Latest advances and main topics about lightning protection were presented and discussed.
During the 24th and 25th of November 2011, the Polytechnic University of Valencia hosted the First International Lightning Protection Association Symposium (ILPS) with more than 100 assistants from 25 countries around the world.
The opening session was held by the Vice-Rector for Research of the Polytechnic University of Valencia, the Director of the Energy Technological Institute and the President of the International Lightning Protection Association (ILPA).
This international meeting has been an ILPA initiative based on the need of setting up a new forum that complements the scientific and technical spectrum on lightning protection knowledge, ensuring the plurality of approaches and updating the state of the art on this subject.
The symposium was structured into four sessions, each of them conducted by eminent experts: Dr Gerard Berger, Dr Franco d’Alessandro, Dr Pedro Llovera, and Mr Alain Rousseau. The sessions included:
- Significant contributions on lightning protected facilities experiences.
- Experiences and unprecedented testing proposals to evaluate the effectiveness of Lightning Protection Systems in HV laboratories.
- Presentation of the common revision of the ESE national standards done by France, Portugal and Spain, as well as an analysis of the European Commission resolution on the attempt to create a standard barrier in the EU country member.
- Several contributions on the physics of lightning, along with a review of the scientific basis of lightning protection from its origins to the present and its comparison with the results of practical experience.
- Storm detection and overvoltage protection.
During these sessions, representatives from universities, research agencies, manufacturers, designers, engineers and end- users had the opportunity to openly participate by discussing and sharing their views and experiences.
The balance of this first ILPS has been highly positive and ILPA, as organizer, is grateful to the eminent authors and all the participants in this event who has come from all over the world, showing the interest of the international lightning community for this forum and the selected topics.
ILPS aims to be an open, stable and biannual worldwide forum to advance lightning knowledge and technologies. The French city of Cannes will host the next ILPS call in two years.