The facility:
The Lithgow Correction Facility was established over 15 years ago as the flagship in modern technically advanced correctional facilities. This prison was to be the forerunner in new designs for state penitentiaries. It had state of the art monitoring and security facilities to enable a better and more efficient method in the operation of state correctional facilities.
Problem:
Within the first few years the NSW Correctional Services discovered that the location for the facility was not appropriate as the facility was located in a valley at the foot of an escarpment and was constantly bombarded with severe electrical storms causing havoc with the technology resulting in tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage each year.
Solution:
In 2004 LDU was approached by the Department of Corrections to investigate and propose a solution to the problem. LDU designed a system incorporating an umbrella of Prevectron Lightning Protection terminals to totally cover the entire facility combined with high quality surge protection to protect all the very sensitive technology throughout the facility.
Outcome:
Since the installation completion in 2005, the Lithgow Correctional Facility has not suffered any damage from lightning even though the first storm they experienced after the installation was one of the most severe they had on record. The department has saved millions of dollars they would have spent on repairing damage. To date LDU have installed systems in 6 other correctional facilities with similar results.
