AIE European association of electrical contractors

Full articles out of AIE E-Newsletter Dec2011 > PDF-version > More infoflashes

01_Press release: 'Well attended AIE Annual event and successful Council of Delegates 2011'

The annual AIE 'Council of Delegates' and Conference was held from 16 – 18 November 2011 in Brussels at NH Hotel du Grand Sablon. This year's AIE event was highlighted by the presence of important worldwide delegations coming from overseas! The AIE had indeed the great pleasure to welcome high ranking personalities of the electrical contractor's associations of the United States of America, South-Africa, Australia and Hungary along the 3 days-event.

The IFEC-meeting – International Forum of Electrical Contractors – shared information on the current economic situation in the different parts of the world and its impact on the electrical sector. The international delegates also exchanged experience on how member companies face the current recession, the fast developing technology and the resulting opportunities and trends in the electrical sector, and the change of mind set in the sector from an installer to a planner and integrator.

IFEC forum From left to right:
James Tinslay [NECA AUSTRALIA],
Mark Mfikoe [ECA SOUTH-AFRICA],
Janne Skogberg [AIE president STUL],
Rex Ferry and John Grau [NECA United States of America] together with
Evelyne Schellekens [AIE Secretary General]

During the Strategic Forum on Thursday, the AIE reflected on how to tackle future strategies in the framework of the AIE strategic roadmap. The outstanding Conference speakers Joost Demarest [KNX], Ronnie Belmans [KU Leuven Energy Ville], André Van Poeck [University Antwerp], Stuart Gaunt [Reggiani] and Marc Coroler [Schneider Electric] gave us their Vision of the future and inspired the full audience with new energy, positive ideas and extra volt for each one's business, work and life.

Conference titles were:
> 'Young Generation KNX Projects' by Joost Demarest, Director Certification and Administration KNX
> 'The world of tomorrow – Research & Innovation' by Prof. Dr. Ir. Ronnie Belmans, "Honorary Chairman Board of Directors Elia, K.U.Leuven-EnergyVille"
> 'The economic and financial crisis, the euro and the outlook for the world economy by Prof. Dr. André Van Poeck, Professor of macro- and financial economics, Department of Economics, University of Antwerp.
> 'Everything you always wanted to know about LED's' by Mr. Stuart Gaunt, Technical Manager at Reggiani UK
> 'The Key drivers of the future: taking technology to new levels' by Mr. Marc Coroler, Central Europe Senior Vice -President, Schneider Electric

The well attended AIE Statutory meeting on Friday afternoon closed the business sessions in a good family spirit followed by a Gala dinner at the enchanting 'Chateau St-Anne' in Brussels!

The next Council of Delegates will be hosted in Finland, Helsinki from the 4th until the 7th of July 2012.

>More info on AIE and the Council: info@aie.eu

02_European news [Directives / Projects]

02-01 ENERGY EFFICIENCY: Difficult energy efficiency Directive pushed back by Member States to 2012

Targets proposed in the EU’s draft energy efficiency directive (EED) are being contested by Member states, with Britain and the Netherlands pushing for some provisions to be deleted entirely, AIE has learned at the informative session on the EED at the European Parliament on 17 November last.

Buildings’ target
One headline figure in the original directive – a mandatory 3% annual public buildings renovation rate – has been slated for deletion in one of the latest EU draft. Obviously the amendment had been made because of “the current budgetary restraints of member states.”

Buildings account for 40% of the Europe's primary energy consumption and 36% of the CO2 emissions. But only public buildings were included in the original directive and opt-outs were given to structures under 250 square meters, such as post offices, and social housing. These are significant because publicly owned properties represent 12% of Europe’s total housing stock. The revision document proposes that this opt-out be extended to buildings under 500 square meters.
Energy efficiency offers excellent long-term returns, but EU states expressed concerns about the original directive’s potential short-term costs. Britain complained that the building renovation proposals were “likely to result in considerable extra expenditure for member states on works which are not always cost-effective.”

Energy savings’ target
Germany, backed by the Netherlands, is hostile to the directive’s flagship 1.5% savings target for energy companies. The Netherlands even proposed a “deletion” of the directive’s flagship 1.5% savings target for energy companies arguing Member states should be able to decide for themselves on the level of energy efficiency measures needed.

Meanwhile, other countries such as Italy, France and Denmark, which already have supplier-side obligations, support the proposed energy savings scheme if some changes are introduced.

Poland, which currently holds the six-month rotating EU presidency, presented a progress report on the draft energy efficiency directive at a meeting of the Energy Council on Thursday 24 November. The EU energy ministers reiterated their opposition to binding energy savings targets leaving a political agreement for the incoming Danish presidency in the first half of 2012.

