Coming up on this week's news investigators reveal how an engineer died while live working on board  a luxury super yacht MCS unveils the long awaited changes to its certification process and thieves  dig up copper cables days before the opening ceremony of a showpiece EV charging station  welcome to Electrical News Weekly this week at normal speed Following last week's backlash  and the first episode to be shot in our brand new studio for those of you watching the video version  of the podcast and wondering why the lighting is so terrible in here it's because we haven't sorted  out the light in here yet also many apologies to anyone who was temporarily crestfallen at my  little joke about it being the last ever episode of the news last week we're not going anywhere  folks so whether you're listening in the van on site 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 investigators say they now know the  backstory to how an engineer was electrocuted on board a British super yacht Father-of-two  Roy Temme from Southampton died on board the Isle of Man-registered boat, the Baton Rouge,  last February the investigation team from the UK Marine accident investigation Branch say  that the sequence of events began on the evening of February the 22nd that night the luxury vessel  worth some £48 million suddenly went dark power was quickly restored but a ventilation damper  in the engine room failed to reset this device automatically closes the air duct to prevent the  spread of fire it's believed that Temme then went below decks in an attempt to replace the  damper's actuator investigators say he started work without isolating the electrical supply it  appears he didn't want to restrict The Vessel to emergency power only this would have meant  that functions such as non-critical lighting air conditioning and entertainment systems shutting  down investigators say that at some stage the experienced engineer came into contact with live  230 volts ac conductors while working on the dampers electric circuit he was electrocuted  and suffered a massive heart attack despite efforts to resuscitate him his heart could  not be restarted and he was pronounced dead in hospital the investigators say that Temme didn't  have a permit to work for electrical maintenance the 63 meter Baton Rouge has now been put up for  sale by its French billionaire owner Martin Bouygues boss of the engineering group of the  same name it's understood he was not on the yacht at the time of the incident once again the team  here at eFIXX would like to extend our sincerest condolences to the friends and family of Mr Temme  just a tragic tragic accident in other news the microgeneration certification scheme has unveiled  its major shakeup this week it's responding to criticism in the trade that it's too bureaucratic  the MCS says it wants to cut paperwork and focus on evidence of quality installations for customers  first off the requirement to be a member of a consumer code has been dropped another major  change is that the frequency of Assessments will change this will now depend on what MCS  is calling your risk of non-compliance that's because as an MCS certified installer you must  also be a member of a certification body such as Napit these certification bodies conduct  regular assessments to ensure that members can competently install Technologies such as solar  panels and battery packs installers whose MCS operations are relatively simple and who have  a number of satisfied customers and few complaints will be rewarded with fewer assessments installers  with more complex operations such as those involving lots of subcontractors and whose  projects are found to be poor will be assessed more often MCS says it will also specify the  content of each rating rather than leave it to individual inspectors there will also be a new  requirement for a named technical supervisor for every job this replaces the current requirement  for a nominated technical person the technical supervisor will be the person who's qualified  to sign off a completed job the MCS has now published a host of the new documents on its  website these include a booklet on install or operating requirements and one on Conformity  assessment guidelines to help you comply there are also eight installation standards for solar  heat pumps batteries and wind turbines and six pre-sale documents to give to customers  the MCS says you'll need to carry on with your current requirements until a notification body  gives you the option to transfer this includes maintaining membership of a consumer code for now  the transition is expected to roll on throughout 2025 and into next year still on certification a  government Watchdog has slammed a local authority over the electrical testing of its properties the  regulator of social housing hit out at Portsmouth City Council after it found that 85% of its  homes haven't had an electrical condition test certificate for over 5 years a number of those are  in high-risk communal blocks on top of the EICR failures the probe found that fewer than 40% of  the Portsmouth Council homes had been surveyed within the past 5 years more than a third had  been surveyed more than 10 years ago and nearly 10% had no record at all the regulator of social  housings Kate Dodsworth said that the health and safety of tenants is non-negotiable responding  Darren Sanders of Portsmouth Council said that the local Authority was aware that there was room for  improvement to meet the new regulator standards he said the council accepted the findings of the  regulator and would work on constructively to fix the problems meanwhile in Scotland  the unveiling of a showpiece EV charging station in Paisley has had to be postponed after thieves  dug up the copper cables days before the opening ceremony osprey's charging Network's