Hubbell’s Nick Moraitis, VP & General Manager (Hubbell Connectors, Grounding & Tooling) welcomes attendees to Manchester, NH for the annual conference.

NFPA 70®, National Electrical Code® (NEC®), sets the foundation for electrical safety in residential, commercial, and industrial occupancies around the world. It is consistently reviewed and updated, with input from active professionals in the field, to stay ahead of the constant changes in technology and safety. This is reflected in the new 2026 edition of the code, including the latest requirements for electrical wiring, overcurrent protection, grounding, and installation of equipment. A new concept of Limited Energy was reviewed. The presentation will also discuss the status of the 2029 NEC. 
The National Electrical Safety Code (NESC) is for practical safeguarding of the public and workers during the installation, operation, and maintenance of electric power supply and communications network facilities. The NESC is used extensively in joint-use agreements, regulatory rulings and provides baseline minimum design criteria in some circumstances. This talk will review the major changes provisionally accepted for inclusion in the 2028 NESC code and the current stage of the code cycle. 

This session will provide an analysis of significant improvements to the 2026 edition of NFPA 780, Standard for the Installation of Lightning Protection Systems. This will include but not limited to inspection intervals, new and revised definitions, surge protection, lightning risk assessment, and recommendations for critical facilities. The impact of these improvements will be explored as thunderstorm activity and the density of buildings and structures in the built environment increases around the world. The history of lightning protection systems dating back to Ben Franklin and the evolution of protective techniques over the last two centuries will also be discussed. The session will also highlight other codes and standards that reference NFPA 780 and where lightning protection systems are required at the federal, state, and local levels. 

Handout Materials

• Surge Protection (Overvoltage Protection) Requirements NFPA 70-23 and NFPA 780-23
• Specification for Protection of Buildings Against Lightning

Panelists will discuss the best practices for in-home grounding and surge protection for residential appliances such as generators.

Power Over Ethernet (POE) has been with us for many years, allowing for signalling and power to be transmitted simultaneously over the same structured cabling, saving cost and installation time. 

Protecting Ethernet lines is a challenge, as we have to deal with power and signalling lines separately. Often there is a misunderstanding in how POE is applied (modes A and/or B) as well as dealing with 4-pair and legacy 2-pair systems. 

This article aims to show how protection measures for POE can often be poorly applied, adding costs yet often resulting in exposing the application to damage. 

Fault Managed Power Systems (FMPS), codified under NEC Article 726 and UL 1400 standards, represent a transformative approach to high-power distribution by limiting fault energy rather than total power. This architecture enables delivery of thousands of Watts over long distances while maintaining safety comparable to power-limited circuits like Power over Ethernet (PoE). However, despite these safety mechanisms, FMPS installations are still vulnerable to electrical surges (i.e. lightning-induced) that can compromise system integrity, cause equipment damage, and pose fire and electrocution hazards. 
This presentation will cover: 
-Fundamentals of FMPS: architecture, operation, and safety mechanisms. 
-Surge Phenomena in FMPS: sources, characteristics, and impact. 
-Standards & Compliance: protection, bonding, and grounding requirements per NEC/NESC/UL. 
-Field experience and lessons learned over 10 years of deployments. 

Class 4 Fault-Managed Power Systems (FMPS) enable the safe delivery of up to 3.2 kW per conductor pair through continuous real-time monitoring and rapid fault isolation, providing a high-efficiency alternative to AC and 48V DC for telecom and edge-infrastructure applications. This session reviews an example implementation of the safety architecture defined in UL 1400-1, NEC 726, and emerging Canadian standards, including the CSA development of FMPS equipment requirements (C22.2 No. 0.24), FMPS cable requirements (C22.2 No. 356), and proposed integration of Class 4 into Section 16 of the 2027 Canadian Electrical Code. A hands-on demonstration will show an example of Class 4 system behavior under fault conditions at 3 kW per conductor pair 

As carriers deploy -48Vdc powered servers in their networks, several have reported incidents of server power supply instability. Outcomes from these events include service outages and damaged equipment. This presentation explores root causes of these events and describes potential solutions. 

Don Barnickel will present a brief history of telecom hardening, lessons that can be learned from that experience and their applicability in a data-centric world, and why today’s resiliency and recovery planning is often a failure of imagination. He’ll provide an overview of the latest contributions to the ATIS EMP Standard on facility assessment that attempt to address this oversight.

Terry Murch will address radiated and conducted pulse, defining the real threat to equipment and ways to mitigate it. He’ll discuss the levels of protection required to defend against each type of threat and ways to evaluate critical and non-critical equipment/systems. He’ll outline both inexpensive steps that can be applied during standard maintenance as well as more aggressive steps to protect existing, non-hardened facilities.

Panelists will discuss the definitions of and differences between data centers, central offices, and cable TV head ends in the context of power requirements and protections. This session will also explore the present “hype” around AI and data center-related technologies and the vision for power at the data center over the next several years.

This presentation explores how SENKO’s SN® fiber connectivity solutions are transforming the reliability and sustainability of modern communication networks. As data centers and telecom infrastructures face increasing demands for higher density, faster deployment, and lower energy consumption, traditional connectivity methods fall short. SENKO’s SN® series including the UNIBOOT, EZ-FLIP, and shuttered adapters offer a compact, high-performance alternative to legacy MPO and LC systems. These innovations enable simplified network design, reduced hardware, and enhanced airflow, contributing to lower operational costs and greener infrastructure. The session highlights real-world use cases, performance benchmarks, and how SN® connectors support the transition to 800G and beyond.