THE AXIÓN GROUP’S MIJAS CENTER, A PIONEER IN RESEARCH ON INNOVATIVE LIGHTNING PROTECTION SYSTEMS

Located at an altitude of more than 930 meters, with a 124-meter-tall tower and surrounded by other telecommunications centers, the Axión Group’s Mijas center can be struck by lightning more than 100 times a year, causing transmission outages, malfunctions, and other damage that shortens the facilities’ useful life.

These large-scale infrastructures, with their metal parts and components, are conductive elements that require protection against potential electrical discharges. Clouds, wind, and the structure’s own surface electrification all generate such electrical discharges.

This makes the center an ideal location for testing the new infrastructure protection equipment against lightning strikes developed by DINNTECO.

In January 2020, DINNTECO installed its DDCE device—an electrical charge compensator that captures and diverts electrical currents to ground—at Axión’s Mijas facility as part of a pilot test, along with three DINEOLes, a system similar to the DDCE, designed for moving structures.

These devices, DDCE and DINEOL, originally developed to protect wind turbines, are equally effective in other critical infrastructure, such as telecommunications towers.

Their operation, based on balancing the variable electric field around the structure they protect, prevents electrical discharges from occurring by absorbing electrostatic and radio-frequency electromagnetic energy.

By preventing damage, savings on maintenance and repair costs increase compared to other traditional systems.

Over time, it has been demonstrated that the benefits of this system extend beyond preventing lightning strikes and saving on maintenance; there has also been a verified reduction in electrical energy losses (corona effect) and a decrease in interference (noise), thereby improving the quality and efficiency of the service provided.

To validate and quantify these results, Axión and Dinnteco are collaborating with the Complutense University of Madrid, which—through Prof. Dr. Eusebio Bernabéu, professor emeritus at the Faculty of Physical Sciences—is investigating, at this facility, the aforementioned positive effects of using this technology in telecommunications centers, high-voltage networks, and electrical distribution and transformation facilities.

We would like to thank everyone involved in this project who is making beneficial progress in this field of research. Among them are our colleague Jesús Alberto Fernández Torres, Anabel Ribó from DINNTECO, and Eusebio Bernabéu from the UCM.

Para ampliar información:

Protección y Eficiencia de Aerogeneradores de Energía dotados con Compensador de Carga Eléctrica. J. Maldonado, M.A. Sáenz-Nuño, P. Weidinger, E. Bernabeu. Energética, 21, 207.Junio–Julio 2021.

 Enabling a Physical Model on Electronic Charge Compensation Device ECCD- as a Quantum Dissipative System in The book: New Visions in Science and Technology Vol. 7. E. Bernabeu, J. Maldonado, M.A. Sáenz October 2021, Page 58-76. B.P. Publishers, London-Dehli.https://doi.org/10.9734/bpi/nvst/v7/10077D

A -ECCD- Electronic Charge Compensation Device as a Quantum. Dissipative System.  E. Bernabeu, J. Maldonado, M.A. Sáenz. 2019, Appl. Sciences Journal.9, 4879-4895. Invited Paper.