high power  hub was promoted by the firm as a state-of-the-art installation but an organised gang operating under  the cover of Darkness managed to dig up and cut off a section of a major electrical cable  it's expected to be sold for its copper on the illegal Market Lewis Gardiner operations director  at Osprey said the company had CCTV footage of the incident at Paisley which it's provided to  the police the company said it would be pressing for a prosecution in relation to the incident  the crime comes at the same time as Chancellor Rachel Reeves announces a £65 million boost for  on Street charging unusually she's investing most of the money in private provider Connected Curb  the money will go on a dramatic expansion of its Network turning to Circuit safety now and Scottish  trade body select has just released a video on neutral current diversions neutral current  diversions or NCDs are a Hot Topic in the trade right now a neutral current diversion can happen  in the event of the loss of a protective Earth neutral conductor on a TNCS electrical supply the  installation then loses its intended connection to neutral and Earth the current is diverted and  will find its way back to the supply Transformer any way it can one common route is through shared  metallic pipe work such as gas and water pipes as you can imagine these routes can be very dangerous  the 20-minute video produced in partnership with the IET shows you how to test for it and how to  deal with it if discovered select technical expert Bob Cairney said that ncds constitute an unknown  risk and have huge safety implications I've put a link to the video in the show notes in product  news this week lighting control giant Lutron has launched no fewer than three major Innovations  first up is Radio Ra 3 a system for high-end residential applications it uses the company's  proprietary radio frequency to control lights and blinds the company says it's made installation  Easier by combining the Wi-Fi repeater and the bridge into a single device I am a big fan of  the Ra 2 system and used it for years in my own home so I'm looking forward to seeing what the Ra  3 is capable of also out this week is the V keypad which features backlighting and weighted buttons  it's designed to integrate smoothly with the radio Ra 3 finally the brand has launched its own LED  strip the Lumaris tape is colour changeable to either red green or blue as well as white tuning  it dims down to 0.1% which is just incredible and again is designed to integrate seamlessly  with the other kit next next week in the product slot of the news we're going to round up the most  Innovative emergency lighting kit for installers the following week we'll be focusing on circuit  protection so if there's anything we shouldn't Miss for either of those subjects get in touch  directly or via the comments before we go a couple of dates for your diary the newly opened Basildon  branch of HDM solar wholesale is holding an open day on Friday the 21st of February it's inviting  electricians to come and take a look at the facilities and check out the latest kit top brands  including Solix Sunsynk give energy and Growatt will be showing on their latest kit there'll  also be experts if you need technical advice on a project from a proper geek and I mean that as  a compliment I've put a link to the invite in the show notes the event runs from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00  p.m. also a reminder that voting is now open in LEW Electrical Distributors Love Your Apprentice  competition this contest celebrates the talented young people coming into the trade entrants have  been asked to post creative and inventive images of themselves on the tools doing what they do  best all you've got to do is give them a like on Facebook whoever gets the most likes wins a  premium CK electrician toolkit so show him some love our dear beloved Apprentice Tool Time Rick  is of course the Benchmark against which all are marked here he is doing what he does best voting  starts today the 10th of February and ends on Monday the 17th of February the link as ever is in  the show notes 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 so send us pictures  of your installs or let us know if you've come across any new kit that's making your job easier  and 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 they're 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 and speaking  of solar with manufacturing powered by a massive 250 megawatt solar PV array they're literally the  greenest test instrument maker in Europe both physically and ethically it's KPS now are you  a bit of a control freak motor control that is if with huge stocks and excellent service check out  Crompton Controls as they said to me in a recent conversation if we don't have it then we can build  it with their new award winning Lumo consumer unit and offering Complete product support from their  highly trained team it's CPN Cudis and the best thing to come out of Yorkshire in stainless steel  the home of EV Ultra and other groundbreaking and quality products it's Doncaster Cables click  the links in the show notes to find out more about these great Brands big thanks to you all we really  appreciate your ongoing support for the news if you think you know the words that 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 faithful and traitor the  challenge word committee clearly enjoying the Claudia Winkleman BBC show at the moment for  our video viewers here's a picture of the time I met her anyway the person to be selected from  our electronic hat this week was Edward Bretherton who won this competition once before about a year  ago now I think so well done to you Edward 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 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