Equipment damage from lightning induced GPR is totally preventable with engineering design of the grounding system, correct bonding of the equipment to ground bars, and isolation of equipment
United States of America (Press Release) January 30, 2008 --
by Ernest M. Duckworth Jr., P.E.
President of LPGI & Affiliates
Nearly all electrical equipment damage from lightning may be placed into two categories; improper site grounding from lightning induced GPR, and the failure to isolate equipment circuit connections to a remote ground plane.
There is not one code available today that recommends protection of equipment from lightning strike energy. IEEE is now working on a Standard '1692' that may be available in 2011 that will recommend this type of protection. The seed document being used to develop this new Std. is "Guide for Protection of Equipment and Personnel from Lightning", in the ASCE Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities, August issue 2002, by E. Duckworth P.E.
Current available recommendations from other sources are very sketchy, provide little or no support, and rarely is GPR mentioned. When GPR is sometimes alluded to, shunting devices such as gas tubes, MOV's, and SCR's are recommended as possible solutions. Sources not providing necessary information to design against lightning induced GPR include NEC, NESC, NFPA 780, and Motorola’s Standards and Guidelines for Communication Sites (R56 Issue B).
Shunting devices will not protect electronic equipment from a GPR, whether induced from lightning or from a power line earth return fault. Shunting devices merely offer an additional path off the site to remote ground and guarantee a connection to the communication path in the reverse direction from which they were intended to operate. This of course also guarantees the destruction of your equipment.
Since the elimination of the remote ground path (copper communications wires) may not be a reasonable solution, why not the next best thing? Isolate the wire-line conducting path. Remember that this only one part of a two part solution. Proper bonding and grounding of equipment is the other part of your solution.
The single most important piece of the entire problem, of equipment damage from lightning induced GPR, is the SPG and a capacitively coupled radial ground. If the SPG is not placed correctly, you can expect equipment damage to plague you forever.
We have 35 years of professional experience in all types of grounding and electrical protection. We can prevent that next lightning strike from causing between $25K and $100K in equipment damage and one to two weeks of down time for repair. Cellular tower sites, TV Antenna sites, radar sites, wind farms, substations and power plants are our specialty.
Our consulting fee with AutoCAD Drawings and a step by step procedure on the resolution of your lightning issues will be a fraction of the cost of your next lightning strike.
by Ernest M. Duckworth Jr., P.E.
President of LPGI & Affiliates
Nearly all electrical equipment damage from lightning may be placed into two categories; improper site grounding from lightning induced GPR, and the failure to isolate equipment circuit connections to a remote ground plane.
There is not one code available today that recommends protection of equipment from lightning strike energy. IEEE is now working on a Standard '1692' that may be available in 2011 that will recommend this type of protection. The seed document being used to develop this new Std. is "Guide for Protection of Equipment and Personnel from Lightning", in the ASCE Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities, August issue 2002, by E. Duckworth P.E.
Current available recommendations from other sources are very sketchy, provide little or no support, and rarely is GPR mentioned. When GPR is sometimes alluded to, shunting devices such as gas tubes, MOV's, and SCR's are recommended as possible solutions. Sources not providing necessary information to design against lightning induced GPR include NEC, NESC, NFPA 780, and Motorola’s Standards and Guidelines for Communication Sites (R56 Issue B).
Shunting devices will not protect electronic equipment from a GPR, whether induced from lightning or from a power line earth return fault. Shunting devices merely offer an additional path off the site to remote ground and guarantee a connection to the communication path in the reverse direction from which they were intended to operate. This of course also guarantees the destruction of your equipment.
Since the elimination of the remote ground path (copper communications wires) may not be a reasonable solution, why not the next best thing? Isolate the wire-line conducting path. Remember that this only one part of a two part solution. Proper bonding and grounding of equipment is the other part of your solution.
The single most important piece of the entire problem, of equipment damage from lightning induced GPR, is the SPG and a capacitively coupled radial ground. If the SPG is not placed correctly, you can expect equipment damage to plague you forever.
We have 35 years of professional experience in all types of grounding and electrical protection. We can prevent that next lightning strike from causing between $25K and $100K in equipment damage and one to two weeks of down time for repair. Cellular tower sites, TV Antenna sites, radar sites, wind farms, substations and power plants are our specialty.
Our consulting fee with AutoCAD Drawings and a step by step procedure on the resolution of your lightning issues will be a fraction of the cost of your next lightning strike.
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