Thunder strikes out new LED lights – New Technology

     When lightning strikes can surges, transients, spread hundreds of meters into the grid and beat out the street lights. Photo: Kent Eng 11089
     

street-lighting with LEDs can not handle surges in the power grid. Large dark areas are added when you hear thunder. Swedish municipalities affected are now trying to protect the technology.

Large parts of the Danish Esbjerg extinguished down in October . A heavy thunderstorm damaged 500 new streetlights with LEDs, LED. Replacing them took several weeks. Just before Christmas was the Jutland Tim’s turn. Where wrecked around 100 lights. Esbjerg Municipality spokesman see luminaires as time bombs, in an interview in the Danish engineer.

The events put your finger on a weak point of management lights: they are sensitive to sudden fluctuations in voltage and many lack adequate lightning protection. When lightning strikes can surges, transients, spread hundreds of meters into the grid and beat out the street lights.

Denmark is in the forefront replacing old streetlights to LEDs. In addition to energy savings expects municipalities with lower maintenance costs because the LEDs have a much longer life span than traditional light sources. But the estimate cracks if the fittings are knocked out by lightning after a few years.

In Esbjerg replaced the supplier of the damaged lights under warranty. Now negotiations are underway about who will take the bill to protect the municipality thousands of LEDs from future lightning storm. Wreckage has received much attention in Denmark, and lighting association Faba keeps the spring information sessions around the country.

The problem is also in Sweden. Ornskoldsvik and Linköping are two affected places who now choose different strategies to protect the lighting.

Örnsköldsvik has invested heavily in the energy-saving LED technology and has 5,500 LED fixtures. This represents almost a third of all municipal street lights. A further 1300 will be installed this year. To save extra energy goes out the lights additionally down during the summer. But when the lights were on again last September began the complaints flow into Övik Energy.

– We had very many conversations about it was dark in large areas, says Peder Nordin, Director of Technology and Development of Energy’s grid.

It turned out that a hundred lampposts had been damaged by the summer’s intense thunderstorms. In addition to LED lights so had electronic equipment to metallhalogenarmaturer wiped out. To correct errors cost the municipality SEK 250 000. It also took several weeks until all the lights shone again.

A lightning protection experts have now investigated how lighting can be protected. Luminaires supplied by overhead lines were especially hard hit last year, and therefore selected air lines new surge protector. The operation, which cost approximately SEK 100 000, protects all fixtures outside the urban area. To provide all of 5500 LED lights with high voltage protection would be significantly more expensive, and Peder Nordin do not think it is necessary.

– But hindsight we first fall. Then we will know if it was enough to protect the air lines, he said.

Even Ljungsbro outside Linköping hit by hefty thunderstorms in the summer. Where injured ten of almost 200 LED fixtures. Johan Nilsson, network administrator for lighting on the technology departments in Linköping, it looks like a large percentage given that the municipality traditional light fittings can withstand lightning without problems.

– I have worked with street lighting since 1988, and I have never been involved in fixtures damaged like this, he says.

Now place the energy company stricter requirements on the 5000 new LED fixtures to be installed this year, an investment of 15 million. Only luminaires with a surge protector at 10 kilovolts are released into the net. But Johan Nilsson is not entirely convinced that this is enough.

– No, 100 percent safe I am not. If that’s not enough then we’ll consider installing surge protectors in lighting centers too. But it would of course involve an additional cost, he said.

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