Insights Magazine

Hawkins Electric Service, Inc., the award-winning, family-owned regional electrical contracting firm that helped pioneer the introduction of electrical service in the Washington, D.C. area, is celebrating its 100th year in business in 2018.
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Our world is rapidly changing. Deployment of more renewable energy across the globe is reinventing the way we produce and transmit power and, as a result, making our cities smarter. The incredible proliferation of information technology is permeating all types of equipment and applications. The confluence of these megatrends is creating the new energy Internet around us.
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The new era of electrification is introducing an entire suite of electronic products, sensors, and connected devices that are susceptible to damage from electrical surges, also called transients: electric vehicles are replacing internal combustion engines; space and water heating in buildings can be converted to heat pumps or electric resistance heating; indoor agriculture may boost demand for lighting and HVAC equipment, which may necessitate grid upgrades; and industrial heating and automation can both increase electricity demand.
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With new advancements in technology happening every single day, our lives are being shaped by new apps and devices that we never knew we needed until we used them once and asked, “How on earth did I live without this?” Technology and culture is evolving so fast that it has become difficult to try and wrap our heads around the speed of change that we are experiencing every day.
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There is an evolutionary cycle of innovation and disruption: technology advances, innovation occurs, processes adapt, and perceptions shift. Innovation is not limited; it is truly boundless. A new tool or material can only improve the outcome or system performance to the extent that the system allows. Innovation creates a new path, leads to new processes, and ultimately drives the Winds of Change (NRC, 2009, Page 20).
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As contractors know, the job clock is always ticking. Driving jobsite efficiency and productivity gains is essential to profitability and competitiveness.
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The technology for electric vehicles (EV) is continuing to improve with numerous cars that can now travel over 200 miles per charge and a dizzying array of over 50 new models hitting the market in the next year. The electric car has arrived. But the industry still faces a challenge – how to build the electrical infrastructure to make fueling EVs convenient and cost-effective.
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Electrical safety continues to dominate industry conversations as professionals across the country seek opportunities to improve their understanding of current safety trends and brush up on best practices for ensuring safety in both the products they purchase and their installation...
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The single-line diagram (SLD) is an essential tool for the electrical professional that all too often gets overlooked at the end of the project. Budgets get spent on many things and it may be easy for someone, who doesn’t understand the importance of this document for electrical safety, to put off updating the single-line diagrams. This could be an opportunity for the electrical contractor to own and maintain this valuable resource. The challenge is conveying the value proposition to the right people to ensure the money is in the budget to fund the maintenance of this document. Let’s take time here to help build the safety case for supporting the single-line diagram.
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Since the 1960s, receptacles and circuit breakers with GFCI technology have become standard in homes to protect occupants from electric shock. Required by the NEC for outlets located in certain wet or damp locations, such as near bathroom sinks, kitchen countertops, bathtubs, and showers, GFCI receptacles monitor variations in the electrical current flowing through the line. In instances where a person accidentally becomes part of an electrical circuit, a GFCI receptacle would immediately trip, preventing electrical current from going through a person on its way to ground. It’s a technology that can save lives.
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