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C-DRONE GUIDE · 3 AUGUST 2026

Lightning protection system inspection by drone: visual check at height, ICPE obligations, price

A lightning rod fitted atop a chimney, a silo or a storage tank is only ever seen from below, once a year at best — and often never. Yet it is a safety device in its own right: its deterioration is invisible from the ground, and a down conductor eaten by corrosion or a clamp loosened by vibration reduces the site's protection just as much in the event of a direct strike. French regulations for classified installations require an annual visual check and a complete verification every two years by a competent body; the drone does not replace that verification, but it makes the visual check genuinely exhaustive, with no scaffolding and no rope team, on the most exposed points of an industrial site.

Published on 3 August 2026, reviewed on 29 August 2026 — regulations in force as of August 2026.

A sensitive point, hard to inspect from the ground

The lightning rod almost always sits at a site's most exposed point: the top of an industrial chimney, the crown of a silo, the corner of a storage tank, the ridge of a tall public building. That is a matter of physics — intercepting the strike before it reaches the equipment it protects — and it is exactly what makes it, by design, the hardest installation to check visually: binoculars from the ground, or an occasional climb that is often only justified once a doubt already exists.

Yet the deterioration threatening a lightning rod is far from rare. A study published in 2017 in the journal Anti-Corrosion Methods and Materials by Hu, Fang, Qian, Shen, Zhou and Jin analysed the corrosion failure of a galvanised lightning rod at a 220 kV transformer substation: the hollow rod, whose outer surface looked barely affected, showed severe corrosion inside the tube, caused by rainwater seeping in and sitting in a confined, humid environment — deterioration all but invisible without a close look (see the study on Google Scholar). Down conductors, fixings and connections to the collection points face the same kind of risk: repeated weather exposure, thermal expansion, and the vibration of a running industrial site.

What French ICPE regulation requires

For classified installations subject to authorisation, the French order of 4 October 2010 on accident prevention precisely governs lightning protection: a lightning risk analysis followed by a technical study determine the equipment to install; a complete verification is then required within six months of installation, an annual visual check is mandatory, and a complete verification must be renewed every two years — in every case by a competent body distinct from the installer. The operator keeps a maintenance log tracing every check and every anomaly corrected, a document the classified-installation inspectorate can request at any time.

On this type of site, lightning protection often sits within a broader risk-prevention file, alongside equipment already covered by our guides — industrial chimneys and silos, hydrocarbon storage tanks or grain silos — where the lightning rod is precisely fitted at the highest, most exposed point of the structure being monitored.

What the drone documents — and what it does not replace

The flight brings a high-resolution camera close to every air terminal, every down conductor and every connection, with no technician having to climb up. It shows: the condition of the tip (corrosion, oxidation, deformation), how well fixings and clamps hold along the whole run, the visual integrity of the conductor (a section torn off by wind or by earlier work, a damaged expansion loop), and the visible condition of the connection to the earth electrode. Each anomaly is located on a drawing and ranked, with a comparison possible from one campaign to the next to track how an already-flagged point evolves.

The drone's contribution to this kind of check at height, on an industrial or hard-to-access site, is well documented: the review by Shakhatreh and co-authors, published in 2019 in IEEE Access, surveys civil UAV applications and highlights their particular value for inspecting infrastructure at height or in hazardous environments, where direct human access is costly or risky (see the study on Google Scholar). The limit stays clear: the drone measures neither electrical continuity nor earth resistance, which require an instrumented contact reading — that is precisely the role of the competent body's biennial complete verification. The flight is an exhaustive visual check that prepares and targets that verification; it does not replace it.

How a mission runs and 2026 prices

A typical mission starts with the site's lightning-rod layout plan (often appended to the technical study), followed by a flight that documents each point in close-up photos and, where the site allows, an overall pass locating each device on the structure. Deliverable: a photo report per air terminal, a ranked anomaly list, location on the drawing — directly usable by the body carrying out the complete verification or by the site's maintenance team. Orders of magnitude observed in France in 2026 (excl. VAT):

The service sits within our drone inspection of structures offer; request a quote stating the site type, the number of air terminals and the date of the last complete verification.

Frequently asked questions

Does the drone replace the complete verification carried out by an accredited body?

No. The drone documents the visual condition of each device — corrosion, fixings, conductor integrity — but it measures neither electrical continuity nor earth resistance, which require an instrumented contact reading by the competent body during the biennial complete verification required by the order of 4 October 2010.

How often must a lightning protection system be checked on a classified site?

Regulation requires an annual visual check and a complete verification every two years by a competent body, on top of a complete verification within six months of installation. The drone flight fits naturally into the annual visual check and helps target the points to watch before the next complete verification.

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Put it into practice

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