PROJECT TITLE :

Characterization of Local Environmental Data and Lightning-Caused Outages in the IECo Transmission-Line Network

ABSTRACT:

The lightning-related outages remain a vital issue affecting overhead-line reliability in the Israel Electrical Co. (IECo) Power Grid 170 kV. The estimates derived for years 2000-2013 show that the actual failure rate for a few lines will significantly exceed the accepted indices. This paper reports on the lightning study whose primary goal was to examine relevant environmental data, together with topography, tower footing resistance, and lightning incidence records provided by the IECo lightning location system. This paper presents long-term monitoring expertise and local statistical data patterns gained for cloud-to-ground come strokes. The 295 outage-connected flashes (265 of negative and thirty of positive polarity) were identified in the IECo database. The median peak current of the negative and positive flashes causing line outages is -twelve.zero kA and +26 kA, respectively. The native tower footing resistances are found to be lognormal distributed with a median of four.77 Ω and an SD of 1.forty four. The findings imply that exposed failure currents statistics, in combination with local route topography, are key factors controlling shielding performance of IECo lines. The acquired information will be concerned in further case studies on IECo lines.