Surge Protection for Business: Why It's No Longer Optional in FNQ

If you run a business in Far North Queensland with any sensitive equipment — computers, EFTPOS, machinery with electronics, data or comms gear — you need proper surge protection at your switchboard. Up here, the wet-season storms make lightning a genuine and regular threat, and a single surge can quietly fry thousands of dollars of equipment in microseconds.

Here’s what you actually need to know.

What a surge is

A power surge is a sudden spike in voltage well above the normal 230V — anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand volts, lasting only microseconds. It carries enough energy to damage or destroy electronics on the other end. Think of it like a burst of high-pressure water in a pipe: your gear is built for steady flow, and a surge is the blast that bursts it.

The big causes in FNQ are lightning and storm activity, plus surges off the grid and from large motors starting and stopping on site.

What a surge protection device does

A surge protection device (SPD) is fitted inside your switchboard. When a spike comes through, it clamps the voltage and diverts the excess safely to earth before it reaches your equipment. It takes the hit so your machinery and electronics don’t. It’s a small module — no real impact on your board’s look — that does a big job.

Do you actually need it? What the rules say

For commercial premises, it’s strongly recommended and sometimes required. Under the Wiring Rules (AS/NZS 3000), surge protection is mandatory where a building has a lightning protection system, and recommended where you’ve got overhead power supply, high lightning risk, a remote location, or sensitive equipment. In storm-prone North Queensland, most commercial sites tick at least one of those boxes.

“Isn’t a surge power board enough?”

No. A plug-in board only protects whatever’s plugged into it, and only against small spikes. Real protection is layered: a device at the switchboard catches the big surges as they arrive, and point-of-use protectors mop up anything that gets through to your most sensitive gear. The switchboard unit does the heavy lifting.

They do wear out

SPDs take a little damage each time they absorb a surge, and eventually they’re spent. Good ones have a window that shows green while healthy and red when they need replacing, and many use replaceable cartridges. They should be checked during routine testing and swapped after any major surge event — so it’s not “fit and forget.”

If your board is old enough to be asking these questions, it might be showing other signs it needs upgrading too.