The working groups meeting of the IEC Surge Protective Device Committee (37A) in Chengdu (Sichuan) was also an opportunity to participate in two major events in China.
From 16 to 20 October, working groups 3 (application guide for LV surge arresters), 4 (telecom surge arresters), 5 (LV surge arresters) and 9 (new projects) met in Chengdu (known among other things for giant Pandas and Sichuan pepper) at the invitation of the company zhongguang (http://en.zhongguang.com/) with the aim of preparing the standards of tomorrow mainly in the field of DC surge arresters and the new organization of surge arresters standards BT (for the record, LV surge arresters standards will be transformed into a series 61643 including part 01 (general, applicable to all surge arresters), -11 (AC surge arresters), -21 (surge arresters data and telecom), 31 (surge arresters for photovoltaic applications) and 41 (DC surge arresters) Two new projects are being studied by the AHG09 group: surge arresters with additional functions (called SMART SPD) and specific disconnectors for surge arresters (SSD).
Note: a Low Voltage surge arrester is named Surge Protective Device
It should be noted that the meeting was held at the same time as the World Standards Day. Each year on 14 October, the members of the IEC, ISO and ITU celebrate World Standards Day, which is a means of paying tribute to the collaborative efforts of the thousands of experts worldwide who develop the voluntary technical agreements that are published as international standards. The theme of this year was « Standards make cities smarter » that matches very well with the « smart » SPD.
Following these meetings, SEFTIM participated in a conference organized by Taihang Technology in Xiamen (http://www.spd-th.com/?Language=EN). This conference (international symposium on lightning protection technology) which brought together more than 100 people from several provinces was an opportunity to discuss the future of surge arresters with presentations in fields as diverse as rail applications, detection of storms with Sinopec and the guidelines of the Ministry of Housing and Urban and Rural Development.
Finally, SEFTIM took part in the “second China lightning protection industry development & innovation forum” in Shenzhen. This event brought together more than 300 people from the entire lightning protection business in China, the people in charge of lightning protection and associated standards in the Ministry of Housing and Urban and Rural Development as well as experts from The Chinese meteorological administration, was an opportunity to discuss many innovative topics that clearly show the potential for Chinese innovation in this field.
It is also interesting to note that China already has standards on SMART SPDs (surge arresters communicating about their state, their environment and their expected lifetime), SSD (special circuit breakers for surge arresters application able to withstand significant lightning surge while quickly cutting low fault currents), and multi-pulse tests (tests performed by injecting several pulses of low amplitude but consecutive which is very stringent especially for varistors).
The presentations by SEFTIM focused on the coordination of SPD protection and the future of surge arresters as well as of the surge protective device committee.
