The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is a body

responsible for implementing international standards. Its technical

committees are comprised of representatives from various
member national standards, where each country is entitled to one
vote during the process of creation and issuing the standard. The
standards generally have an IEC prefix to their number (CEI for
French versions). IEC standards are produced in English and French
languages. For most countries the adoption of these standards is
voluntary, and often selected content of the standard is absorbed
and introduced as improvements to that countrys own standard.
Also, within Europe, there exists the European Committee
for Electrotechnical Standardisation (CENELEC). The member
countries currently include Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, the Czech
Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary,
Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the
Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain,
Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. IEC and CENELEC
generally work in parallel, and CENELEC members vote to adopt
new IEC standards as CENELEC standards. The committees of
CENELEC may choose to make some alterations to the IEC version.
Additionally, CENELEC produce their own standards to which
IEC have no counterpart. CENELEC documents are produced in
English, French and German and an approved CENELEC standard
will have an EN prefix (or NE in the French language versions).
The important fact with CENELEC standards is that by rule the
member countries are bound to adopt all CENELEC standards as
national standards. In the process of adopting these standards,
minimum changes are permitted. In-country clauses (exceptions
or changes) can only be made under very strict circumstances.
When such standards are adopted at the national level, any
conflicting national standard must be withdrawn (an overlap
period is permitted).
For the EN IEC 62305 series of lightning protection standards,
each member country has introduced these at a national level by
November 2006 and has withdrawn any conflicting standards
by February 2009.
At each level (International, European, National) a different
naming prefix convention is used For example:
IEC 62305-1 (IEC version)
EN 62305-1 (CENELEC adopted copy of the above)
BS EN 62305-1 (British National Standard adoption of
the above)
This document focuses upon the IEC/EN standards and, for a
specific design, the applicable national standards should be
referred to in order to ascertain if differences exist.
Reference in this document is given to standards being either
design or component standards. Design standards are those used
by the lightning protection designer or installer to determine
the type and placement of the lightning protection system.
Component standards are those used by the manufacturer of
the lightning protection hardware (components) to ensure the
hardware is of adequate specification and quality.