Surge protection is intended to provide protection against overvoltages in power systems. In order for a system to have adequate surge protection, transient phenomena studies must be carried out and a surge protection scheme must be designed using the data obtained from the studies. The degree of accuracy of these studies will vary with the quality of modeling and simulation. System models to be used in the studies should include station busbars since stations constitute substantial parts of the systems. This paper discusses a transient phenomena study which was performed on an operative 138 kV multi-line underground power distribution system to investigate how the most effective surge protection scheme for the system may be implemented using ZnO surge arresters. Emphasis is stressed on modeling the busbar at the substation of the system.