Lightning Eliminators & Consultants

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Lightning Eliminators & Consultants (LEC) provides integrated lightning protection and lightning prevention products, solutions and services.

Lightning Eliminators & Consultants (LEC) provides integrated lightning protection and lightning prevention products, solutions and services.

The company has more than 43 years of experience and is also involved in grounding systems engineering, testing and surge protection designs for the power and energy sectors.

Lightning protection performs an important and imperative function in the power generation industry, helping energy companies avoid downtime and restoration costs that come with outages.

A single outage lasting one hour can cost upward of $1m, not only to the company but also to its clients, depending on the users that are serviced.

However, the initial choice of a lightning protection solution can sometimes be the problem, particularly when outside or unknown influences are factored.

Weather, particularly lightning, is one of the biggest threats to facilities. LEC uses the innovative and patented science of charge transfer technology (CTS) to provide comprehensive consulting, assessment and design across multiple industries in more than 80 countries and throughout the US, working with some of the largest companies worldwide.

Whether it is a nuclear power facility or substations, lightning rods and overhead grounding wires are not always the correct solution.

A customised approach, tailored to meet customers’ unique set of circumstances, is preferable than the standard approach.

According to the US Department of Energy, the costs to the end-user for momentary outages (per customer) are:

Therefore, for a load-serving station that serves 20MW of load (or 2,800 to 4,000 residential customers / meters), the cost impact to end-users of losing service is in the range of $5,096 to $7,280.

LEC provides a hands-on service, including testing and proprietary design.

This is coupled with products such as the Dissipation Array® System (DAS®), Chem-Rod® and optimised surge suppression solutions.

The DAS uses charge transfer technology, which prevents the termination of lightning within the area of desired protection.

This is a different method to grounding wires and / or lightning rods, which are meant to redirect an incoming lightning strike's energy to the ground, away from equipment. A lightning rod collects the strike and carries the current into the ground, creating the same effect.

DAS has a 99% success rate and is the only lightning protection product to offer a full no-strike warranty.

When designing solutions for facilities, LEC assesses the situation to determine the best way forward.

Once the proper lightning protection system is in place, including grounding engineering and surge protection, maintenance and inspection are integral to protecting the facility.

DAS's charge transfer technology is the only type of system where the lightning impulse is not encouraged, but discouraged.

DAS isolates facilities from a direct lightning strike by bleeding off the induced charge on the protected area during the course of a thunderstorm, reducing it to a much lower level in relation to the surrounding environment.

This suppresses the formation of an upward rising streamer, one of the required elements of the strike process, therefore avoiding the strike. Discouraging lightning is a significant benefit to facilities of this type.

The Lightning Eliminators and Consultants (LEC) Dissipation Array System (DAS) is designed to prevent lightning strikes to an object or structure under protection.

The first lightning protection system (LPS) went into operation over 250 years ago with the advent of the air terminal, also known as the lightning rod, attributed to Benjamin Franklin.

Lightning protection performs an important and imperative function in the energy and electric power sectors helping companies avoid the downtime and restoration costs that come with outages. A single outage lasting one hour can cost upward of $1m not only to the company, but also to its customers depending on the users that are serviced.

Though lightning rods are the oldest form of lightning protection and still used today, in the past few decades advancements in technology have provided more options.

Providing power for approximately 1.5 million consumers, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, a wholesale electric power supplier owned by 44 electric cooperatives, has built its business by delivering a reliable, cost-based electricity supply.

Like all power generation plants, the Browns Ferry Nuclear (BFN) Plant, in northern Alabama, US, faces many challenges to meet the power demands of a growing and urbanising population.

Lightning protection solutions perform an important job in the utilities industry, helping energy companies avoid the downtime and restoration costs that come with outages.

The trend toward miniaturisation in electronic systems brings an increased sensitivity to electrical transient phenomena. Transistors have shrunk, and dimensions are now on the order of five molecules thick.

Protection against direct lightning strikes has been a subject of controversy since the days of Benjamin Franklin.

Grounding (or earthing) is the art of making an electrical connection to the earth.

A look at the charge transfer technology Lightning Eliminators offers.

Lesedi Nuclear Services Pty (Ltd), of South Africa are pleased to announce having successfully concluded an agency agreement with Lightning Eliminators & Consultants, Inc.

An efficient grounding system is critical to personnel safety and uninterrupted operations. However, conventional ground rods are typically insufficient for industrial uses where target resistance can be less than 1ohm.

For over 43 years, Lightning Eliminators (LEC) has successfully assisted companies across multiple industries and around the world in reducing risk, saving money and increasing reliability using a unique and highly effective approach to lightning protection.

With Lightning Eliminators’ exclusive offering of experienced consultants, engineers and integrated services, LEC customers can rely on expert advice and guidance, backed by over 100 years of combined experience and engineering expertise.

Utilities and industrial facilities have struggled for years with unreliable grounding measurements produced by the fall-of-potential (FOP) method and its inherent limitations.

Lightning and other transients can easily damage or destroy sensitive electronics, causing expensive downtime and repairs. Lightning Eliminators offers a full line of surge protection devices for a myriad of facility types and sizes to protect critical applications, backed by expert engineering, consulting and support.