Lightning & Protection Against Lightning

Definition Of Lightning:
• An Electric discharge between cloud & earth, between clouds or
between charge centers of the same cloud is known as lightning.
• Lightning stroke is the direct discharge of an electrical charge
between the atmosphere and the object of earth.
• It is a sudden flow of electric charge between the electrical charge
area of a cloud also called intra-cloud and another cloud called (CC
lightning) or between the charged cloud and the ground (CG
lightning).
• The charge region of the cloud is equal to the electric discharge.
when the cloud charge is discharged on the ground, then it is called a
strike, and if the discharge is hit on the object, then it is called flash.
• The lightning occurs in the form of the plasma and sound in the form
of thunder.
Three primary types of lightning are defined by the "starting" and
"ending" points of a flash channel.
i. Intra-cloud (IC) or in-cloud lightning occurs within a single
thundercloud unit. when it occurs between areas of differing electric
potential within a single cloud, it is known as intra-cloud (IC)
lightning. IC lightning is the most frequently occurring type.

ii. Cloud-to-cloud (CC) or inter-cloud: lightning starts and ends

between two different "functional" thundercloud units. Lightning
discharges may occur between areas of cloud without contacting the
ground. When it occurs between two separate clouds, it is known as
cloud-to-cloud (CC) or inter-cloud lightning

iii. Cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning primarily originates in the

thundercloud and terminates on an Earth surface, but may also occur in
the reverse direction, that is ground to cloud.
• It is initiated by a stepped leader moving down from the cloud, which is met by a
streamer moving up from the ground.

CG is the least common, but best understood of all types of lightning.

It is easier to study scientifically because it terminates on a physical object, namely

the Earth, and lends itself to being measured by instruments on the ground.

Of the three primary types of lightning, it poses the greatest threat to life and
property since it terminates or "strikes" the Earth.

The overall discharge termed a flash, is composed of a number of processes such as

preliminary breakdown, stepped leaders, connecting leaders, return strokes, dart
leaders, and subsequent return strokes.

