No invitation
Stephen Lovegrove was the third choice to become permanent secretary at the Department of Energy and Climate Change. My devoted readers will recall how the prime minister rejected previous candidates proposed by the Civil Service selection board, and by energy secretary Ed Davey. His predecessor, Moira Wallace, having resigned ostensibly voluntarily, not only received a £1/2 million golden parachute; she was also found a sinecure as Provost of Oriel College, Oxford.

Electrical Review recently hosted a webinar in association with NICEIC and Elecsa. The briefing, chaired by Richard Pagett, head of external affairs and communications for Certsure, looked at changes in Part P and electrical safety in the home.

The Department for Communities and Local Government – after a long consultation with industry and contractors – amended and updated Part P of the Building Regulations earlier in 2013. Paul Collins, head of operations, NICEIC and Elecsa, and Phil Buckle, director general of the Electrical Safety Council took attendees through the key changes, looked at why electrical safety in the home is still an important issue, discussed the future of the industry and took a fresh look at NICEIC and Elecsa.

Electrical Review readers who missed the webinar can still access it by clicking here.

7 November saw Electrical Review's first PowerOn briefing at Glaziers Hall in London, organised in association with Eaton, Schneider Electric and Geist and focusing on energy efficiency in the data centre.

The day was a resounding success with presentations from Prof Ian Bitterlin of Emerson Network Power, Eddie DeSouza of Enlogic, Leo Craig of Riello UPS, Amit Singala from on365, Erika Wilson of Wilson Power Solutions and Jonas Caino of Geist Global.

Presentations explored all areas of this sector including UPS systems, renewable energy in the data centre, the use of transformers and how data centre managers can take charge of their energy management to safeguard both the future of their business and the next generation.

Copies of the presentations are available here.

Keep an eye out for details of the next PowerOn briefing from the Electrical Review team - due to take place at the end of March 2014. Please contact me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you would like to discuss speaking opportunities or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for sponsorship information.

Think again

Did you think all the people working on electricity policy at the Department of Energy and Climate Change were civil servants? That each is paid for by the public purse, and is working selflessly in the public interest?

If so, think again. In fact over the past five years there have been no less than four members of DECC staff who have been working there full time. But none of them were present at the taxpayers’ expense.

In association with Eaton and Schneider Electric, Electrical Review invites you to attend an upcoming, free, half-day seminar focusing on all aspects of power transmission and distribution in the data centre environment.

The programme aims to inform delegates how to best maximise energy efficiency in these areas and implement the right infrastructure to complement the evolution of the data centre.

The seminar will take place on 7 November 2013 from 8.30am-1pm at Glaziers Hall in London.
Hear from Schneider Electric, Emerson Network Power, Enlogic, Wilson Power Solutions, Riello, Geist and more.

In association with Eaton and Schneider Electric, Electrical Review invites you to attend an upcoming, FREE, half-day seminar focusing on all aspects of power transmission and distribution in the data centre environment.

Click here to register for this free half-day seminar.

View the micro site and conference agenda here

The programme aims to inform delegates how to best maximise energy efficiency in these areas and implement the right infrastructure to complement the evolution of the data centre.

The seminar will take place on 7 November 2013 from 8.30am-1pm at Glaziers Hall in London.

Hear from Eaton Electric,Schneider Electric, Emerson Network Power, Enlogic, Wilson Power Solutions, Riello  and more.

Working with some of the leading brands in the UK, Fusion Media provides innovative, inspiring and award winning work. Here managing director, Christopher Bassett, talks to Electrical Review about a hot topic – advertising

Advertising usually absorbs the largest part of any organisations marketing budget, so we can say that it’s one of the most important elements of promotion. Every day we are exposed to many different forms of advertising. Everywhere we look there are messages.

Entirely appropriate
With the government’s determination to encourage the fracking industry extending to introducing many quite unprecedented tax breaks, might I suggest that they set up a new Office within the Department of Energy & Climate Change to encourage this? I propose that it be called the Office of Unconventional Gas and Oil. That way, it could boast the entirely appropriate acronym of OffUGO.

Date: Thursday 26th September

Time: 2:00pm - 3:00pm (BST)

CLICK HERE to register for this FREE webinar and learn how to optimise cooling in an effective way to realise efficiency gains.

We hear the familiar mantra of companies around the world: ‘We need to do more, with less.

The BBC recently reported households in England and Wales have cut their energy use by a quarter over the last six years.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggest the average consumption of gas and electricity fell by 24.7% between 2005 and 2011.

The reduced consumption has naturally been attributed to households economising in the current financial climate, with bills rising by an average of 28%. One can only hope the raft of energy efficiency measures now available to the public played a very significant part too.

26 September will see Electrical Review host a webinar with Schneider Electric on the subject of data centre efficiency.

Those registering for Introduction of EcoAisle - a new flexible aisle containment system to improve your data centre energy efficiency, will learn how to optimise cooling in an effective way to realise efficiency gains.

In this webinar Lubos Vaclavek, business development manager, Schneider Electric, will talk about a new flexible aisle containment system – EcoAisle – that addresses the critical importance of energy efficiency in the data centre. EcoAisle is an intelligent thermal containment solution designed to increase cooling system efficiency while protecting critical IT equipment and personnel. This new, flexible aisle containment system, including Active Flow Control (AFC), can optimise airflow and thus improve energy efficiency of the cooling solution. It is adaptable to both hot and cold aisles to tackle a wide range of data centre cooling challenges.

The Active Flow Control (AFC) available in EcoAisle provides the intelligence to communicate with the cooling system the precise size of cooling airflow to match the load of IT equipment - providing reduction in fan energy over conventional cooling systems.

To register for this free webinar click here.

Surprise on the cards

There was a brief moment when my heart leapt up when I learned the name of the new chairman of the regulator Ofgem. The retirement of that very distinguished person, Lord Mogg, precipitated a long and arduous hunt for a successor. Given the most far- ranging of briefs, deliberately the head-hunters searched far and wide. A big surprise was on the cards.