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Surge and Lightning Protection

It will never happen to me? Don't you believe it...Globally, some 2000 on-going thunderstorms cause about 100 lightning strikes to earth each second!!

Modern day industrial facilities contain large amounts of microprocessor based equipment from control computers to field sensors. High speed data is transferred around a site to allow business decisions to be made which affect productivity and efficiency. The real time data used for such control and decision making would be useless if corrupt and, worse still, the complete loss of such a system due to surges or lightning would impact on productivity and profits.

Much of the industrial equipment is installed in harsh environments, subject to natural disturbances such as lightning and man made disturbances like switching transients from motors, pumps, welding equipment and variable frequency drives. Small transients and disturbances on the ac or data cables, whilst not causing catastrophic damage, will be slowly stressing the internal microprocessors ultimately leading to degradation which manifests itself as errors or complete failure.

A direct lightning strike can be catastrophic and cause safety related failures and potentially plant shutdowns. The lightning does not have to strike directly even, a nearby strike within a few kilometres can be extremely damaging causing minor failures and potentially stressing control or system hardware.

Surge protection for these industrial process applications can prevent the majority of upsets caused by surges and transients. It is essential as part of the plant infrastructure and can prevent downtime and lost productivity. In all areas reliability will be enhanced increasing availability and uptime. Telematic and Atlantic Scientific have been at the forefront of industrial surge protection for the past 15 years and have the product to protect your facility.

TECHNICAL LINKS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

1.10 Proper Copper Grounding Systems Stops Lightning Damage at Nebraska FM Station -  What could be more vulnerable to lightning than a 500-ft antenna tower poking into the Nebraska sky on a summer afternoon? And what could be more at risk from serious lightning damage than the sensitive electronic equipment in a radio station’s transmitter room? One station knows these hazards all too well. KROA, a 100-kW FM station with studios and tower in Doniphan, Nebraska, learned first-hand what happens when lightning strikes and where the lightning goes if the tower it strikes is connected to high-resistance ground. From Copper.org.

Preventing Direct Lightening Strikes - Roy B. Carpenter, Jr - This paper looks at lightening strikes and how to prevent them - from lecglobal.com

Lightning and Static Effects on Industrial Electronics - This data sheet from Emerson Process Management examines the damage caused by transients from lightning and static and offers advice on minimising the harmful effects of these two phenomena.

Surge Protection for Modern Process Control and Automation Technology - (Dehn USA - www.dehn-usa.com/)

Lightning Protection for Dam Instrumentation - A paper by Anthony Moulds and Anthony Watson, thanks to http://www.slopeindicator.com/

Application of Surge Protection Devices for Very Low Voltage Devices - Mike Green - thanks to Megavolt  (http://www.megavolt.co.il/)- This paper offers a three point method for simplifying the Surge Protection Device (SPD) selection process, while pointing out  the necessity for studying the application in its entirety.

Surge Protection of End-User Equipment - François D. Martzloff - National Institute of Standards and Technology - Technically valid and cost-effective surge protection of end-user equipment can only be achieved by matching the surge withstand capability of equipment (with or without added protection) to the surge environment, the latter being generally beyond the control of the end-user. Thus, three sets of questions must be answered by a facility engineer to arrive at a reliable approach, this paper discusses these.

Surges Happen - How to protect the appliances in your home - A 24 page document from the National Institute of Standards and Technology

NFPA-780 Standard for the Installation of Lightning Protection Systems (1997): Transitioning From An Outdated Concept to Approved Alternatives- By Richard Kithil, President & CEO, NLSI

Proper Copper Grounding Systems Stops Lightning Damage at Nebraska FM Station
Safety, Power Quality, Communications Improve with Low-Resistance Copper Grounding System - thanks to the Copper Development Association 

Lightning Protection -New Myths & Old Realities As They Apply To Your Home And Your Station- by Bob McGraw - K4TAX

Lightning Protection of weighing systems - From revere transducers- Europe (www.revere.nl)

Coordination of Telecommunications Surge Protective Devices in Countries with Unstable AC Power - Peter Nystrom-Applied Energy Concepts, Inc.
(www.aeconcepts.com)

Lightning Links- from the university of Florida (Vladimir A. Rakov, Ph.D. Professor) (http://plaza.ufl.edu/rakov/)

Public Interest Energy Reseach OTC Report on Light Activated Surge Protection Thyristor (LASPT)  - 74 pages here- ADSL recommended -From the California Energy Commission- www.energy.ca.gov - The electricity system in California is vulnerable to large-scale power disruptions due to rapid power surges resulting from lightning or mechanical failures. These rapid surges cannot be fully mitigated by the existing surge protection devices in power plants and the transmission and distribution systems. The economical cost of these power failures amounts to more than $1 billion dollars a year. The overall goal of this project was to develop a surge protection device with a response with an order of magnitude faster that systems currently used by the electric power industry. Many current surge protectors employ a switch known as a thyristor that is activated by electrical current. Our goal was to develop a prototype of a Light Activated Surge Protection Thyristor (LASPT) that would respond much faster than current activated thyristors.