The conductivity of the ground, be it ground, fresh water or salt water, may impact
the lightning discharge rate and thus visible characteristics.
Mechanism of Lightning :
• Lightning phenomenon is the discharge of the cloud to the ground. The cloud and
the ground form two plates of a gigantic capacitor and the dielectric medium is air.
Since the lower part of the cloud is negatively charged, the earth is positively
charged by induction.
• Lightning discharge will require the puncture of the air between the cloud and the
earth. For breakdown of air at STP condition the electric field required is 30 kV/cm
peak. But in a cloud where the moisture content in the air is large and also because
of the high altitude (lower pressure) it is seen that for breakdown of air the electric
field required is only 10 kV/cm.
• The mechanism of lightning discharge is best explained with the help of the figure.
After a gradient of approximately 10 kV/cm is set up in the cloud, the air
surrounding gets ionized.
• At this a streamer (Fig. (a)) starts from the cloud towards the earth which cannot be
detected with the naked eye; only a spot travelling is detected. The current in the
streamer is of the order of 100 amperes and the speed of the streamer is 0.16 m/μ
sec. This streamer is known as pilot streamer because this leads to the lightning
phenomenon.
• Depending upon the state of ionization of the air surrounding the streamer, it is
branched to several paths and this is known as stepped leader (Fig. (b)). The leader
steps are of the order of 50 m in length and are accomplished in about a
microsecond. The charge is brought from the cloud through the already ionized path
to these pauses.
• The air surrounding these pauses is again ionized and the leader in this way reaches
the earth (Fig. (c)). Once the stepped leader has made contact with the earth it is
believed that a power return stroke (Fig.(c)) moves very fast up towards the cloud
through the already ionized path by the leader. This streamer is very intense where
the current varies between 1000 amps and 200,000 amps and the speed is about 10%
that of light.
• It is here where the –ve charge of the cloud is being neutralized by the positive
induced charge on the earth (Fig. (d)). It is this instant which gives rise to lightning
flash which we observe with our naked eye. There may be another cell of charges in
the cloud near the neutralized charged cell.
• This charged cell will try to neutralize through this ionized path. This
streamer is known as dart leader (Fig. (e)). The velocity of the dart
leader is about 3% of the velocity of light. The effect of the dart
leader is much more severe than that of the return stroke.
• The discharge current in the return streamer is relatively very large
but as it lasts only for a few microseconds the energy contained in the
streamer is small and hence this streamer is known as cold lightning
stroke whereas the dart leader is known as hot lightning stroke
because even though the current in this leader is relatively smaller but
it lasts for some milliseconds and therefore the energy contained in
this leader is relatively larger. It is found that each thunder cloud may
contain as many as 40 charged cells and a heavy lightning stroke may
occur. This is known as multiple stroke.
 Mechanism of Lightning : (Summary )
➢Lighting is a huge spark takes place when clouds are charged to a
high potential with respect to the earth or neighbouring cloud &
dielectric strength of air gets destroyed.
➢During the uprush motion of warm air friction between air & tiny
particles of water causes building up of charges.
➢Larger drops becomes positively charged & smaller drops
become negatively charged.
➢Hence potential of cloud depends upon the droplets it contains.
➢Due to increase in charge of the cloud to high value it gets
discharged to
the earth or to the neighbouring cloud & tries to attain electrical
Stability.
➢That discharge appears in the form of huge spark that we
call as Lightning.
 Mechanism of Lightning Discharge:
➢ Charged cloud induces equal & opposite charge on the earth below.
➢ Clouds are generally negatively charged hence they induces positive
➢ charge on earth as shown in fig.
➢ Electrical discharge or lightning takes place when potential
gradient is above 5 kV/cm to 10 kV/cm. This results in lightning
stroke.
➢ Streamer which passes towards the earth is known as leader
streamer.
➢ Path of leader streamer is a path of ionization, as the leader
streamer reaches to the earth a return streamer shoots up from
the earth to the cloud which follows same path of leader streamer.
This completes lightning action.
➢ Any further discharge or lightning from the cloud may have to
originate from some other portion from it.
 Types of Lightning Strokes :
❑ Direct Stroke : In the direct stroke, the lightning discharge (i.e. current path) is
directly from the cloud to the subject equipment e.g. an overhead line. From the
line, the current path may be over the insulators down the pole to the ground. The
overvoltage's set up due to the stroke. may be large enough to flashover this path
directly to the ground. The direct strokes can be of two types viz.
❑ Stroke A :In stroke A, the lightning discharge is from the cloud to the subject
equipment i.e. an overhead line in this case as shown in Fig.(1). The cloud will
induce a charge of opposite sign on the tall object (e.g. an overhead line in this
case). When the potential between the cloud and line exceeds the breakdown value
of air, the lightning discharge occurs between the cloud and the line.
❑ Stroke B: In stroke B, the lightning discharge occurs on the overhead line as a result
of stroke A between the clouds as shown in Fig. 24.5 (ii). There are three clouds P,
Q and R having positive, negative and positive charges respectively. The charge on
the cloud Q is bound by the cloud R. If the cloud P shifts too near the cloud Q, then
lightning discharge will Occur between them and charges on both these clouds
disappear quickly. The result is that charge on cloud R suddenly becomes free and it
then discharges rapidly to earth, ignoring tall objects.
❑ Two points are worth noting about direct strokes.
❑ Firstly, direct strokes on the power system are very rare.
❑ Secondly, stroke A will always occur on tall objects and hence protection can be
provided against it.
❑ However, stroke B completely ignores the height of the object and can even strike the
ground.
❑ Therefore, it is not possible to provide protection against stroke B.
❑ Indirect Stroke :Indirect strokes result from the electrostatically induced charges on
the conductors due to the presence of charged clouds.
❑ A positively charged cloud is above the line and induces a negative charge on the
line by electrostatic induction. This negative charge, however, will be only on that
portion of the line right under the cloud and the portions of the line away from it will
be positively charged as shown in Fig.
❑ The induced positive charge leaks slowly to earth via the insulators.
❑ When the cloud discharges to earth or to another cloud, the negative charge on the
wire is isolated as it cannot flow quickly to earth over the insulators.
❑ The result is that negative charge rushes along the line is both directions in the form
of travelling waves.
❑ It may be worthwhile to mention here that majority of the surges in a transmission
line are caused by indirect Types of Lightning Strikes strokes.
Direct Stroke
Indirect Stroke
CHARACTERISTICS OF LIGHTNING STROKES

Parameters of Lightning Strokes

✓ Amplitude of the currents
✓ Rate of rise
✓ Probability of distribution of the above
✓ Wave shapes of the lightning voltages & currents
✓ Time to peak value & its rate of rise
✓ Specification:
✓ peak amplitude-5000kv in a transmission line
✓ Front time -2 to 10 microseconds
✓ Time – 20 to 100 microseconds
✓ Rate of rise of voltage – 1Mv/ microseconds
CHARACTERISTICS OF LIGHTNING STROKES
 CHARACTERISTICS OF LIGHTNING STROKES

