Eaton Corp., Cleveland, will supply more than $2.5 million in electrical products and services to upgrade the Hartwell Dam hydroelectric power plant. Eaton obtained the contract through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ (USACE) Savannah, Ga., office. The company will design and engineer control and distribution systems, and install motor control centers, low-voltage switchboards and arc resistant low-voltage switchgear. Work is scheduled to begin April 19 and has an expected completion date of Oct. 30. Details
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Eaton Corp. nails $568.7 million UPS contract at Utah military base
Eaton Corp., Cleveland, has been awarded a contract to provide the U.S. Air Force’s Air Logistics Center (ALC), at the Hill Air Force Base, Utah, with power reliability products and complete turnkey services including engineering, project management, system integration, installation, training and onsite maintenance services. The contract could be worth as much as $568.7 million and will be divided among two suppliers over its five-year life with one single two-year option period. Eaton’s Electrical Service & Systems Division’s Federal Systems Business Unit will manage the work for the contract.
This contract represents the fourth such award by the U.S. Air Force to Eaton for uninterruptible power system (UPS) equipment and system integration. The previous contracts were awarded in 1988, 1996, and 2001 to Powerware Corporation, which was acquired by Eaton in 2004. According to an Eaton press release, it’s one of the largest UPS suppliers to the U.S. Government and has been recognized for providing the highest quality products and services to some of its most critical and classified operations in the world.
NEMA releases its first standard for LED lighting
The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) published its first standard for solid-state lighting today. “SSL 3-2010 High-Power White LED Binning for General Illumination” covers standardized categorization areas (bins) for the colors of “white” light-emitting diodes (LEDs) used for general lighting.
LED manufacturers use binning to manage variations in LED performance during mass production. The standard sets a level of expectation for color characterization that results in a reasonable number of bins for stocking purposes. When manufacturers use different binning structures and labeling, LED system integrators and assemblers face unnecessary testing, verification, qualification and validation processes, NEMA said.
IMARK joins two other distributor cooperatives to create United Cooperative Alliance of America
Electrical distributor buying/marketing group IMARK Group, Oxon Hills, Md., has joined forces with distributor cooperatives in two other vertical industries to create an umbrella group, United Cooperative Alliance of America. The venture joining IMARK with Blue Hawk in the HVACR industry and Embassy Group Ltd. in plumbing and PVF will seek to “enhance business practices across multiple verticals.”
“United Cooperative Alliance of America looks to help attract and retain the best membership for their respective verticals to enhance the cooperative model for the benefit of all its members as they move forward in a diverse and dynamic market,” the groups said in a joint press release.
Cooper adds to smart grid offering with acquisition of Eka Systems
Cooper Industries announced it will acquire Eka Systems, Germantown, Md., a manufacturer of RF wireless networking technologies for smart grid communication applications. Through its EkaNet Smart Network technology, Eka Systems provides utilities with an open-standards based wireless advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) solution that has capabilities such as automated meter reading, power outage detection, enhanced customer billing options and the ability to track and analyze usage data on a near real-time basis. Eka Systems’ product offering includes radios, wireless repeaters, meter nodes, gateways and data collection tools and operates over the widely used 900Mhz radio frequency for domestic markets and the 2.4GHz frequency for international markets.
Eka Systems will be integrated into the EAS group, the smart grid platform within Cooper’s Power Systems division. “This is the fourth acquisition we have made into our Energy Automation Solutions (EAS) business and demonstrates Cooper’s ongoing commitment to being a market leader in utility automation,” said Cooper Industries Chairman and CEO Kirk Hachigian.
Schneider buys SCADA manufacturer in Australia
Schneider Electric has agreed to buy SCADAgroup, an Australian manufacturer of remote measurement and control devices, for approximately 200 million Australian dollars (~$185 million U.S.). The move gives Schneider “a global telemetry platform to address the needs of the attractive water, waste-water and oil and gas industries for which remote monitoring and control are critical to their large and dispersed sites,” said Michel Crochon, vice-president of Schneider’s Industry business.
According to Schneider, SCADAgroup provides a complete portfolio of products and solutions for telemetry applications including:
* a SCADA software allowing consolidation and monitoring of key information on the process
* communication devices using radio for the transmission of information
* a wide offer of remote terminal units (RTU) that collect and consolidate information from the field
* wireless sensors to monitor key variables such as flow, temperature and pressure
HD Supply: Going public is a possibility
An article in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution says Joe DeAngelo, CEO, HD Supply, Atlanta, is looking at a public offering for the company by 2014-2015.
Eaton extends deal to provide Johnson Controls with drives for HVAC market
Eaton Corp., Cleveland, announced a three-year extension to its supplier agreement with Johnson Controls where it provides variable-speed drive technologies, systems and services to the heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) and pumping industries. Details
Sioux City celebrates Van Meter’s contributions to growth
The City of Sioux City, Iowa, presented Van Meter Industrial with a “Growing Sioux City” business award this week honoring the company for building a new distribution center in the city’s former stockyards, an area where the city is encouraging growth, according to the Sioux City Journal. In December, Van Meter opened a new $2 million, 39,000-square-foot facility in the stockyards, where it houses $1.5 million in inventory, a three-fold increase over the inventory in the company’s previous Sioux City location. “The new warehouse was built on a 4.2-acre tract of land where the Livestock Exchange building and “hog hotel” once stood,” said the Journal. The award was accepted by Van Meter CEO Barry Boyer. The city also planted a tree on the property in recognition of Van Meter’s contribution.
Story from Sioux City Journal
Regal Beloit buys Australian motor maker
Regal Beloit, Beloit, Wis., announced the acquisition of CMG Engineering Group Pty. Ltd (CMG), Melbourne, Australia, a manufacturer and distributor of fractional horsepower industrial motors, blower systems and industrial metal products. The deal cost Regal Beloit approximately $75.0 million in cash, the assumption of approximately $5.5 million in net liabilities and 100,000 shares of Regal Beloit Common Stock.
CMG has operations in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Malaysia, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the Middle East. The deal includes CMG’s Technology Center and certified motor and drive testing facilities in Australia. The company also distributes integral horsepower industrial motors, mechanical power transmission products, material handling equipment, electrical insulating materials, magnet wire and specialty conductors in Australia and New Zealand.