The progress report centered around the three targets contained in the draft energy efficiency directive

> A national obligation for energy companies to reduce consumption among "final consumers" by 1.5% annually;
> A 3% refurbishment target for public buildings;
> Setting up a "national heating and cooling plan" to promote heat and power co-generation as well as renewable energy in heating and cooling.

Next steps:

> Mid-Dec. 2011: New draft energy efficiency text to be discussed in a Council working group.
>1 Jan. 2012: Denmark takes over presidency of the EU.
> Jan.-Feb. 2012: First discussions on the directive between member states.

> Proposal for an Energy efficiency Directive available here
> AIE position paper available here

02-02 EU PROJECT QUALI’ CERT: FINAL CONFERENCE ON 8.12.2011

8^th December 2011 – 2pm / 6pm Hotel Silken Berlaymont
11-19, Boulevard Charlemagne, 1000 Brussels

Improving energy performance of buildings - qualifying installers of small RES systems

The aim of this project is to help Member States setting up their national certification scheme or equivalent qualification scheme for installers of small-scale renewable energy systems, a requirement introduced by article 14 of the Directive. To do so, the QualiCert team (including CEETB) developed a manual of recommendations for Member States while drafting their schemes.

These recommendations have been disseminated to the 5 countries participating in the project: Austria, France, Greece, Italy and Poland. This conference will be the occasion to present the project outcomes, their impact at national levels as well as European level and its interactions with other European projects, such as INSTALL+RES presented by Evelyne Schellekens, AIE.

> For more information on QualiCert: www.qualicert-project.eu
> The agenda of the final conference can be downloaded via http://www.aie.eu/aie/page/Other_European_Events

03_ Sector related news

03-01 NORMAPME: Strengthening cooperation with European SME associations

NORMAPME recently signed new cooperation agreements with the following European associations:

> AIE (European Association of Electrical Contractors): http://www.aie.eu

> CLECAT (European Association for Forwarding, Transport, Logistic and Customs Service): http://www.clecat.org

> CECIMO (European Association of the Machine Tool Industries): http://www.cecimo.eu

> EURATEX (The European Apparel and Textile Confederation): http://www.euratex.org/

What is a cooperation agreement?

Aside from a membership, in terms of collaborative patterns NORMAPME also provides a cooperation agreement to interested stakeholders representing SMEs. The cooperation agreement does not request any financial contribution.

The cooperation agreement is conceived as an option to address collaboration with industry associations and sector organizations in general. Within the scope of a cooperation agreement we offer information on standardization issues, consultation on draft standardization mandates and access to our internal fora like NORMAPME mirror committees and Extranet for free. The cooperation agreement also offers the mutual benefit to better promote each others’ collaboration.

> For more information on Normapme-members: http://www.normapme.eu/en/page/27/our-members
> The official press-release can be downloaded from the AIE website: http://www.aie.eu/aie/page/Press_Release

03-02 PV Technology Platform Newsletter info: Working Group 2 – Welcomes its new chair

WG2 is happy to welcome its new chair, Mrs. Evelyne Schellekens, Secretary General of the European Association of electrical contractors (AIE). She is already an active member of WG2 and leader of Task Force 3-Education, but now she will take over an even bigger responsibility, the chair from Antonio Lumicisi who has been leading the activities of WG2 for the last two years.

Special thanks go to Mr. Lumicisi for his work and leadership. He will remain a valuable member of the WG2 and the PV Platform. Read the full article within the PVTP Newsletter: http://www.eupvplatform.org/fileadmin/Documents/Newsletters/NL_November2011/EUPVTP_Newsletter_Nov2011_Public_Fin.pdf

03-03 Integrating E-vehicles into modern infrastructure – Orgalime

As you know, hybrid and electric vehicles have a high potential to help meeting EU policy targets and enable individual mobility. The AIE’s General Secretary, Evelyne Schellekens attended a Showcase Event in Brussels on 22^nd November 2011 organized by Orgalime (the European Engineering Industries Association) which illustrated and emphasized the important role of the electrical industry when “Integrating e-vehicles into modern infrastructure”. Beyond the showcase exhibition of technologies around the e-car, its charging and support infrastructure, the workshop debated practical lessons learnt from ongoing e-mobility projects and looked into the future.

During the showcase, Evelyne Schellekens addressed the issue of safety of electrical installations with several representatives and the importance to call upon professional electrical installers for the installation of the infrastructure and charging points which was unanimously confirmed. Actually this is yet included in the electrical industry’s position paper which states on page 7 & 8:

‘As present EU regulations for electrical installations in buildings have brought electric safety to a very high level they must not be undermined by the introduction of e-vehicles. Charging installations will need to be in conformity with best industry practices in order to ensure safety of life and property. Orgalime therefore recommends that installations should be carried out by professionals….

