Industrial Surge Protection Is A Critical Component Of Most Businesses

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Is industrial surge protection involved in my business?

 

Nearly all businesses rely on industrial surge protection to some degree. Even if your business itself is not purely an industrial type of business and does not use heavy equipment that needs protection from surges, there is a good chance that it still relies upon the products and services produced by businesses that use surge protection to remain profitable. For example, if you use a cell phone in your daily life for business or personal use, you are completely reliant upon industrial surge protection systems to ensure that your calls continue to be connected. Industrial surge protection is the lifeblood of the telecommunications industry, allowing cell phone towers and installations to remain functional for extended periods of time. Their installation involves hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment that is positioned in harm’s way, essentially being targets for lightning strikes due to their height and positioning in the field. This positioning is necessary to provide a clear signal that can be received by your phone on the ground, putting it into the precarious position of also being a clear target for lightning to strike. When those strikes happen, it sends a wave of additional electricity into the system, which overwhelms the circuit-driven equipment and moves from component to component, adding to the overall damage. Restoring that tower to functionality depends on how much equipment must be repaired or replaced after such an event and the profitability of your cell phone company depends on minimizing that damage. You, as a customer, will suffer in two different ways when these restorations are difficult. First, taking your tower offline for longer periods causes delays to your service, and secondly, the clarity of your calls is compromised. In addition, excessive downtime could dictate the monthly price increases that will eventually be paid by subscribers. In this way, even if you only use your cell phone to make a periodic business call, your business is dependent upon industrial surge protection.

 

The industrial version of surge protection functions in the same ways that consumer versions work, creating a gap that the electricity cannot jump and protecting equipment past that point from damage. The industrial versions are built more robustly and able to handle larger loads but also involve some high-tech features that would not be necessary on the consumer level. For example, an essential aspect of surge protection on many industrial levels is allowing functionality to continue without reset, even in the event of the SPD having been activated or triggered. This “always on” functionality means that the system remains protected from a subsequent lightning strike even after the protection device has come into play once. These additional failsafe systems assure more protection and less need for equipment restoration, keeping the systems online and producing their services or products for more extended periods. Industrial surge protection is an important part of everyone’s life, not just the big businesses that you might assume.

 

Industrial Surge Protection Solutions

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What is industrial surge protection?

 

Industrial businesses function within spaces that can be more threatened by weather and natural phenomena than others. Industrial surge protection is a suite of products and processes that protect from one of the main threats to equipment and functionality in the field: electrical surges and lightning-caused overvoltage. This happens because of the exposed nature of the equipment involved in industrial processes, spanning a wide variety of business types and configurations. Essentially, the issue is that equipment that must be positioned in exposed areas needs to be powered and able to communicate with other equipment involved in the process. The connection lines and structures that hold these pieces of equipment make them vulnerable to the massive spikes in electrical flow that happen after a nearby lightning strike. When excess electricity is introduced into the industrial system either through a lightning strike or through failures in the grid system that supplies power, all equipment at the site is in danger. This excess electricity travels along the conductive surfaces or connectivity lines that interconnect these components, overwhelming the circuitry of each one in the process. The electrical surge moves along these cables and from element to element until it reaches the earth. Along the way, it is continuously causing damage to equipment that was not originally the subject of the strike or switching error. This compounds the amount of damage that is done, and makes restoration to functionality more expensive, more difficult and more time-consuming. The only effective way to combat this issue is through the proactive installation of devices that either reroute the electrical flow outside of a safe range or create a gap that the electricity flow cannot cross. This is the essence of surge protection in general, the utilization of a pass-through device that can detect excess power outside of a safe range and stop that electricity from moving past the point of installation. Through the elimination of a pathway to flow on, the electricity cannot impact devices installed past the point of installation of that SPD. This functions to minimize the damage that occurs when the unfortunate but inevitable power surge happens.

