How should the lightning protection system health index be established?

Abstract: The lightning protection system health index is not simply to give a score to the lightning protection system, but to integrate data such as lightning events, SPD status, grounding status, equipment impact, and operation and maintenance closed loop to form a risk indicator that is interpretable, sortable, and can be used to judge maintenance priorities.

When a platform is connected to dozens, hundreds or even thousands of lightning protection points, what operation and maintenance personnel need to know most is not how much data each site has, but which site has a higher risk and which problem needs to be dealt with first.

This is what the lightning protection system health index means. It can't just be a pretty number on a big screen, but it should be able to turn dispersion into risk judgment, letting managers know "why this site is more dangerous."

1. Why a single status cannot represent health level

The number of lightning strikes, SPD status, ground resistance, and equipment alarms are all valuable data, but they are not complete when viewed alone. One site has a small number of lightning strikes, but the SPD has deteriorated, so the risk may still be high; another site has a lot of lightning strikes, but the SPD is in normal condition, the grounding is stable, and the handling is timely, so the risk may not be the highest.

What the health index wants to solve is the problem of multi-dimensional data fusion: it needs to put "what has been experienced", "whether the protection is reliable", "whether the discharge is smooth", "whether the equipment is affected" and "whether the disposal is closed loop" in the same evaluation framework.

2. What dimensions should the health index include?

At least five dimensions should be included: lightning exposure, SPD health, grounding stability, equipment impact, and operation and maintenance closed loop. Lightning exposure describes the frequency and intensity of strikes that a site withstands; SPD health describes whether protection devices have deteriorated; grounding stability describes whether the discharge path is reliable.

The equipment impact degree is used to determine whether the event has been associated with power, communication or control equipment abnormalities; the operation and maintenance closed loop degree is used to determine whether the alarm has been processed and reviewed. The absence of any one category may distort risk judgments.

3. Health index must be interpretable

If the platform only displays "Health Index 70 points" without explaining the reason, then this score will be difficult to guide maintenance. A good index should tell users: where the risk comes from, when it occurs, whether it continues to get worse, and what to check next.

For example, if the index of a certain site decreases, it may be due to the recent occurrence of high-intensity surges, rising SPD degradation trends, abnormal grounding state fluctuations, and the fact that the last alarm has not been reviewed. Such an explanation can truly support operation and maintenance actions.

4. How does the index serve operation and maintenance decisions?

The health index can be used to rank sites, placing high-risk sites at the front and reducing egalitarian inspections. It can also be used for work order priority. When strong lightning strikes superimpose SPD abnormalities and grounding fluctuations, the system automatically increases the processing level.

In the long term, the health index can also help companies determine which areas need to be modified, which types of SPDs are more likely to deteriorate, and which grounding systems need to be reviewed, thereby optimizing investment and maintenance strategies.

5. How does FEXLINK understand the lightning protection health index?

FEXLINK believes that the core of the health index is not “scoring” but “interpretable comprehensive risk judgment”. The FEXLINK digital lightning protection system should integrate events, status, trends and disposal records to output health results that can guide actions.

The index must serve the site, not the display. Health index has real value only when it can tell operations and maintenance personnel why risks have increased, where to deal with them first, and how to review the results.

Conclusion: Health index is a key step from data to judgment

Digital lightning protection solves "what to see" in the early stage, and health index further solves "how to see" and "who to deal with first". When the health index can explain the sources of risks, prioritize maintenance, and precipitate long-term trends, the lightning protection system will move from equipment monitoring to intelligent operation and maintenance.

FEXLINK technology will continue to share content related to intelligent lightning protection, early warning of electrical safety, digital power distribution, energy supervision and industrial Internet of Things.

FEXLINK/FEXLINK uses data to reconstruct energy efficiency and electrical safety.

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