- Coming up on this week's news, the trade is warned about so-called metre menaces whose bypass wiring can trick electricians into working on live circuits. The much-criticized MCS certification scheme is set to be relaunched. And did a simple loose cable cause the most spectacular bridge collapse in recent history. Welcome to Electrical News Weekly, in association with Solar Trade Sales, your easy one-stop shop for all things solar. Make sure you click the link in the show notes to access their online store. Whether you're listening in the van, onsite or down at the wholesale counter, I'm Joe Robinson and I've been through the best of the electrical industry news to save you the trouble. And if you think you've spotted the two words that I've been challenged to slip into this week's show, comment with them below for the chance to win a prize. The trade is being warned this week about the increasing number of householders who secretly bypass their electricity metres and put electricians' lives at risk. The Stay Energy Safe service, which is operated by Crimestoppers, says that it has seen a 48% rise in suspicions of energy theft in the last few years. It estimates that there are 250,000 incidents which go unreported every year, representing a clear and present danger to installers. In an experience in Fife earlier this summer, an electrical contractor who went to fit an EV charger received a serious electric shock from in distribution board, despite turning off the isolator. Another firm reports a bypassing in which the main switch turned off the neutral but not the line. The neutral was shared and difficult to find without a single point contact phase tester. The electrician at the property followed the firm's safe isolation procedures, which his employer reckons saved his life. The company said that most examples of energy extraction it sees involve either bypassing the metre completely or linking out terminal one and four. Scottish electrical contractors organisation SELECT has now published a list of 10 telltale signs of tampering, which it says electricians should watch out for. They include scratch, burn, or black carbonization marks on switch gear and connections, exposed copper wiring, missing or fake security seals and stub joints in supply cables. For credit metres, check for holes in the casing and negative monetary values on the display. Kristina Jusyte of Crimestoppers now wants the trade to send her examples of metre interference, which they have come across. She wants to build an accurate picture of the issue. I've popped her contact details in the show notes. Also share your story with us so we can warn your colleagues in the trade. And speaking of testing things for safety, make sure you check out our brand new free training package on the subject of continuity testing that we've made in association with TIS. It's been designed to help you increase your understanding of the subject no matter where you are in your electrical journey. So click the link in the show notes to check that out. In other news, the much-criticized Microgeneration Certification Scheme looks set for a major revamp. The MCS hit the headlines late last year after Octopus Energy said that owners of solar panels can sell their electricity to it, even if the installer isn't MCS certified. The organisation also garnered negative headlines when it was revealed that the chief executive had no micro generation in his own home. Chief executive Ian Rippin told BBC Radio that he has neither a heat pump nor solar panels despite being in the job for five years at the time. Now head of Scheme Alex Hughes is promising a new MCS in the new year. She says the redeveloped arrangement will launch in January and will be a significant change for the small-scale renewables sector. She says the plan will drive up standards and improve consumer protection. Hughes is set to answer questions from installers on the changes in an online forum next month. I've put a link to the event in the show notes. A big thanks to our correspondent Sergio Fernandez from the Costa del Watford for the heads up on that story. And believe it or not, we've also got a new free training package to help you with the CPD on this subject as well, this time from ENW sponsors and friends of the show Sunsynk. Start your journey into solar at the link in the show notes. A coroner is this week calling for more training for the trade on the use of scissor lifts. It follows the tragic case of electrician Jason Holland, who died after an incident at the huge Mercia Park development in Leicestershire. While installing cables at the site, Holland became entrapped between a scissor lift and ladder racking at a height of around 20 metres. He suffered a cardiac arrest, which resulted in an unsurvivable brain injury and he died later at the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham. An investigation into the accident found that the main contractor, staff and subcontractors spent around 20 minutes getting Holland to the ground safely. They were helped by a worker who had climbed from a cherry picker onto the scissor lift platform. Holland then had to be taken down from the 2.5-meter-high scissor lift platform before he could be taken to hospital in an ambulance. Rutland and North Leicestershire coroner Fiona Butler said that not one of the site's men that she had heard from had ever received practical training for an at-height rescue. This was despite the fact that they had cards from the International Powered Access Federation. She says they all told her that they had received theory-based training only. Butler said that she took evidence that time is of the essence in these types of accidents. She added that in a suspension from a harness scenario, not Holland's case, five to 15 minutes could represent the difference between life or death. She also put on the record her concern that practical rescue drills are not part of the standard competence training for electricians and others using the machines. Butler has now written to the federation asking them to explain the action they will take to prevent future deaths in this area. Still in the courts, an electrician who used COVID bounce back loans to pay off personal debts has been ordered to repay 56,000 pounds or go to jail. The two loans, worth a combined 100,000 pounds, should only have been used for the benefit of the electrical installation business. But Stanislav Genadiev used the funds to buy groceries and designer clothing. Now Snaresbrook Crown Court has ordered Genadiev of Faircross Avenue, Romford