The National Electrical and Communications Association (NECA) has issued a warning that under no circumstances should electrical apprentices ever undertake live electrical work nor work without suitable supervision. [ + ]

According to a release from Master Electricans Australia, prior to the mid-1980s Australia was one of the highest users of asbestos in the world. Today, Australia has one of the highest rates of asbestos-related disease in the world. [ + ]

Master Electricians Australia (MEA) has called on the Queensland Government to restrict power price rises for off-peak energy tariffs, in order to ease pressure on the grid, reduce the amount of investment needed and cut costs to consumers. [ + ]

Securing funding for one of Australia’s largest geothermal projects and establishing Perth as one of the world’s top five ‘geothermal cities’ were celebrated as some of the major achievements of the Western Australian Geothermal Centre of Excellence (WAGCOE) at its conclusion last week. [ + ]

GE’s Power Conversion business was instrumental in bringing Australia’s largest seawater desalination plant into operation by providing technology that delivers a rainfall independent water supply to complement catchments and storages in the area around Melbourne. [ + ]

Dr Lan Lam, the primary inventor of the UltraBattery, and his team took the world’s 150 year-old battery technology and revolutionised it in the laboratories of CSIRO. [ + ]

For the twelfth year running, CeBIT Australia returns to the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre from 28-30 May 2013 as the number one business technology event of the Asia-Pacific business calendar. [ + ]

Making new tracks, Rockwell Automation on Tour will visit multiple locations in both metropolitan and regional centres around Australia. The free educational workshop series allows attendees from all industries to explore the latest aspects of the company’s Integrated Architecture approach to plantwide control and information systems. [ + ]

Major construction projects in Queensland are predicted to decline by more than $7.5 billion, the President of the Queensland Major Contractors Association has said. [ + ]

Australian-produced ChargeIQ electric vehicle charger has been given the ‘green light’ by a Victorian Electric Vehicle Trial participant, with the innovation receiving high points for user friendliness, flexibility, cost savings and sustainability. [ + ]

AusGrid is inviting interested parties to the latest Smart Grid, Smart City seminar, for an update on the Rooftop Solar Trial. [ + ]

Energy Efficiency Council members have elected two new directors, Rob Thomson, Group General Manager at Energetics and Paul Troughton, Manager of Regulatory Affairs at EnerNOC. [ + ]

Master Electricians Australia has called on insurance companies to “buy local” when they are sourcing contractors for flood repair work in Bundaberg and other parts of regional Queensland. [ + ]

Robotic technology from Oxford University that enables a car to ‘drive itself’ for stretches of a route has been shown driving a Nissan Leaf electric car. The new car gives a glimpse of what the driver’s experience of an auto drive-enabled car of the future might be like: the technology is controlled from an iPad on the dashboard that flashes up a prompt offering the driver the option of the car taking over for a portion of a familiar route - touching the screen then switches to ‘auto drive’ where the robotic system takes over. [ + ]

EMSc (UK) Ltd, manufacturer of the Powerstar voltage optimisation system, recently hosted Arthur Savidis, newly appointed sales engineer to the companies Australia branch - EMSc (Australia) Pty Ltd. [ + ]