Lightning and Grounding Issues Impacting Safety and Performance of Liquified Natural Gas-Supplied Power Generation Plants: Lessons Learned to Correct Commonplace Misunderstandings of Requirements

This article covers the lessons learned from performing multiple liquified natural gas (LNG) power plant audits following nuisance tripping, personnel safety issues, and potential equipment failure. This article focuses on a specific facility but includes aspects of three other sites, as well. These investigations started out as forensic investigations but quickly moved into lightning and power system grounding audits based on evidence encountered. These audits covered improvement opportunities in lightning protection, transferred earth potentials, personnel step and touch potentials, safety, electronic grounding of generation controls, and related LNG gas supply. It was clear that there were several commonplace misunderstandings of the correct site lightning and grounding installation requirements to ensure a safe and reliable electrical system. Based on the professional experience of the authors, the documented improvement opportunities identified are not unique to this site and are very similar in nature at other locations.