EN IEC 62793:2020

Thunderstorm warning systems - Protection against lightning

IEC 62793:2020(E) describes the characteristics of thunderstorm warning systems (TWSs) in order to implement lightning hazard preventive measures. Single sensors and/or a network of sensors (e.g. lightning location system) can be used as a TWS. This second edition cancels and replaces the first edition, published in 2016. This edition constitutes a technical revision. This edition includes the following significant technical changes with respect to the previous edition: - portable devices are no longer covered by this standard; - in Clause 5, classes of TWS have been deleted; - in Clause 6, updated figures and more detailed text are provided to better illustrate the alarm timeline; - in Clause 9, the text has been summarized and refers now to the application guide given in Annex F; - annexes have been reorganized; - Annex E is normative.

Gewitterwarnsysteme - Blitzschutz

Systèmes d'alerte aux orages - Protection contre la foudre

L'IEC 62793:2020 décrit les caractéristiques des systèmes d'alerte aux orages (TWS, Thunderstorm Warning Systems), afin de mettre en œuvre des mesures préventives contre les dangers de la foudre. Des capteurs uniques et/ou des réseaux de capteurs (système de localisation de la foudre, par exemple) peuvent être utilisés comme TWS. Cette deuxième édition annule et remplace la première édition parue en 2016. Cette édition constitue une révision technique. Cette édition inclut les modifications techniques majeures suivantes par rapport à l'édition précédente: - les appareils portatifs ne sont plus couverts par la présente norme; - à l'Article 5, les classes de TWS ont été supprimées; - à l'Article 6, des figures mises à jour et un texte plus précis fournissent une meilleure représentation de la chronologie de l'alarme; - à l'Article 9, le texte a été synthétisé et fait désormais référence au guide d'application de l'Annexe F; - les annexes ont été réorganisées; - l'Annexe E est normative. La présente version bilingue (2021-02) correspond à la version anglaise monolingue publiée en 2020-09. La version française de cette norme n'a pas été soumise au vote.

Zaščita pred delovanjem strele - Sistemi za opozarjanje pred nevihtami

General Information

• Status: Published
• Publication Date: 29-Oct-2020
• ICS: 29.020 - Electrical engineering in general
• ICS: 91.120.40 - Lightning protection
• Technical Committee: CLC/TC 81X - Lightning protection
• Drafting Committee: IEC/TC 81 - IEC_TC_81
• Current Stage: 6060 - Document made available - Publishing
• Start Date: 30-Oct-2020
• Completion Date: 30-Oct-2020
• Ref Project: SIST EN IEC 62793:2021 - Protection against lightning - Thunderstorm warning systems

Relations

• Replaces: EN IEC 62793:2018 - Protection against lightning - Thunderstorm warning systems
• Effective Date: 03-Nov-2020

Standards Content (Sample)

SLOVENSKI STANDARD
01-januar-2021
Nadomešča:
SIST EN IEC 62793:2018
Zaščita pred delovanjem strele - Sistemi za opozarjanje pred nevihtami
Protection against lightning - Thunderstorm warning systems
Blitzschutz - Gewitterwarnsysteme
Protection contre la foudre - Systèmes d'alerte aux orages
Ta slovenski standard je istoveten z: EN IEC 62793:2020
ICS:
91.120.40 Zaščita pred strelo Lightning protection
2003-01.Slovenski inštitut za standardizacijo. Razmnoževanje celote ali delov tega standarda ni dovoljeno.

EUROPEAN STANDARD EN IEC 62793

NORME EUROPÉENNE
EUROPÄISCHE NORM
October 2020
ICS 29.020; 91.120.40 Supersedes EN IEC 62793:2018 and all of its
amendments and corrigenda (if any)
English Version
Thunderstorm warning systems - Protection against lightning
(IEC 62793:2020)
Systèmes d'alerte aux orages - Protection contre la foudre  Gewitterwarnsysteme - Blitzschutz
(IEC 62793:2020) (IEC 62793:2020)
This European Standard was approved by CENELEC on 2020-10-26. CENELEC members are bound to comply with the CEN/CENELEC
Internal Regulations which stipulate the conditions for giving this European Standard the status of a national standard without any alteration.
Up-to-date lists and bibliographical references concerning such national standards may be obtained on application to the CEN-CENELEC
Management Centre or to any CENELEC member.
This European Standard exists in three official versions (English, French, German). A version in any other language made by translation
under the responsibility of a CENELEC member into its own language and notified to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre has the
same status as the official versions.
CENELEC members are the national electrotechnical committees of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic,
Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the
Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland,
Turkey and the United Kingdom.

European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization
Comité Européen de Normalisation Electrotechnique
Europäisches Komitee für Elektrotechnische Normung
CEN-CENELEC Management Centre: Rue de la Science 23, B-1040 Brussels
© 2020 CENELEC All rights of exploitation in any form and by any means reserved worldwide for CENELEC Members.
Ref. No. EN IEC 62793:2020 E
European foreword
The text of document 81/640/FDIS, future edition 2 of IEC 62793, prepared by IEC/TC 81 "Lightning
protection" was submitted to the IEC-CENELEC parallel vote and approved by CENELEC as
The following dates are fixed:
• latest date by which the document has to be implemented at national (dop) 2021-07-26
level by publication of an identical national standard or by endorsement
• latest date by which the national standards conflicting with the (dow) 2023-10-26
document have to be withdrawn
This document supersedes EN IEC 62793:2018 and all of its amendments and corrigenda (if any).
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of
patent rights. CENELEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