…Initiatives to provide and work out national codes of practice and guidance for the installation of e-vehicle charging points by electrical installers should be supported to ensure the safety of e-vehicles charging installations which are part of the electrical infrastructure in homes and buildings’.

Read Orgalime’s full position paper: http://www.orgalime.org/Pdf/PP_Integrating_E-vehicles_into_modern_%20infrastructures_Nov11.pdf

03-04 PV Cycle: Collection & recycling of 1.000 tons of PV modules in Europe

In early October, PV CYCLE reached its first 1,020 tonnes of end-of-life modules collected for recycling since the only Europe-wide programme of its kind became operational in June 2010. In addition to the more than one thousand tonnes that entered the Collective Scheme, the current Individual System, which is also under the umbrella of PV CYCLE, has collected and processed 1,900 tonnes in the same period. PV CYCLE’s System is now well-prepared for larger volumes as the industry expands to meet the demand for renewable energy.

A photovoltaic (PV) industry-led effort, PV CYCLE is capable of processing PV modules disposed of in any country of the European Union and the EFTA (Switzerland, Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland).

“Collecting the first 1,020 tonnes marks a very important milestone for PV CYCLE in particular and for the entire European photovoltaic industry in general,” explains PV CYCLE’s Managing Director, Mr Jan Clyncke. “Having a product-lifespan of over 30 years we expect significant volumes of end-of life photovoltaic modules entering the system in the coming years. The work being done today and the success of the system so far is the best guarantee for the entire PV value-chain to be able to adequately process any modules disposed of in the near future.’’

The largest part of the PV modules collected, almost 45%, comes from Europe’s solar power leader, Germany, followed by Spain, Italy, Poland, Belgium and France. After collection, the modules are taken by PV CYCLE to partner recycling plants to be processed. For silicon-based PV Modules, the current recycling partners with an environmentally sound treatment and the highest yields are based in Germany, Belgium and Spain; for non-silicon based PV modules the partners are based in Germany and Belgium.
Free of charge, and entirely financed by manufacturers and importers, this system is open to anyone who would like to dispose of photovoltaic modules from our member´s brands while special conditions may apply for non-members modules. For detailed information about how PV CYCLE’s system works, please click here or visit www.pvcycle.org

04_ Future events

04-01 CYE2012: The CYE-logo has a good reason to smile! Basel:13-18 April 2012 - Program – www.aie-cye.eu

We are delighted to announce you the following 10 participating countries:

The program [13-17 april] for nexts years‘ competition can be downloaded at:http://www.aie-cye.eu/A_first_glimpse

By the end of January 2012 the official registration should be completed, announcing the names of candidates and experts. Mr. Hans-Peter In-Albon, Director of VSEI and the central committee of VSEI has granted the next CYE competition in Basel and officially takes the organization in hand, in tight collaboration with the Task Force CYE. In spirit of the VSEI formation, the media presence and the marketing for this competition should have a high significance in members’ own available communication tools.

The European Competition is an excellent tool to promote our profession and our young future electricians competing in local and national competitions, deserve to give the best of themselves on a European platform. These youngsters are our main concern during the competition.

04-02 LIGHT + BUILDING 2012: Get in the mood...

The colleagues of Light+Building have put together the highlights of the last event at:
>http://light-building.messefrankfurt.com/frankfurt/en/besucher/willkommen.html

05_ Publications | Upcoming events

05-01 Key Aspects of LEDs – Seeing the lighting through the LED MAZE –

A Questions and Answers brochure assembled by the AIE Technical Task Force in cooperation with Reggiani, Orlight and Lutron. This brochure explaines the when and why usage of LED lamps and the key benefits of LED.
The extra Key Factsheet on LED lighting explains in 4 steps why LED is (or at least should be) the future.
This brochure is available in hard copy and soft version at info@aie.eu and downloadable at the AIE library: http://issuu.com/aie_eur_electrical_contractors

05-02 BPIE – Europe’s Buildings under the microscope

This country by country review of the energy performance of buildings is a very interesting survey that wants to encourage a wider debate on how stakeholders in the building sector can collaborate to transform the European Building stock into a highly efficient living and working environment which enables society to become more sustainable, in all aspects of the word’s meaning.
To state it in Buildings Performance Institute Europe’s [BPIE] executive Directors’ Oliver Rapf words: ‘BPIE proactively seeks dialogue with the many interested parties, and is looking forward to receiving your reaction.

> Hard copies are available at the AIE secretariat or can be obtained via BPIE directly: www.bpie.eu

05-03 Check Upcoming events and AIE meetings via: http://www.aie.eu/aie/page/Events

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