 

Industrial surge protection functions essentially the same way that the surge protectors you have in your home function, creating a stop gap that excess electricity cannot pass through, thereby protecting the devices installed beyond it in the flow path. The industrial level of surge protection needed is far more extensive, as the levels of power to allow functionality at an industrial installation are far greater. The surge protection devices themselves must be more robust and technologically advanced, as they protect equipment worth far more than any household would ever have. They also need to allow for fast restoration to functionality after an event, as many industries that utilize them require uptimes that are nearly 100%. Because the threats are greater, the electrical surge protection must also be more significant.

 

Why Is Industrial Surge Protection So Crucial?

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Why is industrial surge protection so crucial?

 

To understand the necessity of industrial surge protection and why it is so crucial for operations and profit margins, we must first grasp the idea of why surge protection in general, is necessary. Surge protection is a series of devices within a system installed in order to provide an opportunity to interrupt a flow of electricity if that electricity surge is too high for the equipment it is powering. Surge protective devices (SPDs) are installed along pathways and in front of equipment that electricity flows into, acting as a gatekeeper. The ongoing flow of electricity that is the lifeblood of processes is allowed to flow through them, remaining uninterrupted as long as it remains stable, consistent, and within a specific range. If it becomes inconsistent and moves outside of a safe range, then the surge protection devices will activate to provide the single task they were designed for, to cut off or divert that flow of electricity. This is because the circuitry of the systems they protect can be destroyed if the electricity flowing to them goes above the range they are designed to handle. The resulting damage to the circuitry can also be compounded by explosions and fires if the power surge is too great. In addition to the lost data and functionality, losses will also be found in the costs to repair and replace the equipment to restore it to functional status. In most consumer situations, this might mean a home computer or a few other components designed to make our lives easier in our houses. On an industrial level, the risks are far more significant.

 

Industrial operators see everything in an exaggerated state. The machinery is larger and more expensive. The data housed is more valuable. The services produced are more crucial to the lives of consumers. While it all might still be components operating using electricity to function, the amount of investment into that system is far larger on the industrial level. Because the operating equipment is larger, the power consumption is far greater. The power necessary to provide functionality on an industrial scale is many times more than on a home consumer scale. For these reasons, the industrial versions of surge protection devices need to be far more robust and capable of handling power overages far greater than a home situation. Additional issues are found in the fact that industrial facilities are nearly always more exposed to the elements than are consumer devices, needing to operate within the field and thereby exposing them to the potential for lightning strikes. A lighting strike may do damage at the point where it hits, but one of the most costly aspects of a lightning strike is that the power surge that follows enters the system and flows along the pathways designed for normal operations. This excess electricity moves from component to component interconnected within that system, causing damage to all of them and not limiting it to the strike point itself. Installing an industrial surge protection system can minimize damage, increasing the bottom line and making businesses more profitable.

 

5G and Industrial Surge Protection

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Is surge protection used in 5G installations?

 

5G coverage for major metropolitan areas across the globe is one of the largest endeavors being undertaken by private companies and municipalities. The switchover from earlier generation slower speed networks to 5G is necessary for carriers to remain competitive, with customers naturally choosing the carriers that will provide them with the fastest speeds available for data transfer. Our cell phones are no longer only used to connect calls between people and have evolved into the means of connection between ourselves and the internet. They are nearly as crucial to business and private use as the computers used to manage daily workflow or contact. Cell phones and tablets have become the tools used for on-the-go connection to networks, so connectivity speeds must be improved to allow the transfer of larger files. The simple streaming of a movie or video involves a massive amount of data that used to take a significant amount of time to download before it could be viewed. But technology has evolved to allow viewing while the data is being received, ushering in a new era of streaming entertainment on our mobile devices. The network infrastructure has needed to be replaced with different equipment that can receive and transmit the frequencies used by 5G. This is why the switchover to 5G became so critical. Simply put, if you have a 5G capable device, you want a network that’s capable of providing you with 5G service

 

