Effectiveness of array of lightning triggering towers as regional lightning protection for transmission lines in areas with strong lightning activity

Abstract

The strong and frequent lightning activity in Guangdong, China, severely affects the safe operation of the power grid. In this study, the lightning database of Guangdong Power Grid in Foshan from 2008 to 2020 was used to compare the CG lightning activity intensity parameters in the areas of four high towers before and after the towers began operation. The lightning frequency within a certain distance from the high towers and the lightning current amplitude around the high towers were higher after the construction of the towers . The clustering method was used to count the number of strong thunderstorms and ground–flash activity processes. The temporal and spatial variations in the aforementioned parameters were also obtained. The high towers increased the number of strong cloud-to-ground activity processes in their adjacent areas, increased the proportion of cloud to ground activity trajectories close to the towers, and changed the direction of lightning corridors. Moreover, the lightning current amplitude of the cloud to ground CG lightning activity was decreased away from the tower. What is more, from the statistical results of operation data, it can be seen that the number of lightning tripping of transmission lines in the area of the towers is significantly reduced.