Advanced service continuity and electrical safety in street lighting systems

Abstract

For the street light systems the worldwide trend of electrical standards encourages the adoption of Class II equipment such as for the light fixtures, the cabling systems and all the other components. In installations of a largest number of light poles, a safety degradation could be possible and so dangerous electrical potentials may appear on the steel poles and expose folks to shock hazards. To decrease the risk to an enhanced level, different solutions are available. In this paper, the authors deal with a combined action of two safety measures. In particular, these measures are the insulation of the steel poles with an adequate varnish against shock hazards in faulted conditions and the protection of the supplying circuits by residual current breakers to avoid the persistence of ground faults and providing their automatic reset to guarantee the continuity of the service against transitory faults.