In densely populated areas, 5G nodes must be much closer to one another since the signals do not propagate as far. They actually need to be about much closer and nearer the users in these cases than tower transmissons, and they require a combination of antenna and radio types that can provide all signals in the 5G network to best work together. This massive rollout of 5G equipment into the field includes equipment placed in close proximity to users (small cells) on poles and rooftops, and equipment added to existing towers (c-Band). With all the new and additional equipment being added to cell sites, the need to protect the electronics from power surges is equally if not more critical than in 4G networks. Due to their height and placement, macro sites on towers are vulnerable to damage from lightning strikes, and small cell sites are connected to the Power Grid where they are in danger from grid-side power surges. Any time electronic equipment is added in the field, industrial surge protection equipment must be in place to mitigate the risks of damage. The only logical thing to do to protect the investment is to integrate external industrial surge protection equipment into the infrastructure in a systematic way. While radio manufacturers do place surge protection into the radios this does no good if a lightning strike occurs. The overvoltage protection (OVP) must be placed in front of the radio. If a lightning surge enters a radio enclosure, it is already too late for that radio; it will be damaged beyond repair. And a tower climb to replace a radio and other equipment on a cell tower is expensive and renders the site useless for the time that it is offline. Lightning strikes cause power surges, and power surges cause damage to circuitry in 5G installations. Equipment that is interconnected to communicate is at risk because the lightning surge will flow from component to component if no industrial surge protection is installed. You may be able to isolate the strike damage, but if you cannot stop the flow of damaging electricity that can be coupled onto conductive cables even from a strike some distance away from the cell tower. By installing surge protection devices at well-engineered points, 4G/5G installations can be as protected from surge damage. This keeps them online and functioning longer, reducing operating expenses and enhancing the bottom line of companies investing in cellular communications networks

 

Solar Surge Protection

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Solar power is not only a method of possibly creating a power source that is cheaper to manufacture, it very well might be necessary for survival in the future. Solar energy is being looked upon as the failsafe for the inevitable point in time when the fossil fuels run out, or become too expensive to be effectively used to generate power for the masses. If this point comes without solar being developed to the point of being able to produce an adequate amount of power to satisfy the needs of our biggest cities, we are most assuredly going to suffer. Imaging not having enough power to your house to use your computer or lights. That is a possibility of solar power is not developed to the point of being able to produce enough to satisfy everyone in your area. There is no ability to create more sunlight each day, so instead we are relying on ways to make more power from the same amount of sun. The way PV systems work is that sunlight is collected on a solar panel and used to heat liquid in a sealed system. This liquid flows and turns turbines in order to generate power. The fossil fuel systems work much the same way only they burn fossil fuels to create the turbine movement. Solar is a system that does not rely upon destroying an element to create the product, and therefor only relies upon how much of that sunlight can be collected during the day to put the system in motion. Extending the amount of uptime of the system itself is the best current method to produce more power with the same amount of sunlight, and the private sector is developing methods of achieving this longer uptime.

 

Through the integration of PV surge protection devices throughout the systems, the inevitable weather events that cause the majority of outages can be reduced. Lightning strikes to the panels are one of the primary causes for downtimes, as the panel is destroyed and the control equipment is damaged by the subsequent power surge. This massive surge of electricity flows along the connectivity lines and destroys equipment at the circuit level, creating far more damage that needs repair than a simple panel replacement. Because this situation is harder to fix in order to restore functionality, it takes longer and wastes more of the existing sunshine. Through the integration of PV surge protection along the critical pathways, the costs of creating power can be dramatically reduced at the same time as increasing the uptimes of the facilities. This creates clean power in a cheaper method, and also makes it more plentiful. Through these types of improvements and streamlining of processes, solar power will soon not just be an alternative that can be called upon in a pinch, but will become the mainstay of power production. This will replace the antiquated methods, and user in a new dawn of power being available for cheaper prices, while the atmosphere doesn’t suffer as well.

