The Impact of Transmission Line Modeling on Lightning Overvoltage

Abstract

In most of the work that investigates the backflashover phenomenon due to direct lightning strikes, using EMT-type simulators, transmission lines are represented by the J. Marti model and the ground effect is computed employing J. R. Carson’s formulations. Thus, the ground displacement current is neglected, the line voltage definition corresponds to the wire potential formulation, and soil resistivity is considered frequency-independent. These considerations can lead to erroneous measurements of the occurrences of the backflashover phenomenon in the insulator strings of transmission line. In this sense, this paper presents a systematic sensitivity analysis study of lightning overvoltage in insulator strings considering more physically consistent models of the transmission line, which consider the displacement current, ground admittance correction, rigorous voltage definition, and frequency-dependent soil parameters. According to the results, for the case study, transmission line parameters modeling can present a maximum percentual difference of around 71.54%, considering the frequency range of first strokes. This difference leads to a percent difference of around 5.25% in the maximum overvoltage across the insulator strings. These differences confirm that the occurrence or not of backflashover in the insulator strings, including the disruption time, are sensitive to the line model considered.