not long after nerc introduced the nerc tag spreadsheet and packet emailer, nerc concluded that it did not want involvement in any future software development or maintenance. a nerc tag specification document, version 1.4, was drafted as the next level in energy tagging, the nerc tag would subsequently also be known as an e-tag. data transfer would now occur directly over an internet connection instead of via e-mail. this eliminated the cumbersome process required to receive a data packet via email and port it back into the original spreadsheet-based tagging application. this change made the nerc tag much easier to use in a real-time application. e-tag 1.4 went into effect in 1999, but was replaced just nine months later with e-tag 1.5, followed three months later with e-tag 1.501. the 1.5 and 1.501 specs corrected the shortcomings experienced with the initial release of the first e-tag spec.