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OGC Standards Officially Endorsed by Federal Geographic Data Committee

www.opengeospatial.org

The US Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) Steering Committee officially endorsed a group of OGC standards along with other standards developed externally to FGDC. These standards play an important role in enabling interoperability as part of the Geospatial Platform for GeoOneStop, place-based initiatives, and other potential future programs of the FGDC.

The Steering Committee endorsed standards from the OGC, ISO TC211 and ANSI (INCITS L1) standards development organizations.

“OGC’s interface and encoding standards are an essential part of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure. They play a key role in providing technical interoperability among geospatial systems used at all levels of government,” said Ivan DeLoatch, Executive Director of the FGDC. “We encourage government agencies to include these standards, as well as FGDC's data standards, in the language of software and data procurement documents.”

first published week of:   10/11/2010

Nadine Alameh Joins OGC as Director, Interoperability Programs

www.opengeospatial.org

The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) announced that Dr. Nadine Alameh has been appointed as a Director, Interoperability Programs for the Consortium. In her new position, Nadine plans and manages OGC Interoperability Initiatives, which include testbeds, pilots and interoperability experiments designed to develop, test and validate specifications in support of developing standards for geospatial information.

Dr. Alameh is already leading activities in the OGC Interoperability Program. In the OGC Web Services (OWS-7) Interoperability Initiative she is managing the aviation developments using the Aeronautical Information Exchange Model (AIXM) and the Weather Information Exchange Model (WXXM) in an OGC Web Services environment. Her role is also vital to the success of OGC’s leadership in the GEOSS Architecture Implementation Pilot.

first published week of:   05/10/2010

NASA and Esri Agreement Supports GIS Initiatives
ArcGIS software brings geospatial intelligence to research, exploration, and operations

www.esri.com/industries/ela/index.html

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) recently signed an enterprise license agreement (ELA) with Esri, making ArcGIS software tools available for unlimited use by authorized NASA employees and contractors. The agreement reflects NASA’s extensive and growing use of Esri’s ArcGIS software to bring geospatial intelligence to a wide variety of mission-critical efforts, from streamlining operations to enabling research and exploration.

“NASA is one of the most innovative users of geographic information system [GIS] technology,” says Esri president Jack Dangermond. “NASA has demonstrated the power of geospatial thinking by applying GIS to a wide variety of areas to solve problems and advance understanding of our world and the universe.”

GIS plays a key role in NASA’s earth science research initiatives, which involve global efforts to monitor and study the factors of climate change. Esri technology supports collaboration between NASA and other organizations worldwide by providing a strong platform for sharing and analyzing geospatial data.

“GIS increases our understanding of the world around us through the visualization of information,” says Stennis Space Center environmental GIS lead Kelly Boyd. “Esri’s ArcGIS platform provides the tools to leverage this understanding each day to inform decisions in our work.”

The NASA Langley Research Center pioneered the use of GIS in facilities management to reorganize its 800-acre campus to cut costs while fully supporting existing activities, a move that could save hundreds of millions of dollars in the coming years across NASA and other facilities.

first published week of:   11/08/2010

Newton-Evans Study of Electric Power T&D Investment
Tracking Study Finds Increased 2010 Budgets for Smart Grid-Related Automation and Transmission Categories

www.newton-evans.com

Initial findings from the January 2010 Newton-Evans global tracking study of electric power transmission and distribution investment are somewhat positive, compared with the most recent tracking study (July 2009). Each of five “smart grid” component areas, plus transmission and distribution infrastructure development, has been reported by utilities located in more than 25 countries to more likely be either “increased” or “unchanged” rather than “decreased” from January of last year. The highest percentages of officials reporting increases were in the areas of protection and control, and transmission infrastructure CAPEX budgets. The biggest decrease in CAPEX outlays for 2010 is reported to be in distribution infrastructure, based on the first 50 replies received and tabulated.

O&M budgets reflect a somewhat different story. Most categories of O&M spending were less likely to see an increase from the budgets of a year ago. Distribution appears to be the key victim, with 17% of the respondents indicating a lower figure budgeted for 2010 O&M expense or distribution network operations and engineering.

The survey also requested utility officials to provide the reasons for their CAPEX plans, looking into the rationale for change in year-over-year budget plans. In summary, smart grid initiatives were cited as being more important factors than either regulatory mandates or government stimulus programs.

first published week of:   02/01/2010

Northeast Utilities and NSTAR Merge

www.zacks.com

Northeast Utilities (NU), New England’s largest utility system operator, and NSTAR (NST), electric and natural gas distribution company, have agreed to merge in a stock-for-stock deal.  The merger will create one of the largest U.S. utility companies, with an enterprise value of $17.5 billion.

Following the merger, the combined company will retain the name Northeast Utilities. The $17.5 billion company will serve roughly 3.5 million customers, providing electric and gas energy to over half of the customers in New England. Northeast Utilities will operate six regulated electric and gas utilities in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

Northeast Utilities will have nearly 4,500 miles of electric transmission lines, 72,000 miles of electric distribution lines and 6,000 miles of gas distribution lines.

first published week of:   10/25/2010

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