Endorsement notice
The text of the International Standard IEC 62793:2020 was approved by CENELEC as a European
Standard without any modification.
In the official version, for Bibliography, the following notes have to be added for the standards
indicated:
IEC 62305 (series) NOTE Harmonized as EN 62305 (series)
IEC 62858 NOTE Harmonized as EN IEC 62858
IEC 61400-24 NOTE Harmonized as EN IEC 61400-24

Annex ZA
(normative)
Normative references to international publications
with their corresponding European publications
The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content
constitutes requirements of this document. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For
undated references, the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments)
applies.
NOTE 1  Where an International Publication has been modified by common modifications, indicated by (mod),
the relevant EN/HD applies.
NOTE 2  Up-to-date information on the latest versions of the European Standards listed in this annex is available
here: www.cenelec.eu.
Publication Year Title EN/HD Year
IEC 62561-4 - Lightning protection system components EN 62561-4 -
(LPSC) - Part 4: Requirements for
conductor fasteners
IEC 62561-1 - Lightning protection system components EN 62561-1 -
(LPSC) - Part 1: Requirements for
connection components
IEC 60068-2-75 2014 Environmental testing - Part 2-75: Tests - EN 60068-2-75 2014
Test Eh: Hammer tests
IEC 60529 - Degrees of protection provided by - -
enclosures (IP Code)
IEC 61180 - High-voltage test techniques for low- EN 61180 -
voltage equipment - Definitions, test and
procedure requirements, test equipment
IEC 61000-6-4 - Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) - EN IEC 61000-6-4 -
Part 6-4: Generic standards - Emission
standard for industrial environments

IEC 62793 ®
Edition 2.0 2020-09
INTERNATIONAL
STANDARD
colour
inside
Thunderstorm warning systems – Protection against lightning

INTERNATIONAL
ELECTROTECHNICAL
COMMISSION
ICS 29.020; 91.120.40 ISBN 978-2-8322-8725-5

– 2 – IEC 62793:2020 © IEC 2020
CONTENTS
FOREWORD . 4
INTRODUCTION . 6
1 Scope . 7
2 Normative references . 7
3 Terms, definitions and abbreviated terms . 8
3.1 Terms and definitions . 8
3.2 Abbreviated terms . 11
4 Thunderstorm phases and detectable phenomena for alarming. 12
5 Description of thunderstorm detectors and their properties . 13
6 Alarm method . 14
6.1 General . 14
6.2 Areas . 14
6.2.1 Target (TA) . 14
6.2.2 Surrounding area (SA) . 15
6.2.3 Monitoring area (MA) . 15
6.2.4 Coverage area (CA) . 15
6.3 Alarm triggering and clearing . 16
6.4 Alarm information delivery. 18
7 Installation . 18
8 Maintenance . 19
9 Performance evaluation . 19
9.1 General . 19
9.2 Evaluation of a TWS by cross-correlation with other sources of information . 20
10 TWS application . 21
Annex A (informative) Overview of the lightning phenomena . 22
A.1 Origin of thunderclouds and electrification . 22
A.2 Lightning phenomena . 22
A.3 Electric thunderstorm and lightning characteristics useful for prevention . 24
A.3.1 Electrostatic field . 24
A.3.2 Electromagnetic fields . 24
A.3.3 Other parameters useful in lightning detection . 24
Annex B (informative) Thunderstorm monitoring techniques . 26
B.1 General . 26
B.2 Single sensor detection techniques . 26
B.2.1 Generalities . 26
B.2.2 Detector based on electrostatic field . 26
B.2.3 Detector based on electromagnetic field . 26
B.3 Multi-sensor location techniques . 27
B.3.1 Generalities . 27
B.3.2 Magnetic direction finder (MDF) . 27
B.3.3 Time of arrival (TOA) . 27
B.3.4 Interferometry . 27
Annex C (informative) Recommended preventive actions . 28
Annex D (informative) Example of TWS evaluation . 29

IEC 62793:2020 © IEC 2020 – 3 –
D.1 Example of TWS evaluation on a wind turbine site . 29
D.2 Evaluation of TWS efficiency using LLS . 30
Annex E (normative) How to test thunderstorm detectors . 32
E.1 General . 32
E.2 Laboratory tests . 32
E.2.1 General . 32
E.2.2 Resistance to UV radiation tests (for non-metallic sensor housing) . 32
E.2.3 Resistance tests to corrosion (for metallic parts of sensor) . 33
E.2.4 Mechanical tests . 33
E.2.5 Index of protection confirmation (IP Code) . 33
E.2.6 Electric tests . 34
E.2.7 Marking test . 35
E.2.8 Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) . 35
E.3 Optional tests on an open air platform under natural lightning conditions . 35
Annex F (informative) Application guide . 38
F.1 General . 38
F.2 Examples of application of a TWS . 39
F.2.1 Golf course . 39
F.2.2 Oil storage facility . 39
F.2.3 Crane . 39
F.3 Selection of parameters of TWS . 40
Bibliography . 43

Figure 1 – Examples of different target and surrounding areas . 15
Figure 2 – Principles of the coverage area (CA), the monitoring area (MA), the

surrounding area (SA) and the target (TA) . 16
Figure 3 – Example of an alarm . 18
Figure A.1 – Standard lightning classifications .
...