Electrical Contracting News (ECN) July 2017 | Page 30

FEATURE
INGRESS PROTECTION
LOST IN THE FLOOD
Thankfully we appear to have escaped much of the flooding that blighted the country in the winter of
2015/16, but with the spectre of milder and wetter winters in the future, Tim Creedon, sales and marketing
director for Flexicon, examines why much of the nation’s cable protection may not be able to cope.
M
ost specifiers
believe that by
looking up the
Ingress Protection
tables they can
specify what they
need to ensure
protection against
dust and water ingress. It is a case of
buyer beware however, as there are some
common misunderstandings.
We have all seen the footage and
images of flooded local communities,
businesses and infrastructure that have
remained immersed underwater for days.
Sadly for those areas where there is a
high risk of flooding, the cable protection
may well be inadequate, whatever the IP
specification used.
The consequences of flooding are
serious; it disrupts lives, businesses and
often our ability to travel. The issue is that
30 | July 2017
even once the flooding has dissipated if the
power and data cabling was inadequately
protected then the disruption continues and
the cost and time of simply getting things
up and running adds significantly to the
original problem.
The rail industry seems to be ahead
of other industries in recognising theses
challenges. In its excellent report
‘Tomorrow’s Railway and Climate Change
Adaption: Executive Report’, the Rail Safety
and Standards Board predicts that the
number of days where there is likely to be an
‘excess precipitation event’ in the UK will be
more than double in the 2020s, compared to
the recorded average for 1961-1990.
The report states that this raises a
number of challenges for infrastructure,
including how to best protect its assets and
also how to make them more resilient to
reduce future maintenance costs after an
extreme event such as flooding.
The Rail Safety and
Standards Board
predicts that the
number of days
where there is likely
to be an ‘excess
precipitation event’ in
the UK will be more
than double in the
2020s, compared to
the recorded average
for 1961 – 1990.