An experimental study of a simulation method for calculating a lightning outage rate of distribution lines

Abstract

This paper has experimentally studied a simulation method for estimating a lightning outage rate of distribution lines. The observation shows that direct lightning hits to distribution systems are the main cause of the outage of the line, and further suggests that the two factors, the installation rate of surge arresters and the density of the lines, can play a decisive role in the generation of a direct lightning stroke to the line. Based on these data, a computer program was proposed to estimate a lightning outage rate due to lightning strokes, and the calculated results showed good agreement with the observed values in the actual lines. These results suggest that the method can contribute to the evaluation of lightning protection devices such as shielding wires and surge arresters and can lead to effective lightning protection practices. © 2009 The Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan.