The forecast of lightning appears in the new “Plan of Day” dashboard, which also provides forecasts for other key elements, such as hub height winds and extreme temperature events.

“The release of the new dynamic Plan of Day dashboard is an exciting advancement for our Indji Watch service,” said Adam Hender, CEO Indji Systems. “Plan of Day leverages our patented, monitoring method and incorporates forecasts for several critical threats including lightning.”

Indji Systems uses NOAA high-resolution weather models to produce hourly updating forecasts for lightning for the upcoming 18 hours. The hour-by-hour forecast factors in current atmospheric conditions, including radar and lightning data, and blends them with forecast conditions to provide their clients a view into the future.

The forecasts leverage the company’s U.S. Patent 10,089,854 by communicating to the customer when lightning is forecast to enter client defined distance zones. The zones are modeled to monitor the entire asset, providing a truer picture of the lightning threat.

These forecasts will enable renewable energy professionals to make more accurate, informed decisions about maintenance scheduling and bring another level of safety awareness and preparedness to their growing employee and contractor base.

“Our renewable farm customers will see benefits in improved safety for maintenance crews and more effective planning for operations activity impacted by weather,” added Hender. “It is rewarding to see such great outcomes from Indji System’s continued investment in research and development.”

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Pheonix Contact’s LM-S detects the magnitude, duration, number, and related surge current events caused by lightning strikes at wind farms.

Detailed lightning analysis can be an effective input to asset management systems to optimize the inspection intervals for wind-turbine blades, as well as appraise damage requiring immediate attention. This can result in performance improvements by reducing turbine downtime and increasing availability.

This has particularly important implications as wind turbines become larger and are located in more access remote areas such as offshore applications.

For early detection and evaluation of lightning strikes, Phoenix Contact offers a Lightning Monitoring System (LM-S). The LM-S detects and analyzes strikes in real-time including the magnitude, duration, number — and other parameters of surge current events caused by lightning strikes.

Phoenix Contact develops and manufactures industrial electrical and electronic technology products that power, protect, connect and automate systems and equipment for a wide range of industries.

The company will be showcasing its LM-S at AWEA’s WINDPOWER 2019, May 20 to 23 in Houston, Texas.

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The company, which provides environmental and industrial measurement (including lightning data), recently developed the capability to distinguish cloud-to-ground lightning strikes that contain continuing current — one of the most damaging of lighting strikes. Our conversation touches on this and more.

For further reading, please click through to this release.

To learn more about Vaisala, go here.

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