists and dealer/installers.
Lessons from backlash on CFLs
The New York Times today finds some lessons in customer responses to the varying ways utilities are encouraging customers to convert to more efficient light sources.
Schneider joins Alstom for deal to buy Areva T&D
Schneider Electric and Alstom won the right to exclusive negotiations to acquire Areva T&D, the transmission and distribution operations of French nuclear power company Areva. Schneider stands to get the medium voltage side of the business. Schneider and Alstom said they propose to jointly acquire Areva T&D for an equity value of €2.29 billion (about $3.5 billion).
According to Schneider Electric’s press release announcing the deal, Areva T&D’s activities are currently number three worldwide, with transmission moving to Alstom (around two thirds of the business) and distribution to Schneider Electric (about one third), would transform Schneider Electric and Alstom into two of this market’s global leaders with
• an upstream pole, with power generation provided by Alstom (turnkey power plants, turbines and generators), completed by transmission (very high and high voltage) transferred from Areva T&D to Alstom;
• a downstream pole, with electrical distribution of Schneider Electric reinforced by the medium voltage activities of Areva T&D.