to pay back 56,000 pounds in the next three months or go to jail for 18 months. He would still have to repay the money if he went to prison. He probably needs to apologise, but as the old saying goes, there are three things that are hard to say:"I was wrong, I need help and Worcestershire sauce. Worcestershire. Worcestershire, Worcestershire sauce. In project news, a major lighting upgrade has just been completed at St Thomas' Hospital in London. But crucially, instead of replacing the lights, the fluorescent tubes and ballasts in each luminaire were replaced by an LED module on a gear tray. The NHS wanted to keep the lights in place because disturbing the metal-integrated ceiling in the hospital's wards would've been disruptive to patients. Trojan Lighting Solutions, who did the work, used the opportunity to add tiny wireless nodes to lights. These can be used to dim and turn the lights off. The MyMesh nodes also meant that the emergency lighting testing and reporting could be automated, saving work, which was occupying the time of two full-time members of the facilities team. To quote LED Cool J,"That project is something like a phenomenon." In product news this week, the big launch is from Fluke. The brand has just launched an installation tester, which it says can halve the time that electricians spend producing reports. The 1670 series multifunction installation tester also allows tests to be carried out up to 30% faster. It comes in three models for industrial, commercial and residential applications. A programmable auto test function allows you to run entire automatic installation test sequences at the touch of a button. Results will no longer need to be recorded during testing and then entered manually into a computer. Instead, the tester's Bluetooth connection links test results to the circuit or point under test. Electricians will also save time by not having to return to a site because they have not taken key measurements or the results are incorrect. The installation tester shows the operator instantly on site if any tests have been missed. And at the same time, automatic measurement validation compares test results to a built-in standards reference, delivering an immediate visual pass or fail indication on the screen. The display includes a keyboard, so there's no need for additional devices or laptops to enter notes or edit details. You connect it to your laptop or pad using Fluke's Connect software. Inspection reports can be previewed in the field while certain inspection invoices can also be generated on site. We hope to get our mitts on a 1617 for a bench test in the coming weeks. So watch this space. And finally, did a loose cable result in the most spectacular bridge collapse in recent history? Investigators probing the cause of a huge cargo ship crashing into Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge have discovered a loose cable on the vessel. They believe it could have led to serious electrical issues on the ship, which lost power and veered off course before striking the 1.6-mile-long structure. When disconnected, the cable triggered an electrical blackout on the ship, similar to that which happened on that fateful night in March. The cable problem was highlighted in documents released by the National Transportation Safety Board. However, a spokesperson for the board declined to comment further. And just a reminder that Team eFIXX will be at the Solar & Storage Live show this week at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham. We're hanging out on the Sunsynk stand on Tuesday the 24th of September and Wednesday the 25th and the VTech stand on Thursday the 26th. So come along and say hello. All the team will be wearing our Natty red polo shirts. And our usual reminder that we're in the market for your stories, your projects, and your recommendations as we'd like to share them with the wider eFIXX community. In September, we're focusing on commercial lighting, tools and workwear and of course, the Safer September campaign. Send us pictures of your instals or let us know if you've come across any new kit that's making your job easier. Now, just before we get to your favourite bit of the show where I reveal last week's challenge words and winners, we want to thank our premium partners. We couldn't make the news without you. First up, it's the people who've created the Swiss Army Knife of solar inverters, along with all-weather batteries, very much the Boy Scouts of the solar industry, it's Sunsynk. Up next, they're resolving ventilation problems one property at a time, offering a simplistic ventilation design service and high-quality products made right here in the UK, breathing fresh air into your home, it's EnviroVent. And do you want a no-fuss lighting solution that's packed with value? Then try the EcoLink range from Signify, combining value for money with top-end Signify quality. Now a business that will literally bend over backwards to give you first-class service on the trade-only supply of signal reception and distribution, custom instal, home automation and security products for all residential and commercial projects, it's Alltrade. The best thing to come out of Yorkshire since stainless steel, the home of EV-Ultra and other groundbreaking and quality products, it's Doncaster Cables. With an incredible range of equipment from EV charge points through industrial sockets and switches to kit for explosive areas, plus they supplied gear for a Campari factory, so they'll always have a place in my heart, it's SCAME. Big thanks to you all. We really appreciate your ongoing support for the news. If you think you know the words I've smuggled into this week's show, pop your guess into the comments. We'll take all the correct guesses and select one at random to be the winner of an eFIXX goodie bag prize. Answers submitted after about lunchtime on the Thursday after release will not be entered into the draw. Now let's reveal the winners of last week's challenge word competition. Last week's words were mansplaining and cafeteria. And the winner we plucked from our digital hat was repeat winner, hashtagger8694. So well done to you again. Make sure you click the get involved link in the show notes to claim your prize. Thanks for listening to this episode of Electrical News Weekly in association with Solar Trade Sales, your easy one-stop shop for all things solar. Make sure you subscribe to receive the next update. Thanks for listening and until next time, have a great week. Stay safe out there. And remember, there's no such thing as a torque-calibrated arm.