Sparks Electrical News September 2019

EARTHING, LIGHTNING AND SURGE PROTECTION

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TEST DYNAMICS LAUNCHED TO REPRESENT NATIONAL BRANDS

NEW ELPA BOARD APPOINTED F resh to print, the Earthing and Lightning Protection Association (ELPA) co-hosted the first of two seminars with Association for Renewable Energy Practitioners (AREP), ‘Earthing and Lightning seminar – Surge protection for solar PV Plants’ on August 14 th at a venue fortuitously powered by a solar PV plant in the vicinity of Paarl, Cape Town. The second seminar took place in Midrand on August 20th. ELPA National Director, Richard Evert discusses the immediate road ahead for the industry and the association: “The seminars are consistent with my previous statements that ‘Communication is key’. Supportive interventions by our past Chairman of the Board, along with the President of AREP, Carel Ballack, opened the door for this intervention. While the seminars may have been premature, the opportunities could not be ignored, and the outcome has been enlighteningly consistent with the message we shared with Spark Electrical News readers in January 2019. A typical response to the message of lightning threat is either “We don’t have lightning” or “We don’t have a lightning problem”. The term ‘Ignorance is our enemy’ was coined in the Spark Electrical News September 2018 edition and still holds. So what to do about it? For a start, the Association has to be sustainable to be able to make a lasting and positive impact. A year ago in the Sparks August 2018 edition, we reported that the business and financial models would change by knowledge gained from an older and significantly larger equivalent organisation, the LPI, the Lightning Protection Institute in the USA. The model lends itself to collaboration while demanding accountability through financial investment. An integral part of any industry is its resources, and the lightning protection industry does not have a feeder program to ensure new resources in a growth market. That is, the establishment of a clear career path and qualifications by industry needs is a high priority. From the assistant to the installer to the designer to the inspector – each category will be reviewed to quantify the job and the associ- ated skills set and populated within the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA). Set of unit standards and translated to the Qual- ity Council on Trades and Occupations (QCTO) modules under the supervision of the Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA) to establish aligned occupational qualifications in the lightning pro- tection industry. Some aspects of the occupation are available as unit standards, and therefore, some existing skills will already have some credits towards the lightning protection qualifications. Those T est Dynamics has been appointed to provide continued repre- sentation of the National Instruments brand following a deci- sion by National Instruments to pursue a distribution model in southern Africa. According to sales manager, Stephen Plumb, this distribution mod- el has been successfully rolled out in multiple territories around the globe as National Instruments seeks to divest from sales expenses and channel more resources into R&D. He explains that a renewed focus on military/aerospace, 5G and academic research puts Test Dynamics in a strong positon to expand the advantages that National Instruments software-defined platforms offer in these areas. “With LabVIEW having just passed the 33 year mark, no other company has the depth of experience in bringing software-de- fined instrumentation to market. The synthesis of high quality dig-

mass interconnects for high-density test systems; Quanser, which focuses on teaching and research of controls within the academic space; and Magtrol, which supplies high precision torque trans- ducers. Another brand to be represented is Micron Optics. “This com- pany has been partnering with National Instruments for fibre optic measurements of strain, temperature and displacement in environments where traditional measurements are not easy due to factors such as high EMC or risk of lightning. They have solu- tions for both low- and high-speed fibre sensing that are easy to incorporate within the LabVIEW environment to build a mixed measurement system,” says Plumb.

itising hardware, together with software, has been the essence of the National Instruments approach since its inception and more recently this philosophy has been driven even closer to the hard- ware with open architecture digitisers and FPGA-based platforms that have provided users with firmware level access to custom- ise their instruments to very particular requirements,” explains Plumb. “We can also offer training on the platforms to ensure that our customers are able to make the best use of the tools. Some customers prefer to have a turnkey solution, so we will continue to work with the National Instruments Alliance Partner network to assist customers that do not wish to engineer solutions in-house.” In addition to the National Instruments products, Test Dynam- ics also represents a number of globally recognised technology suppliers, including Mac Panel Interconnect, which specialises in

Enquiries: www.testdynamics.co.za

not included in other professions will be quantified and approved according to QCTO with recogni- tion of prior learning (RPL) as part of the outcomes. Throughout this process, the Department of Labour and the AIA (Approved Inspection Authority) is integral to a positive outcome to- gether with industry Associations such as the ECA, SAIEE and the ECB. We need to expect more from these bodies, and ELPA needs to be measured by the same yard- stick. However, these Associations must work together to achieve success within the electrical in- dustry as a whole.

The new ELPA Board of Directors: (seated from left to right), Hano Oelofse, Tertius Oelofse, Helmut Kanwischer, Israel Melodi, Rhyno van der Westhuizen, Graeme Smart, Mike Visser, Gerhard Human, Karen Evert (minute taker) and Richard Evert.

engaged in resources to build collaboration capacity with all main- stream Associations that are impacted by lightning or can have an impact on how we, as South Africans, should be addressing the threat of lightning. ELPA is looking to a coordinated future with a reduction in light- ning damage and loss of human life.”

We have completed the changes to the ELPA business and financial models. The new Board of Directors has been elected and appointed. They are (ordered by surname), Gerhard Human, Helmut Kanwischer (Treasurer), Israel Melodi, Hano Oelofse, Tertius Oelofse, Graeme Smart, Rhyno van der Westhuizen and Mike Visser (founding chairman and current Company Secretary). The

Enquiries: www.elpasa.org.za

first meeting of the Board of Directors took place at the end of July with a significant number of decisions made. We have identified that education and training is an extremely high priority alongside building up the membership of ELPA for a sustainable representation. ELPA will maintain core teams to review materials and procedures compliance and standards relevance in support of the SABS, Department of Labour (DoL) and the munic- ipal regulatory bodies. Also on the priority list will be the development of handbooks for the industry, skills development pro- grams, and regional support through inter- action with the ECA and SAIEE. ELPA has

LIGHTNING – CAN YOU AFFORD TO IGNORE IT? T oday, computers and computer based equipment are used extensively in virtually every sector of in- dustry and commerce - as well as hospitals, gov-

electronic circuitry of computers and other sensitive electronic equipment. This results in data loss, loss of fax and phone, system disruption, physical damage to equipment (either immediate or later through compo- nent degradation). Costly downtime Electrical switching events can cause the same problems although chiefly affecting mains power supply.

ernment facilities, laboratories and banking. Whether a company operates a local area network, automated factory equipment, a sophisticated building security system, or even a small telephone exchange, it depends totally on that system to operate efficiently. However, many organisations ignore the single big- gest threat to their systems - voltage surges caused by lightning and electrical switching events. Main power supplies and data communications lines are highly sus- ceptible to surge voltages and the result is usually a total systems failure. Apart from the enormous cost involved in replacing damaged equipment, consider other expenses that are difficult to quantify: severe disruption to your operations - data loss, downtime, loss of fax and phone, inconven- ience to your staff and your customers. But the situation CAN be avoided! Lightning activity near to a building can cause voltage surges (transient overvoltages). These brief but signifi- cant increases in voltage on mains power supplies or data communication lines can be conducted into the

www.whichvoip.co.za/lightning-protection

SEPTEMBER 2019 SPARKS ELECTRICAL NEWS