Sparks Electrical News January 2019

EARTHING & LIGHTNING

13

LPC EXPERTISE BOOSTED BY ADDITION OF NEW DIRECTOR AND CO-OWNER

both local and international standards. Current services delivered by the company include: • Determine and mitigate the risk of potential lightning strikes through conducting thorough LPS risk assessments; • In-depth site assessments of compliancy are conducted including full report with site photo- graphs, drone imagery and step-by-step correc- tion measures; • Conceptual and detailed lightning protection systems designs. This includes the dimension- ing, specification and placement of LPS compo- nents including bills of materials (BOM) instal- lation instruction details/schematics, 2D layout drawings and even full 3D coverage models; • Conceptual and detailed earth-termination sys- tem (ETS) designs. This includes the dimen- sioning of ETS components, mathematical cal- culations and software-aided simulations with regards to determining factors such as ground potential rise (GPR), permissible step and touch voltages and short-circuit fault currents; • CPD accredited seminars for engineers and in- stallation training for installers; and • Tender and/or end-user specification writing, in- cluding the selection of the applicable codes of practices, design methodologies and minimum installation, component and certification require- ments, in order to obtain a safe, effective and compliant LPS.

LIGHTNING PROTECTION CONCEPTS (LPC) , lo- cal provider of a full range of lightning protection services, has welcomed the former DEHN+SÖHNE area director: Asia, Middle East and Africa (AMEA), and founder and former MD of DEHN Africa, Alexis Barwise, into the team as a director and co-owner. Barwise joins founder and fellow co-owner Trevor Manas, who established the company in 2017. LPC is an independent and innovative consultancy firm established to provide local organisations with unsurpassed, highly comprehensive and innovative solutions and services to assist the market with its earthing and lightning protection requirements. Together, Manas and Barwise, through their combined experience and expertise, now offer the market a uniquely comprehensive range of ser- vices, covering the spectrum of surge and lightning protection systems (LPS), from external lightning protection through to earthing, surge protection de- vices (SPD), and electromagnetic capability (EMC), to name a few. Over the past 20 years, Manas has been the chief lightning protection designer for over 5 000 projects worldwide, authored more than 20 white papers on various aspects of earthing and lightning and is a member of the SABS TC 067/ SC06 lightning pro- tection working group. He set out create a company that offers all the planning, design, training, and cer- tification required to successfully implement a light- ning protection solution that is fully compliant with

Alexis Barwise and Trevor Manas.

Manas concludes, “Our firm specialises in the de- sign, consultancy, certification, and training of earth- ing and lightning protection systems. The formal- ising of our new business arrangement is a logical extension of our individual strengths and experience. LPC is on the cusp of launching several new ser- vice concepts and we are looking forward to the next stage of the journey.”

Barwise explains, “Together, Trevor and I boast up- wards of a combined 35 years of experience in the earthing and lightning protection industry. Having known each other for many years, we have previ- ously worked together in two non-profit organisa- tions, the first being ELPA, and the second being the Lightning 30 Foundation. We are board members of both organisations and I am the current ELPA chairman, while Trevor is the former ELPA national director.”

Enquiries: www.lpconcepts.com

A DISCUSSION WITH ELPA ON THE STATE OF THE LIGHTNING INDUSTRY

T he goal of the Earthing and Lightning Protection Associa- tion (ELPA) is to bring the light- ning protection industry together to deliver a safe environment to the con- sumer, their infrastructure/equipment and personnel. ELPA national director Richard Evert believes that the ulti- mate achievement for the association will be compliance across the entire spectrum of property management. “However, for this to be possible, we need to have systems in place,” he says. “With the lack of an ap- prenticeship and a training path for lightning installers, businesses are issuing and receiving false cer- tificates of compliance (CoCs). The lightning risk dictates the required earthing to specific target earth re- sistance values. Test certificates are being issued as compliance certifi- cates, when in truth they form only one part of the Installation Safety Report (ISR) which must become a permanent attachment to every CoC issued in South Africa, signed off by an accredited designer, ac- credited installer and the electri- cian/engineer responsible for the site CoC which is well recognised.” He continues, “We have to have the mechanisms in place to police the five percent who wilfully disre- gard safety and purpose, and sup- port the 95 percent who want and intend to deliver on what they sell. Failure to comply, as well as com- pliance, must both receive the same exposure such that the fruits of their labours are there for all to see. If we can equip people with everything they need, then compliance will fol- low.” Skills development Skills development is essential in any industry, and this is no differ- ent when it comes to managing the threat of lightning. Evert notes that there is a push to get ELPA ac- credited installers, designers and

The need for reliable and consistent lightning risk measurement Power utilities are the key drivers to the development of lightning density measure- ment technologies. “We have standardised across the world with ground flash density as the measure, yet the technology, opera- tional since the early 1990s, already detects individual strokes,” says Evert. “In the SABS SANS 10313 standard, we will be looking at the actual lightning density (strokes) and not only the flash density. We are putting the need on the table with ELPA driving the discussion forward.” Loadshedding Evert notes that, worryingly, loadshedding during the summer of 2018 started be- fore the summer thunderstorms had re- ally made themselves felt. “The decision to

elephant one bite at a time. We need to eat the bits that are closest to us and strategi- cally place ourselves where the important life-saving bits get done first!” he concludes.

inspectors. “We are seeing the need for knowledge as well as an in- crease in the requests for training.” The founding members of ELPA had started putting training pro- grammes in place. The need to eliminate conflict of interest between training provision and accreditation, meant the training effort needed to be deferred. “We are, however, transitioning and will be discussing a change in our constitution’s vision and tasks in the near future,” he says. He believes that the Department of Labour must be involved in these discussions as well as the existing companies that have been in the in- dustry for many years and have the expertise. “It is imperative that ELPA work steadily along a sustainable path and within the existing structures of gov- ernance. Those with expertise need to expand their services to form part of a strong technical centres base of skills development. There is scope to open up training centres going forward but it cannot be done in a vacuum and the solutions must be a win-win for the country”. Evert believes that it would be beneficial to bring the country’s universities together and put their facilities and knowledge together to provide a concerted research picture. “There currently are not enough re- sources to provide high quality train- ing, so collaboration becomes vital and, dare I say, non-negotiable,” he says. Industry associations, from ar- chitecture, property development, consulting engineers, investors and insurance to the ECA and SAIEE are ideally placed to facilitate ELPA’s need to reach the masses. “Communication is key,” says Evert, “To achieve the first phase of compliance, a clear awareness mes- sage to all the major associations and their members is important.”

shed electricity across the country places our economy in crisis. The circumstances that place Eskom in a position where load- shedding is inevitable is speculative and at best should have been anticipated through our experiences from the 2008 period of loadshedding. Wet coal, unplanned outages and insufficient budget all go hand-in-hand with business risk management. High fre- quency system switching exposes weak in- sulation. When the full wrath of the storms makes itself known, those weaknesses will be magnified.” Having been in the ELPA hot seat since June 2018 – after more than 28 years with Eskom – Evert is looking for ways to ensure that ELPA is an association which not only benefits those in the industry, but the coun- try at large. “There’s a lot of work that needs to be done. The saying goes that you eat an

Enquiries: info@elpasa.org.za

Richard Evert

SPARKS ELECTRICAL NEWS

JANUARY 2019