Chattanooga Electrical Engineering News Blog
Topics Related to Electronics and Electrical Engineering
Copper prices for all imported copper into the U.S. are expected to rise as much as 50% or more due to the threat of new tariffs that are expected to begin as early as August 2025.
The electric power and electronics industries will be impacted the most with paying nearly double for copper related materials needed for new construction, new assembly, power grid improvements, maintenance replacements, and necessary repairs.
DailyEnergyInsider.com: Kim Riley
“The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO)” recently awarded AEP of Ohio to partner with data center owners for “establishing financial obligations” to support electrical grid infrastructure improvements that directly accommodate them.
The ruling provides a huge win for AEP, reducing the need for other AEP rate payers to be partially expensed through gradual rate increases to fund AEP’s required energy grid upgrades for bringing new data centers online. New data center owners will be “required to pay a minimum of 85% of AEP’s energy they are subscribed to use to help cover the costs of bringing power to those facilities.”
Recent changes in U.S. policy and approved “legislation are slashing federal support for both wind and solar renewable projects.” As the tax credits and clean energy incentive benefits for constructing new green power plants are hastily eliminated, how much will the wind and solar markets decline?
This change in American policy “is likely to throw fresh uncertainty over renewable energy investments, especially as the sector struggles to keep pace with surging electricity demands across the U.S.”
Powermag.com: Steve Empedocles
Over the last several months, artificial intelligence (AI) has gained increasing popularity and remains dependent upon large server farms for processing AI’s big data requirement, at essentially, the speed of light. Planned new construction for enormous data centers are emerging nearly in every large city across the nation.
With America’s goal of becoming the “global leader in the AI race,” power utilities at both the generation and power delivery levels, struggle to maintain AI’s swift and vast desire for power. New electric generating plants and power delivery system upgrades remain behind the challenge while presenting a new dilemma: a more vulnerable electric grid with predictive power interruptions, brownouts, and potential blackouts.
By EETimes.com / DesignLines – Fabricating newer integrated circuits is becoming an increasing challenge especially in light of trying to keep up with the rising demand. “Identifying and securing tradespeople who can handle the intricate needs of chip fab construction is something that needs more attention and thought, Shari Liss, executive director of the SEMI Foundation, a nonprofit arm of SEMI that focuses on workforce development programs.”
A new chip manufacturing facility was being constructed in Arizona where the production start-up processes were delayed by nearly a year where the “Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) had to delay its production start date to sometime in 2025.”
Substations can be modelled in three-dimensions, allowing customers to see full scale in isometric views, or any views relative to positioning that they would not have had before with traditional 2D designs. Proper construction of electrical equipment in most 3D software also allows for efficient go-by production, as elements can be plugged in or removed in minutes, and entire substations can be remodeled according to revisions or to create whole new designs.
The ability to change the virtual materials of 3D models also allows for consistent and accurate representation of the substation. Instead of having a matte, grey mass in the shape of a transformer, circuit breaker, switches, concrete foundations, steel structures, insulators, and copper connection points can be expressed with proper physical dimensions of density, mass, etc., and includes appropriate colors that anyone who observes real-life substations can recognize.