Lightning Protection for Wind Turbines - The Lightning Protection Project was conceived by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to improve the understanding of lightning caused damage to wind turbines and how to protect them. This project report is very comprehensive thanks to www.solacity.com .

A New Lightning Protection System for Wind Turbines Using Two Ring-Shaped Electrodes - Yasuda Yoh - This technical paper focuses on a method for protection of low-voltage and control circuits in a wind tower, detailing a new lightning protection system with two ring-shaped electrodes attached to the wind turbine.

Lightning Protection in Rocket Design- Bruce C. Gabrielson Aerojet Electrosystems Azusa, California

The following Surge and lightning protection Application notes are from MTL Instruments

Lightning Surge Protection for Electronic Equipment - A Practical Guide-This publication discusses the nature of the threat to electronic instrumentation and communications networks posed by voltage surges induced by lightning or other causes, and describes the practical application of surge protection devices (SPDs) designed to prevent damage from such sources.

Lightning and Surge protection - Basic Principles -This publication discusses the mechanism of lightning and the design of surge protection devices (SPDs). The criteria for choosing the most suitable models for a wide range of applications in process industries are established. SPD applications for computers, networks, telecomms and various building systems are discussed.

Earthing Guide for Surge Protection - This publication discusses the major aspects of earthing surge protection devices (SPDs), and the relationship between SPD earths and the earthing of the associated instrumentation or other equipment with which the devices are used are also considered.

Surge Protection for Intrinsically Safe Systems -This publication discusses the nature of the threat to intrinsically safe instrumentation in hazardous areas from voltage surges induced by lightning or other causes. The practical application of surge protection devices (SPDs) taking into account the approvals required is also considered.

Surge Protection for Zone 0 Locations -This note discusses the surge protection requirements of intrinsically safe circuits entering a Zone 0 hazardous area. It analyses the potential gradients generated by lightning strikes and their possible routes of invasion. The alleviation of the problem at the zone 0 interface transfers the problem elsewhere and an adequately safe pragmatic solution is proposed.

Surge Protection for Weighing Systems - An Application Guide - This publication discusses the nature of modern weighing systems and describes the various methods by which surge protection can be applied to load cells (digital and conventional), to control systems, etc., within the weigh cabin and to external system links.

Surge Protection for Local Area Networks -This publication discusses ways in which Local Area Networks can be damaged by lightning-induced transients, and how they can be protected economically.

Surge protection for electrical power installations - This publication discusses the affects of surges and lightning induced overvoltages on ac power systems. The note will introduce the source of many common transients and surges and suggest the application of surge protection devices in this area. Finally, typical examples are shown for common installations.

Lightning & surge protection for fieldbus systems - This publication contains a brief introduction to fieldbus systems. It continues by describing the surge protection necessary to protect such systems from the detrimental effects of lightning and other surges.

System Reliability and Surges -  This article from Intech and Chris Towle of MTL discusses the risk that lightning-induced surges pose on a process plant.

Reliability, Availability, Maintenance, Return on Assets and Surge Protection - In this article Anthony O Bird discusses the appropriate level of surge protection that when applied to a process plant, reduces equipment fialure directly, increases plant availability and indirectly frees the maintenance team up to perform a more proactive role.

Surge Protection for Offshore Platforms -This paper discusses the vulnerability of various electrical and electronic systems against the impact of a lightning storm on an offshore platform.

Washington Gas -True Story - This paper points out the benefits to Washington Gas from their invested in surge protection to safeguard their equipment and reduce associated maintenance expenses.

Reliability of Surge Protection devices used with fieldbus systems- MTL instruments

Surge Protection for Fieldbus without Performance Limitations
This article discusses a complete surge protection solution for an entire Foundation Fieldbus system without performance limitations.

Lightning and surge protection in emissions monitoring - Donald Long - At any given moment, there are over 1,800 thunderstorms occurring - The 1,000-ft stacks at electrical power generating plants are huge lightning rods reaching up into the sky. The very same stacks, selective catalytic reaction (SCR) beds, ammonia injectors, and precipitators, only now carrying expensive nitrogen oxide/sulfur dioxide (NO_x/SO₂) emissions monitoring equipment and associated power and instrumentation cabling, take on nature's fury in the form of potentially 200,000-ampere bolts of lightning. How can one effectively deal with this phenomenon? How does lightning get into the continuous emissions monitoring system (CEMS)? Is this the only form of surge? Is proper grounding the answer? Thanks to ISA and InTech.