Lightning Studies

Presenters

Dharshana Muthumuni, Managing Director Lalin Kothalawala, Manager: Simulation & Design Analysis
 Lightning…….

• Lightning – Injection of electric charge (current) into a power system component (tower, line,
shield wire).
o Very short duration (impulse – 50us – 100 us)
• The circuit impedances will determine the induced voltage levels at different locations near the
point of strike.
𝑉=𝐼∗ 𝑍
𝑑𝑖
𝑣=𝐿
𝑑𝑡

• The impacts of the lightning

event are limited to a local area
around the point of the
lightning strike
 Background

• Lightning induced over voltage can be a result of a direct strike to a phase conductor (shielding
failure) or due to ‘back flashover’ resulting from a lightning strike on a shielding (ground wire)
wire.

• Both events would cause transient voltage escalations at the terminals of station equipment.

• The study will identify the severity of such transients. It will also identify the required rating and
location of surge arresters to ensure that such over voltages do not exceed the insulation
strength of the main equipment.

• A lightning overvoltage study requires the detailed modeling of the substation equipment
(including natural or stray capacitance of equipment), the station bus bars, and a few spans of
the adjacent transmission towers.
 Lightning Studies

Direct strike on a phase

conductor: Vt – Vsys > gap flashover voltage?
This is due to ‘smaller’ lightning strokes that Vt = f(Ix,Zt,Zg)
escape the shielding. Typically, the magnitude
of the lightning current surge is in the 8 kA
– 12 kA peak.

Back Flash over:

Lightning strikes (surge current) the ground
wires. The current discharges to ground
through the tower and the ‘tower footing
resistance’. The resulting potential rise of the
tower stresses the line insulation. If the
voltage stress exceeds thresholds, flashover
happens.
 Why perform Lightning studies?

• How often will a line flashover per year?

• Do we need Transmission Line Surge Arresters (TLSAs)?

• At the end of the line, what overvoltage levels are experienced by the station
equipment?

• Station surge arresters:

o Are the selected arresters adequate to limit over voltages?
o Can arresters handle in the energy associated with lightning event?
PSCAD Study Model – Station Lightning Overvoltage study
PSCAD Study Model – Estimate critical flashover current to
determine (expected) line flashover rate
 Model Details: Representation of the Lightning Stroke

• Typically modeled as an injection of a current impulse.

o Impulse magnitude will impact the over voltage experiences at station transformers
and other equipment.
o Impulse rise time (di/dt) will impact the over voltage impressed at station
transformers and other equipment.

• Thus, it is important to judiciously select the impulse parameters for the study.
-IEEE and CIGRE guidelines
 Model Details: Representation of the Lightning Stroke

Direct strike – 8 – 15 kA peak impulse current

Lightning
Strike on ground wires – 80kA – 200 kA Impulse

• 200 kA is considered highly unlikely.

Impulse magnitude

Sky1
Sky2
A
B
C
A
The peak current is estimated based on guidelines provided in B
IEEE/CIGRE documents. C
 Model Details: Representation of lines and station equipment for
lightning studies

How do we represent the lines and towers:

Typically only a few tower spans needs to be included in a lightning

over voltage study model
• The tower sections are represented as traveling wave line sections (surge
impedance based on tower type – 150 Ohms for 380 kV typical)
• Tower spans modeled based on tower/conductor geometry/data.
• Insulators represented by an equivalent capacitance
• Tower footing resistance is a important parameter for the study
o Sensitivity check for 5 Ohm – 25 Ohm typical.
 Representation of transmission towers and line sections (spans)

Note: Back flashover is modeled by closing the (fictitious)

circuit breaker when the voltage across the insulator
crosses a threshold.

Impulse
magnitude and

Line model to represent Zsurge = 150Ω , τ = 3.448 x10-

tower vertical section 3 μs/m
Rfoot = 3Ω – 20Ω
C-ins = 0.476pF
1 1 Sky1 1 1 Sky1
Sky2 Sky2 1
1082 [ohm]
A A 1 1082 [ohm]
T
T2_T3 B B
T
C T1_T2 C
A A
T2_T3 T2_T3 B T1_T2 T1_T2 B T1_G
T
C C T1_G
T1_G

Represents the last 'gantrysection'.

Tower Representation Tower spans

 Representation of transmission towers and line sections (spans)

Note: After about 5 spans, the rest of the line is represented by a resistance
approximately equal to the surge impedance of the conductors (phase and ground).

The lightning strike can happen at any instant (at any

voltage point on the power frequency waveform)
 Flashover mechanism and modeling approach

Volt-Time Method: Lead Progression Method:

If the voltage across the insulator Back flashover occurs when a leader
exceeds the insulator voltage withstand propagating from one electrode
capability, back flashover occurs reaches the other, or when leaders
(simulated by closing the parallel propagating from both electrodes
switch). meet in the middle of the air gap.
Breakdown of air as an insulator is
mostly a function of environmental dl  v(t) 
= k  v(t)  − E0 
 dG − l
conditions, in addition to the fast-front
voltage build-up.
dt 

An expression for the insulator

voltage withstand capability:

+
K
2
Vf0 = K 1
t0.75
 Representation of Station equipment: Bus bars, breakers,
switches

Station and equipment representation:

a1

25 [pF]

EARTHING SWITCH
25 [pF] a2

25 [pF]

DISCONNECTOR
DISCONNECTOR
D28R D28Y D28B

D30R D30Y D30B

CB10R
CB10Y
CB10B

25 [pF]

25 [pF]

25 [pF]

25 [pF]

25 [pF]

25 [pF]
BREAKER

OPEN DISCONNECTOR
2.4 [pF]

2.4 [pF]

2.4 [pF]
EARTHING SW ITCH EARTHING SWITCH

b1

b1

Station model – Top level view Station model – Model details

Sub station buses and equipment should be represented in a manner suitable for this
high frequency phenomena
• Bus sections – represented by traveling wave line models
• Equipment – represented by respective stray/bushing capacitances
o Typical values available in IEEE publications.
 Representation of Station equipment: Transformers and arresters

Sub station buses and equipment should be represented in a manner

suitable for this high frequency phenomena

• Transformer – represented by respective stray/bushing

capacitances
• Surge Arrester – V-I characteristics and lead inductances

Alternative representation of
station transformer
 Study outcomes

Critical Backflashover Current

• Station:
o Surge arrester’s location and energy rating.
o Induced overvoltage at the transformer and other major equipment.

• Line design:
o Adequacy of tower design (i.e. clearance, grounding, etc.)
PSCAD Simulation Example
Thank you