ST Malaysia released a new statistic survey on Lightning Protection Systems efficiency

15 Jul ST Malaysia released a new statistic survey on Lightning Protection Systems efficiency

Lightning Protection experts are opposing for more than three decades the traditional Benjamin Franklin lightning rod to the recent Early Streamer Emission lightning protection systems. Every lightning-dedicated conference, every incident, every new standard release is a new opportunity for a new dispute. One or another “expert” will use this new event either to blame the “adverse” technology of not performing; or to declare his full endorsement of t atechnology that it is supposed to be definitely more performant.
Such debates are useless. Those are biased, no one will ever admit the other technology of having advantages, no “expert” will ever change his mind, whatever evidences are produced. We are not taking science here, we are taking politics.

Malaysia Energy Commission (Suruhanjaya Tenaga) made a very healthy decision in 2016: appointing an independant company (Mega Jati Sdn Bhd) to conduct a survey. Not an assessment of the technologies or products, but a survey on the existing LPS in Malaysia. 416 buildings have been surveyed, asking owners/operators questions about the lightning protection system installed, the occurence of accidents etc… ST has then made this survey and results available on its website : https://www.st.gov.my/web/download/listing/72 – Kajian_Penggunaan_Alat_Penangkap_Kilat.pdf.

The survey do not draw any conclusion on the efficiency of the various systems installed in Malaysia. It it just releasing statistics: Among 306 buildings protected by a Meshed Cage, 22 have been damaged by lightning (7.18%). Among 64 buildings protected by ESE, only 3 have been damaged by lightning (4.68%)
At least that gives a neutral and purely statistic idea of both technologies performances and relevance.