Failure of the Collection Volume Method and Attempts of the ESE Lightning ROD Industry to Resurrect it

Abstract

To facilitate the marketing of their devices, the vendors of Early Streamer Emission (ESE) lightning rods are attempting to get the Collection Volume Method (CVM) in IEEE Standard 998 which deals with the Shielding of Substations. This attempt follows their failures before IEC, Standards Australia and the NFPA (National Fire Protection Association). Voting on the standards of the IEEE is done by a pool of persons, most of whom are not lightning experts. The same applies to potential buyers of ESE devices who are being wooed by use of the CVM. This paper seeks to enlighten those persons by using indisputable field observations to prove invalidity of the CVM. The paper also shows that development of the CVM rested on a false perception that discrepancies existed between field observations and predictions of the Electrogeometric Model (EGM), and that the CVM failed to address those claimed discrepancies.