Monte Carlo Based Estimations of Lightning Strikes on a Transmission Line

Lightning insulation coordination is based on statistical approaches. This allows to correlate the electrical stress caused by lightning and the electrical strength of the insulation, both having probabilistic nature.

In order to obtain significant results, two aspects need to be considered:

>>the surface around the power line should be large enough in order to collect all the events that may endanger the insulation,

>>The density of the stroke locations should be sufficiently high

Monte Carlo (MC) method has been employed to solve the problem.The lightning strikes probability along with expected current magnitudes are calculated for a 60 km line in UK area.

The MC random generation of a quadruple of lightning current parameters values is obtained by applying the following steps. (From Chapter 1 (Application of Monte carlo Method to lightning Protection and Insulation Practices by Alberto Borghetti et. al)

Step (1) The calculation of an Ip value

Step (2) for the calculation of tf value

Step (3) for the calculation of a Sm value

Step (4) for the calculation of a th value

Following plots are obtained for 100,000 simulations for a 60 km line with IKL 5.