Why Independent Earthing Consultants for Your Earthing and Lightning Protection Designs

At GreyMatters, we’re often asked, “Why You, an Independent Earthing Consultant [earthing system designer]. Why not someone else who is cheaper?”

Top 1% Earthing Consultants

We’ve said a lot in the past about our technical capabilities:

• Top 1% software
• Top 1% test equipment
• Top 1% training to provide you’ve guessed it a packed of…
• Top 1% Electrical Earthing Design services.

It’s also true, what’s imperative at the end of the day is deliverability and practicality. There’s no point designing a vast and complicated earthing network in CDEGS when it’s not feasible or practicable to install it!

So what else sets GreyMatters apart to bridge the theoretical vs. practical divide?

Experience as an Earthing Consultant

In short, 27 years of delivery experience in conjunction with design. Principal, Ian Griffiths, previously headed up a medium-sized contracting company providing delivery of HV Earthing installations into large TNO (transmission network operators) like National Grid and power station contracts. Ever one to lead by example, this meant Ian would sometimes be found in the bottom of a trench, welding/brazing, bashing earth rods into the ground, earth-moving with 5t diggers and getting in amongst the action with his team.

In the last 20+ years, GreyMatters has been involved in installations at all voltage levels. From lightning protection systems on schools, right up to earthing systems at 400 kV substations and HVDC converter stations (800 kV DC). As a result, you can trust there isn’t a scenario or challenge that we haven’t already come across and solved it!

Understanding

From a civils point of view, that means understanding build processes, sequencing, coordination and having a clear idea of what is practical. So we know that every design that we deliver is buildable. And where a client raises buildability concerns, we are always happy to roll up the sleeves with the customer and partners to collaboratively come up with a solution that works for all.

In it for You!

Another advantage of GreyMatters as an earthing designer is that we don’t sell components – we’re independent. Why is this important?

While others have to keep an eye on the stockroom while designing an earth system. We focus on safety and deliverability. We are proud to offer a supplier-agnostic design process. Although we do, of course, have a global network of suppliers and installers we can call upon where equipment supply and installation is required.

So here’s a summary of the most frequent questions for you…

1.     Are GreyMatters really in the top 1% of earthing consultants in Europe?

Yes.  GreyMatters is one of a small, elite group that are fully accredited and certified to use CDEGS and XGSLab software for modelling energy.  Some aspects of power systems engineering and lightning can be extremely challenging. So from a compliance point of view, this means you have the peace of mind that GreyMatters are fully conversant and competent to provide you with a technically secure solution. And you have formal evidence to satisfy project CDM requirements.

2.     Is it true that GreyMatters can 100% prevent lightning attachments?

Yes.  Using Dissipation Array System (DAS) technology, we can guarantee your facilities or asset will not be struck by lightning for 25 years!

3.     How will I know the progress of your work if I use your service?

It’s a common complaint that clients feel left in the dark by their consultants so GreyMatters has developed a system to provide incremental automatic updates for your project.  Time is often the one thing in shortest supply. Therefore, being automatically updated means you don’t have to waste your time chasing us up.

4.     I heard you use different equipment for your earthing studies, could you just explain what it is?

Some geologies are more challenging than others. For example, parts of the UK share igneous rock formations found in the Nordics. It’s these where the ‘run of the mill’ instrumentation will not be able to hack it.

We then use our specialised equipment.  It is 100 times more powerful than the regular equipment so is able to penetrate the geology with greater reliability, to a greater depth, and greater detail.  Armed with extra power means there is much greater confidence in the end results being a true reflection of the geology. Which leads to a more accurate design as it will ‘match’ the geology more precisely. Avoiding expensive over (or under) engineering!

5.     What makes GreyMatters Global special?

What’s neat about GreyMatters is we are so confident that you will like what we provide. Therefore we are the only earthing consultant prepared to back this up with a money back guarantee if we fail to deliver what we agreed in the time set.  To our knowledge, there isn’t another earthing consultant in the world that comes anywhere close.