Well, 2017 was an exciting year for the team GreyMatters. So, at the end of 2016, we set goals on what we wanted to achieve in 2017. The biggest success story which is probably closest to my heart is smashing the previous year’s lives-protected by HV Earthing/Grounding Design.
Lives Saved by Earthing/Grounding Design – Explained
There’s a 2-minute explanation on how we get to the lives protected numbers below. By-the-way, all rail sector work is ignored as this would add millions to the figures – which is great, but, for the purposes of catching the underlying trend for less populous work, it is not so helpful.
It’s an interesting dilemma, given that personally, my goal is to know that somewhere out there our work in Earthing/Grounding Design, has saved at least one person’s life. And based on the HSE.gov.uk’s statistics for the UK, the rate of fatal injury per 100,000 workers is at 0.4 (2017); 6% (8) of those who sadly died last year (137) was as a result of electrocution, which means statistically in our population of 498,500 workers, we have still have got work to do! Given, we’ve influenced just under 1/8 of a worker’s life during 2017, we need to reach a figure closer to 4.16m workers to claim our first life saved.
Cumulatively, since we’ve been recording lives-protected, GreyMatters has recorded 1.4m which equates to a little over 1/3 of a life saved (statistically speaking of course).
Other news
Without wanting to sound too GreyMatters-centric – we upgraded the business systems to full UKAS accreditation for ISO9001, 14001 and OHSAS 18001. This is pretty unique as it makes GreyMatters the only independent specialist Earthing/Grounding Design Consultancy to be fully UKAS accredited – part of being a Top 1% consultancy. There’ll be more on what this means when working with us and the launch of an innovation planned for 2018 in a later piece, in combination with news about RISQS and Sentinel.
In addition, part of the plan for 2017 was to reinforce this blog channel as an authority on Electrical Earthing/Grounding Design and Lightning Protection. Something that can be referred to and although some of the concepts are considered complex, the style of writing is hopefully easy to read and informative. This post includes a round-up of the ten most-read posts of 2017, and interestingly not all of the most read posts are initially published in 2017 (so you may have missed them)…
1) What is Split Factor?
Originally published August 2nd, 2017 and is the #1 post last year. The purpose of this post is to briefly cover the concept in Earthing Design that is often referred to but little understood – Split or Reduction Factors. The link to the full article is What is Split Factor?
2) Codes that matter for Earthing Design Standards in Railways
Originally published July 4th, 2017 and is the #2 post last year. The purpose of this post considers the relevant UK/EU Earthing Standards applied in the Rail sector and the challenges posed by the characteristics of the rail infrastructure. And the link to the full article is Codes that matter for Earthing Design Standards in Railways
3) What are the Earthing Safety Calculations?
Originally published Feb 23rd, 2017 and is the #3 post last year. The purpose of this post is to highlight a common misconception surrounding the old 1-ohm rule is out-dated and obsolete. The link to the full article is Safety Calculations – you’re overdue an update!
4) Lightning Risk – Looking ahead at future trend
Originally published April 18th, 2017 this post is the #4 post last year. The purpose of this post is take a forecast look at what the numbers might look like for lightning activity during the next decade. And the link to the full article is Increasing Lightning Risk trend
5) Isolated LPS Design – Isolated vs Non-isolated IEC 62305
Originally published May 11th, 2017 this post is the #5 post last year. The purpose of this post is show the differences between a non-isolated vs isolated LPS design and when to consider using an isolated lightning protection design. And the link to the full article is Isolated LPS Design – Isolated vs Non-isolated IEC 62305
6) What is Soil Resistivity Testing & Why is it Important to safe Electrical Earthing Design?
Originally published Mar 1st, 2016 this post is the #6 post last year. The purpose of this post is highlight that getting the Soil Resistivity model right is the first building block to a safe / compliant design. Take this for granted and you’re in for a roller-coaster of a ride. And the link to the full article is What is Soil Resistivity Testing & Why is it Important to Safe Electrical Earthing Design
7) Myth Busting – Hot Sites. 5 Reasons Why a Hot Site Does not mean it is a Dangerous Site!
Originally published Jan 12th, 2016 this post is the #7 post last year. The purpose of this post is to bust the many misconceptions surrounding Hot Zoning and what a hot site actually means. And the link to the full article is Myth Busting – Hot-sites. 5 reasons why a hot-site does not mean it’s a dangerous site!
8) Electrical Earthing System System Design
Although originally published Oct 20th, 2015 this post is the #8 post last year. The purpose of this post is to explain a little about fault theory and why separating Earths can be a really bad idea! And the link to the full article is Electrical Earthing System Design Separation
9) What is Remote Finite Element Analysis Earth Testing?
Although originally published Aug 6th, 2015 this post is the #9 post last year. The purpose of this post is to provide an answer the problem of Earth testing in built-up environments where it isn’t always practicable to run out the idealised amount of long test leads and FEA tools like certain versions of CDEGS can make a massive difference. And the link to the full article is What is Remote Finite Element Analysis Earth Testing?
10) When Electrical Earthing Science Actually Works
Although originally published Oct 23rd, 2015 this post is the #10 post last year. The purpose of this post is to provide options when bouncing up against physical world problems. FEA tools like certain versions of CDEGS can make a massive difference and bridge the gap between physical and theoretical in a cost-effective manner. And the link to the full article is When Electrical Earthing Science Actually Works
If you’ve got a project or query you’d like us to look at, why not drop us a line on LiveChat? And a big thanks to our friends at:
Ian Griffiths CEng, MBA, BEng, MIET
This post is written by Ian Griffiths, Principal Engineer at GreyMatters, an Earthing & Lightning Consultant of 27 years, one of the top 1% UKAS accredited CDEGS consultants and professional advisor to international utility companies, data centre and infrastructure developers.
