Lightning data utilization in power system control

Abstract

Lightning location systems (LLS) provide data on lightning activity such as lightning type, GPS location, exact time of the lightning stroke, lightning current amplitude, measurement error, etc. The proper application of LLS data using customized software support can be a powerful decision-making tool in the control, maintenance and development of power systems. The utilization of lightning data in power systems requires a customized software support with specific functionalities. Software functionalities include real time lightning activity visualization with alarm function; analysis, reports and historical lightning activity visualization; spatial correlation between lightning data and alarm zones around geographically represented power system’s objects (power lines, power facilities, etc.); calculation of lightning statistics; generation of wide area lightning density maps, generation of high resolution lightning density maps inspecting alarm zones around the power lines; real time correlation between lightning activity and the power system protection equipment (distant protection relays), gathered through the SCADA system. In this paper, emphasis will be given to the application in correlation between faults and outages in the power network and lightning strokes. Today, many power companies monitor data related to circuit breaker operation or reclosing using various equipment. Such equipment allows online monitoring of circuit breakers and alarm statuses of equipment in substations.