Power generation facilities play a pivotal role in our modern society, supplying the electricity that powers our communities, industries, and economies. However, these facilities are highly susceptible to lightning strikes, which can lead to equipment damage, outages, fire risks, and significant downtime.

LEC offers tailored solutions designed to address these specific challenges that lightning presents to power generation facilities:

Lightning Risk Assessments

Planning starts with accurate testing, assessment, and design. We use The Smart Ground Audit.

Smart Ground is a relatively new technology and service offered by LEC. The technology employs state-of-the-art grounding system design and modeling software and an advanced ground system multi-meter to deliver ground test and analysis capabilities far beyond that of the standard test meter and methodology.

Lightning Protection Design Study

A Design Study specific to DAS can include our lightning protection engineering team visiting the site. It provides a more detailed and scientific evaluation of your site’s lightning safety exposure and options for lightning protection. You will receive a formal report, a lightning strike probability analysis, a transient analysis, and a risk assessment per IEC and IEEE standards. Sometimes, this report will include site-specific drawings of recommended designs.

Maintenance and Inspection Plans 

Yearly recertification is needed to maintain the terms of the no-strike warranty issued with every Dissipation Array System (DAS).

The DAS comes with a one (1) year Limited Warranty. The Limited Warranty can be extended for an additional 12-month period upon completion of an inspection and any required repairs.

Power generation facilities need lightning protection design because:

• Large surface area and high-risk facilities
• Production problems if the equipment, machines, etc. have been damaged by lightning or its effects (voltage surges). May result in loss of service
• Hazardous activities with serious consequences for the environment (pollution, environmental damage, etc.)
• Protection of people (workers). (Health and Safety at Work Act)
• This is a regulatory requirement that insurance companies may also require

Each year, a multitude of electric power facilities are knocked off-line due to lightning. However, what is less known is that on a bright and sunshiny day, when there is no lightning in sight, and the power goes out and/or operations shut down, it can also be due to lightning - more accurately, the repercussions of previous lightning strikes, which occurred months earlier!

Protect your facility today!