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Floodlighting plays an important role in the UK sports sector. It is an essential requirement of stadiums, clubs and sporting venues enabling them to host games and allow competitions, sporting fixtures and other events to take place.

 

Floodlight installations can fail – which if not dealt with quickly, can result in fixtures being abandoned. This not only has significant cost penalties associated with it, but it can cause negative media reports, bad reputation for the club, disgruntled teams and fans and a subsequent loss of revenue.

 

There are approximately 120 major sporting venues throughout the UK, most of which will have floodlights installed. I have identified, at least 14 press reported floodlight failures in the past 6 years, with 6 of these failures occurring in football stadiums in the last year alone.

 

Rules and Regulations:

 

There are numerous rules and regulations governing the use of floodlights. The UEFA Lighting Power Guide 2016 states that if a primary power supply fails, a secondary power supply (UPS) will automatically activate, providing back up power to the stadium. Looking further into this, The UEFA Power Supply Requirements Level A, B and C (pg. 45 – 50 of the UEFA Lighting Power Guide 2016) dictate a football club will only have 12 minutes to fix the initial problem and re-establish the luminance conditions. It is the venues responsibility to ensure that adequate floodlighting is installed and properly maintained to remain compliant with regulatory health, safety and lighting standards.

 

Identifying causes of electrical failure:

 

What if you could be pre-warned about a developing electrical fault or floodlight failure, and avoid expensive, unplanned downtime.  Bender has technology that is proven and in use across the globe, in a number of similar projects.

 

Bender UK RCMS Solution:

 

Bender UK is a pioneer in the field of electrical safety. Bender Residual Current Monitoring System technology (RCMS) monitors electrical installations to detect and report on critical operating states. This forewarns of any unwanted incidents and helps prevent failure and downtime. It will detect potential causes of a floodlight failure.

 

Bender (Bender2.jpg)

 

How clubs can benefit:

  • Early detection of developing electrical faults
  • Prevents reputational damage or harm (negative press)
  • Reduces the cost of unplanned failures
  • Reports on installation degradation
  • Locate and identify faults quickly, enabling preventative maintenance 
  • Negates the need to switch off for periodic inspection and testing
  • Can save considerable time, money and effort
  • Prevents interrupted and abandoned sports fixtures

 

Who will benefit:

  • Stadium owners
  • Sports clubs
  • Lighting manufacturers
  • Electrical consultants and designers
  • Suppliers and Installers
  • Players, fans and shareholders

 

This technology is used in many industrial and healthcare installations. Similar projects range from monitoring floodlights at a Justin Bieber concerts in South America to monitoring lights at UEFA Euro football matches.  We have even installed it in our own new facility!