RMCEMC January 2006 Meeting

Every year in the Unites States lightning causes approximately $100 million of damage.  Most of this damage is to commercial and industrial facilities, where lightning disrupts processes, damages equipment, scrambles data, and so forth.  The Rocky Mountain region in particular poses a unique set of lightning-related problems, due to a higher than average number of thunderstorms and poor electrical grounding because of high resistivity soil.

A complete lightning protection system includes subsystems for (1) protection from the direct strike, (2) a low impedance earth connection and (3) protection from lightning-generated surges and transients.  Each of these three subsystems will be examined in detail, and will include reference to applicable standards. In addition, the presentation will include examples of lightning damage. The presenter deals with real lightning protection issues and applications on a daily basis.

Bio

Mr. Lanzoni has over twelve years of experience in the lightning protection, electrical grounding and surge protection industries. He is a member of the following national committees:

·        National Fire Protection Association Technical Committee for standard 780, the Standard for the Installation of Lightning Protection Systems

·        American Petroleum Institute task force for the creation of standard 545, the Standard for Lightning Protection of Hydrocarbon Storage Tanks.

·        National Fire Protection Association Technical Advisory Committee for the National Electrical Grounding Research Project.

Mr. Lanzoni has conducted numerous site inspections of industrial and commercial facilities, for the purposes of evaluating lightning protection, grounding and surge protection systems.  These sites have included chemical production plants, refineries, petroleum storage facilities, data centers, power generating stations, broadcasting and cellular tower sites, substations and NASA facilities. He has published and/or presented several technical papers regarding electrical grounding, such as Managing Grounding Systems, Electrical Grounding in the Rocky Mountains and Enhancement of Lightning Performance of T&D Lines. 

Mr. Lanzoni has over eighteen years of experience with manufacturers of engineered equipment. He has an Engineering degree from Lehigh University, a Masters degree from University of San Diego and is a member of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.