Pluggable Digital and Analog SPDs are imperative for enhanced electrical safety

Dr. Ashish Manchanda-Managing Director, Finder India. Pvt. Ltd. In an Interview with EPR Magazine.

Explaining the selection parameters for SPD for electrical safety, Ashish Manchanda highlights the significance of designing customised SPDs that withstands India’s variable environmental conditions.

What is the present demand scenario for surge protection devices in the Indian electrical and power sector?

The Indian market is set to witness significant growth in demand for protection systems due to the rise in use of electronic devices, power quality issues, and cost escalation due to frequent equipment failures etc. Growing demand for increased reliability for electronic and electric systems, consistent growth in awareness of the need for SPDs, and rapid industrialisation in the Indian scenario is expected to provide growth for the surge protection devices market in the low voltage electrical and power electronic sector.

Currently, any prudent power equipment manufacturing company in India, including UPS, EV Chargers, SMPS Power Supplies, elevators/escalators, inverters, AC/DC Drives, etc., gives due consideration to the use of qualified surge protection devices for the protection of their power equipment as most of these equipment is working under unfavourable power supply conditions in India.

What are the critical factors to consider while maintaining efficiency in surge protection devices?

Because the conditions in India are quite unique, it is always important to design the SPD with technology and characteristics that are appropriate for Indian requirements. The grounding and maintenance practises as well as the variations in power supply conditions in different parts of the country need a worst case scenario to be envisaged based on which a special scheme for the surge protection devices is to be considered. For example, the applications in industry usually follow the TT wiring configurations, where as in building installations it is usually the TN configuration, and in hospitals it is usually the IT configuration of wiring that is preferred.

Apart from this, the lighting strike density of India is also a critical factor in selecting the SPDs with respect to the other parameters like the surge current wave form and amplitude. Further, the other significant specifications to be considered are the nominal and threshold voltages, response time, ambient temperature withstand range, etc., which are some of the critical factors to consider for maintaining efficiency in SPDs.

What kinds of accessories are required for reliable and quality SPDs?

 Instead of accessories, it is more important to design and build SPDs in such a way that they are pluggable and available with built-in indications for their operations. All the more and so, for the SPDs to be used on the power lines and signal lines. 

Pluggability adds an element of ease of use for the end users after the installation and supports them with better maintenance practices.

Can you elaborate on the type of SPD you offer for the electrical and power sectors?

We offer Type 1+2, Type 2, and Type 3 SPDs complying with EN/IEC 61643 for both AC and DC power lines. The SPDs have an improved maximum operating voltage range and inbuilt diagnostic features like visual flag indication of SPD healthy/replacement status and contact for remote signalling of SPD status. The SPDs are suitable to handle both lightning impulse current (10/350 micro-seconds) (Iimp) and nominal discharge current (8/20 micro-seconds) (In). We use varistor and gas discharge tubes (GDT) as surge suppressor components inside our SPD.

We also manufacture specially designed SPDs for process industrial applications, including oil & gas, metallurgy, cement, power generation and distribution, material handling, fuel pumping stations, etc. Also, a new range of SPDs are now available for photovoltaic applications, electric vehicle chargers, street light protection as per Indian conditions, Ethernet line protection for IT infrastructure and CCTV cameras used in smart city applications. Digital and analogue signal line SPDs are now available with features of pluggability. Another unique advantage with FINDER SPDs is that our team has the capability to customise the solutions, which can be suitable for particular unique applications as well.