The IEC 61400-24 Lightning Protection specification is in the process of being amended. The proposed updated will add more instructions and information for Lightning Detection and Measurement Systems. Lightning monitors are available in a variety of types and sizes. From the basic lightning card to high speed data acquisitions systems with current probes on each blade, the complexity and cost vary from a couple of dollars to upwards of $10k. Do wind turbine operators need expensive lightning monitoring systems? Lightning expert Allen Hall is joined by Chief Commercial Officer, Joel Saxum, as they review the proposed changes and the effect on the wind industry.

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IEC 61400-24 Amendment Discussion

Allen Hall: Welcome to the special edition of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. And there is some activity in the lightning world in the IEC 61400-24 specification back in a, in Annex L and Annex L is about monitoring of wind turbines for lightning information. And there's a, an amendment being proposed at the minute by the working group with the IEC working group.

That is looking to put some more details around lightning monitoring for wind turbines. And I have Joel Saxum here with me, our chief commercial officer at Weather Guard Lightning Tech. And we think it's important that everybody realize that this is happening at the moment and to make sure operators and owners understand the implications of these changes that are being discussed at the IEC level. And what it means in terms of your future operations, your costs some added complexities, if you decide to go down this pathway.

Joel Saxum: Yeah, absolutely. So I think we should start with just a little bit of a discussion around the IEC standard and what it means for the industry. IEC standards are things that are adhered to as basically a technical specification. If it's how wind turbines are rated, by what speeds they can take, or how certain things are designed in foundations, or the lightning protection systems, it's what the industry looks to for guidance.

 What ends up happening is if you run into, maybe a court case, or something of this sort, this document becomes a partial, basically, expert witness. Did hey party A is suing party B for whatever on their wind turbines, and then this document will almost always come into play in that. Whether it's an insurance case or it's a legal battle of some sort. Hey did you adhere to the IEC standards? So while it isn't technically a law or something that you have to follow as a regulation, it is a pseudo that in the legal world, right? So the, it pops up almost all the time.

 All turbines are when they get certified against the IEC standards. To be able to connect to the grids in most countries. So it is a very important document and has real world implications for everybody in the wind industry. 

Allen Hall: And there's been really two additions to it.

There was an early edition back in the 2000s. Then in 2019, they updated it with a lot more information from the technical aspects from watching lightning damage to wind turbines and providing some feedback and how to test better. So there has been some more recent updates to the document. The monitoring side, though, was pretty scarce. There was an Annex L in the 2019 version of the document, but it was pretty simplistic. You can put systems on your turbines to detect when lightning has str...