 

Why Surge Protection Is Important For Solar Panels

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Solar energy production is considered by many to be one of the most important technological developments in the las 100 years. This is because the energy appetite of the world is growing every year, while the resources necessary to satisfy that consumption are growing less plentiful. The supply of fossil fuels that can be burned in order to move turbines to produce power is limited, and some models are showing the supplies to run out within the next few decades if the rate of consumption continues. This means that without the evolution of alternative energy sources that can completely fulfill the demand, we will be caught short and not able to supply the electricity that is needed. Imagine flipping your light switch on only to find out that there is not enough power produced in your area to fulfill your request! The rate of development of the technologies that can fill these needs has been slow, namely due to the lack of funding from governments and institutions that can solve the issues that keep development hindered. Government investment in technological research could move the development along faster, but the powerful fossil fuel industry does not want anything that threatens their bottom line to come about until it is absolutely necessary. They view the development of solar as a technology that could replace fossil fuel production as a threat to their current bottom line, so they work diligently to slow the development of the methods that could allow production totals to be enough to satisfy demand. This keeps fossil fuel production relevant.

 

Luckily, the private sector is not slowing down in its own development of solutions. One example of this is the development of surge protection devoices specifically for PV systems, which can both increase production totals as well as reducing costs. This is accomplished through thwarting the travel of power surges from the source to the equipment used in the process. Lightning strikes to solar panels is a common occurrence, and the power surge that follows flows along the connectivity cables that are necessary to join the panels to the control equipment. This pathway is used by the surging power to travel large distances from the strike point and overwhelm the equipment at the circuit level. This compounds damage that is caused by every strike, necessitating the repair or replacement of control equipment in addition to the panels. The system gets knocked offline for as long as the restoration process takes place, and as a result the amounts of power produced by the same amount of daily sunlight are diminished. Through the installation of PV surge protection, these surges can have little to no impact on that downstream equipment, limiting damage to the panels themselves. This allows for quicker restoration to functionality as well as lower operational costs, driving down the costs of electricity and cleaning up the environment at the same time. The private sector may be the saving grace of the world as far as atmosphere and economy

 

Surge Protection For Solar Panels

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One of the biggest threats to solar power development is the fact that it is still on par with fossil fuel production. What this means is that even though there is little to no discussion about the fact that solar is a superior method from the aspect of cleanliness and damage to the atmosphere, the overall cost of production still hinders full favor from the public. Simply put, people do not like to pay more for something, even if the creation of that something had negative impacts. People weigh the pros and cons of their purchase decisions each time they make one, and if it is not an obvious and gratuitous problem that the manufacture is creating it will be overweighed by the cost savings. People are willing to risk their own health for the savings they can have, and that is being exploited by the companies who run fossil fuel plants. Through the leveraging of a lack majority public support, they can manipulate public funding to not fully develop anything that would promote the solar industry. They can stagnate the technological growth and development of the genre as a whole through forcing only private industry to fund innovation, and push the point of their replacement farther down the road. If solar was not only cleaner but cheaper over all, then there would be no discussion as to why we should continue using the older methods.

 

Luckily, private industry is solving these issues. One of the biggest contributions to the evolution of the solar industry has been the integration of surge protection devices into the systems. Through the integration of specialized PV surge protection, a large portion of the ongoing operational costs of power production can be reduced. This is done through the stoppage of power surges from using the power chain to deliver too much electricity to control equipment. When lightning strikes a solar panel, which is a common occurrence since they are remotely placed, the panel itself is not the only damage that occurs. An additional power surge travels along the connectivity cables and lines and overwhelms the equipment that is used in the process which is downstream. This compounds the need for repair and replacement beyond the panel, and also involves large amounts of the equipment as well. Through the integration of surge protection, the equipment downstream can be salvage or damage minimized to a point of not only saving money, but also keeping the systems online and producing for longer. This is because it is far easier to replace only the panel than the equipment as well. This gives the systems the ability to have longer uptimes when the sun is shining, thus creating more accessible power for public consumption from the same amount of fuel. Since the sun is free, the amount of power that can be produced is dependent upon how much uptime the system has while the sun is shining. Through this integration, we can improve the systems to be on par with the costs of production of fossil fuels, and the transition can be furthered.