Sparks Electrical News January 2018

EARTHING, LIGHTNING AND SURGE PROTECTION

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ELPA KEEPS UP ITS CRACKING PACE AS 2018 BEGINS

A s this new year begins, the Earthing and Lighting Protection Association (ELPA) is only just over six months old, having been officially established in June 2017 after two years of hard work by lightning protection industry ex- perts from around the country. However, in this short space of time, the new umbrella body has already notched up a number of achievements in the lighting protection industry, and has no plans to slow down. This is according to ELPA national director Trevor Manas, who notes that ELPA’s next focus will be on the launch of the surge protection installers’ accreditations this month. He clarifies, “ELPA aims to assist with providing industry accreditations, certification, benchmarks for quality of design and installation, as well as information and education on lightning safety. To this end, we have already held two successful sets of certification exams for lightning protection installers, and will now be introducing accreditations for electricians who carry out surge protection installations. The surge protection installers’ accreditation programme will cover the proper selection, coordination and installation of surge protection devices to power supply systems, and we believe that electricians will gain extremely valuable guidance in this part of their scope of works.” Other certification exams will follow in the first quarter of 2018, and are linked to the recent launch of the ELPA Certificates of Compliance (COC) pro- gramme in late 2017. Manas explains, “The COC programme is aimed at ELPA-accredited designers, installers and in- spectors of lighting protection systems (LPSes). It entails the keeping of a register of designers and installers, as well as the inspectorate whose mem-

bers check the work being done by the installers. To this end, the next round of lightning protection installation certification exams will take place at the end of January, marking the third such set of exams since August 2017. “In addition, we are also launching our first design- ers’ accreditations in January, noting that the actual science of lighting protection really comes together in the lightning protection design. The designers’ course will follow a modular process: there are five parts to each module, and each module will take a month to complete. We will also hold our first course for testers/assessors within the first quarter of the year. “Further, in a bid to accommodate people from all around South Africa, we are introducing online assessments for some of our courses, starting with the installation accreditation, which currently takes the form of a 90-minute written exam, followed by a face to face interview with the examiners while still on-site. We are now offering candidates an on- line examination, and then carrying out Skype in- terviews with them after they have taken the exam. In this way, we can accommodate the substantial number of candidates from around South Africa who want to take our ELPA installation exam.” Over and above the LPS certification exams for designers, installers and inspectors, ELPA plans to spread its net wider still. Manas clarifies, “In order for members to maintain their membership, we will also be implementing a CPD programme. We envisage an online element here too, and are ex- ploring the use of webinars as a platform for the necessary learning to take place, to accommodate people’s busy working lives and save on costs. “ELPA is also offering electrical engineers a 50 percent discount on a 2-point CPD accred-

Manas concludes, “It is tremendously satisfy- ing to see ELPA, while technically still in its infancy as such a newly established organisation, already moving so quickly in our quest to achieve certainty through certification and compliance. I believe that, in the pursuit of becoming the recognised National Professional Body for earthing and lightning pro- tection, it bodes well for the rest of 2018 that we are getting off to such a solid start.” ELPA is supported by various institutions such as Wits University, the Electrical Contractors Associa- tion of South Africa (ECA) and the Department of Labour.

ited lightning protection seminar when they join ELPA in January or February 2018. This would be extremely valuable to all electrical engineers, as lightning protection is not a subject included in an electrical engineering degree and is nor- mally only offered as part of a post-graduate high voltage study programme. We therefore see this as a great value-add for our electrical engineers to be able to have access to enor- mously valuable and highly pertinent informa- tion about lightning protection – especially bearing in mind that South Africa’s lighting flash index per square kilometre is extremely high in many parts of the country when compared to global averages.”

For more information, visit www.elpasa.org.za.