• Typical oscillograms of the lightning current and voltage wave shapes on a

transmission line are shown in Figs.
• The lightning current oscillograms indicate an initial high current portion which is
characterized by short front times up to 10 u, s.
• The high current peak may last for some tens of microseconds followed by a long
duration low current portion lasting for several milliseconds.
• This last portion is normally responsible for damages (thermal damage).
• Lightning currents are usually measured either directly from high towers or
buildings or from the transmission tower legs. The former gives high values and
does not present typical currents that occur on electrical transmission lines, and the
latter gives inaccurate values due to non-uniform division of current in legs and the
presence of ground wires and adjacent towers.
• Measurements made by several investigators and committees indicated the large
strokes of currents (> 100 kA) are possible.
• It is known that tall objects attract a large portion of high current strokes, and this
would explain the shift of the frequency distribution curves towards higher currents.
 CHARACTERISTICS OF LIGHTNING STROKES
• Other important characteristics are time to peak value and its rate of
rise.
• From the field data, it was indicated that 50% of lightning stroke
currents have a rate of rise greater than 7.5 kA/µs, and for 10%
strokes it exceeded 25 kA/µs The duration of the stroke currents
above half the value is more than 30 U. s.
• Measurements of surge voltages indicated that a maximum voltage,
as high as 5,000 kV, is possible on transmission lines, but on the
average, most of the lightning strokes give rise to voltage surges less
than 1000 kV on lines.
• The time to font of these waves varies from 2 to 10 p. s and tail
times usually vary from 20 to 100 u. s.
• The rate of rise of voltage, during rising of the wave may be typically
about 1 MV/µs
 Silent features of Lightning :
✓Lightning discharge is made up of number of separate strokes those
travel down the same path. The interval between them varies from
0.0005 to 0.5 second.

✓About 87% of lightning strokes are due to negatively charged

clouds & only 13% are due to positively charged clouds.

✓Throughout the world there occur about 100 lightning strokes per
second.

✓Lightning discharge may have currents in the range of 10 kA to 90

kA.

✓The velocity of lightning stroke varies from 10% to 50% of that of

light.
 Harmful Effects of Lightning :
1) Direct or indirect stroke on transmission line produces a steep fronted voltage wave
on line which may rise from zero to peak value (perhaps 2000 kV) in about 1
microsecond & decay to half the peak value in about 5 microseconds.
2) Travelling waves produced due to lightning surges will shatter the
insulators and may even wreck poles.
3) Travelling waves produced due to lightning may damage the part where those hit or
strikes.
4) If the travelling waves produced due to Types of Lightning Strikes hit the
windings of a transformer or generator, it may cause considerable damage.
The inductance of the windings opposes any sudden passage of electric
charge through it. Therefore, the electric charges “piles up” against the
transformer (or generator). This induces such an excessive pressure between
the windings that insulation may breakdown, resulting in the production of
arc. While the normal voltage between the toms is never enough to start an
arc, once the insulation has broken down and an arc has been started by a
momentary overvoltage, the line voltage is usually sufficient to maintain the
arc long enough to severely damage the machine.
5) Formation of Arc may possible due to very excessive heat which is involved
in lightning stroke. This arc can abruptly damage Electrical system because it
sets up very disturbing oscillations in the system.
 Protection Against Lightning :
• Lightning cannot be prevented, it can only be diverted through a
path , if well designed and constructed to avoid any damage
• The fundamental theory of lightning protection of structure is to
provide means by which a discharge may enter or leave the earth
without passing through path of high resistance
• Such condition is usually met by:

1) Earthing Screen/ Shielding

2) Overhead ground wires/ Grounding
3) Lightning arresters or surge diverters
 Earthing Screen / Shielding:
• Power stations or substations can be protected by direct lightning
strokes with the help of these Earthing Screen.
• Buildings and Structure involving hazardous liquids, gases or
explosives, it is highly desirable to keep the stroke current away from
the structures, not even utilizing its metal frame as down conductor
• For such case, including tanks, tank frames and explosive manufacture
and storage, a separate diverter protection system is employed
• The diverter element consists of one or more masts or one or more
elevated wires between masts suitably at the top perimeter of the
structure to be protected and connecting them by down conductors to
earth meeting the requirements of lightning protection
• As per general recommendations , the masts or poles are at least 10
feet away from any part of the structure to be protected
• Elevated wires above the structure must be 10 feet above the
structures to be protected
• These masts are connected to ground by some suitable means
• If the mast is made of metal, this itself acts as grounding conductors
• If wooden poles have an air terminal securely mounted to the top of
the pole and a copper weld conductor as with all other types of
grounding conductors suitable earthing electrodes are necessary
 Overhead Ground Wires :
▪ Shielding types of protection is also common for the transmission
line known as ground wire
▪ Most effective method for providing protection to transmission lines
against direct strokes.
▪ These wires are placed above the line conductors in such a way that
practically all lightning strokes are intercepted by them.
▪ Ground wire is a conductor running parallel to the power conductors
of transmission line and is placed at the top of the tower structure
supporting the power conductors
▪ Ground wires are grounded at each pole or tower to provide low
resistive grounding path to the lightning stroke.
▪ It serves following purpose:
▪ It shields the power conductors from direct lightning stroke.
▪ Whenever lightning strokes fall on tower, the ground wires on the both sides of
tower provides parallel paths for stroke therefore effective impedance is reduced
and alternately top potential is reduced
• The protective angle (also called shielding angle) of the grounding wire
is defined as the angle between the vertical line passing through the
ground wire and line passing through outer most conductor
• The field experience along with laboratory investigations has proved
that the protective angle should be almost 30 degree on plain areas and
the angle decreases on hilly areas by an amount equal to the slope of
the hill.
Overhead Ground Wires
Advantages & Disadvantages of Overhead Ground Wires :

