Flashover pattern analysis for 275 kV double circuit transmission lines during direct lightning strikes

Lightning overvoltage causes outages of transmission lines (TLs) in tropical countries. Identifying and analyzing the key factors responsible for tripping the lines can improve the performance of the lines. In this work, the flashover patterns due to direct lightning strikes on 275 kV double circuit TLs and towers in Malaysia was evaluated with Electromagnetic Transient Program (EMTP-RV). Three parameters that include lightning current magnitude, power frequency angle and tower footing resistance were analyzed on the line performance during direct lightning strikes. The simulated results found that two key parameters, lightning current at 270 kA and footing resistance at 50 Ω, reveal the highest impact on the insulator flashover. This finding was also verified from multivariate analysis results which is rarely found in the previous works in this field. As a key contribution in this work and in validation to the model, the simulated fault waveform patterns and voltage magnitudes were compared with the actual site data obtained from six different locations in Peninsular Malaysia. The analyzed results show a similar waveform pattern with an overall average voltage magnitude difference of 6.0 % before and after fault. The model is useful to electric utilities for analyzing transient performance of TLs.