Advantages :
➢Provides considerable protection against direct lightning
strokes on transmission lines.
➢provides certain amount of electrostatic shielding against
external fields which reduces voltage induced in the line
conductors due to discharge of neighbouring cloud.
Disadvantages :
➢Requires additional cost.
➢There is a possibility of breaking & falling on line conductor
henceforth causing short circuit. However this disadvantage
has been overcome by using galvanised stranded steel
conductors which provides sufficient strength to the wire.
 Lightning arresters or Surge Diverters :
• The device which is used for the protection of the equipment at the
substations against travelling waves, such type of device is called
lightning arrester or surge diverter
• In other words, lightning arrester diverts the abnormal high voltage to
the ground without affecting the continuity of supply
• It is connected between the line and earth, i.e., in parallel with the
equipment to be protected at the substation.
• The following are the damages that are caused by the travelling wave
on the substation equipment.
1.The high peak or crest voltage of the surge may cause flash-over in
the internal winding thereby spoil the winding insulation.
2.The steep wave fronts of the surges may cause external flashover
between the terminal of the transformer.
3.The highest peak voltage of the surge may cause external flashover,
between the terminal of the electrical equipment which may result in
damage to the insulator.
 Lightning arresters or Surge Diverters :
A Lightning arrester is a protecting device which conducts the high
voltage surges on the power system to the ground.
❖ It consists of a Spark Gap in series with the non-linear resistance.
❖ One end of Surge Arrester is connected to the equipment to be
protected & other end is effectively grounded.
❖ An electric spark forms in spark gap under abnormal condition
(lightning) by breaking insulation capacity of air.
❖ Non-linear resistance decreases as the voltage or current increases.
Working of Lightning Arrester
❖ When a travelling wave reaches the arrestor, its sparks over at a certain prefixed
voltage as shown in the figure below.
❖ The arrestor provides a conducting path to the waves of relatively low impedance
between the line and the ground.
❖ The surge impedance of the line restricts the amplitude of current flowing to
ground.
❖The lightning arrester provides a path of low impedance only when the travelling
surge reaches the surge diverter, neither before it nor after it.
❖ The insulation of the equipment can be protected if the shape of the voltage and
current at the diverter terminal is similar to the shape shown below.
An ideal lightning arrester should have the following characteristics;
• It should not draw any current during normal operating condition, i.e.,
it sparks-over voltage must be above the normal or abnormal power
frequency that may occur in the system.
• Any transient abnormal voltage above the breakdown value must
cause it to break down as quickly as possible so that it may provide a
conducting path to ground.
• When the breakdown has taken place, it should be capable of carrying
the resulting discharge current without getting damaged itself and
without the voltage across it exceeding the breakdown value.
• The power frequency current following the breakdown must be
interrupted as soon as the transient voltage has fallen below the
breakdown value.
The performance of any arrester is dependent on a good
connection to ground. Arresters will not function without a proper
ground; they are totally useless. The arrester should be placed as close as
possible to the equipment, that is to be protected and leads connecting
arresters to ground should be kept as short as possible.
Types of Lightning Arresters :
❖ Rod Gap Arrester
❖ Expulsion type lightning Arrester
❖ Valve Type Lightning Arrester.
❖ Horn Gap Arrester
❖ Multigap arrester
1. Rod Gap Arrester
• It is the simplest type of lighting arrester.
• It consist two-rod electrodes, one of which is connected to the
line and other to earth.
• The rods may be in the form of horn also. These are generally to
used to protect the transformers.
• Under normal operating conditions, the gap remains non-
conducting. When a high voltage surge occurs, the gap sparks
over and surge current is drained to earth.
• Such arresters suffer from the following disadvantages:
• The operation is affected by climatic conditions.
• After the surge is over, due to ionization of air, the arc in the gap is
maintained even at the normal supply voltage.
• Increased possibility of bird faults.
• Due to the above disadvantages, the rod gap arresters are used
only as a ‘back-up’ protection with main arrestors.
2. Expulsion type Arrester :
• It consists of an arc extinguishing chamber in series with an air gap.
The arc extinguishing chamber is in the form of fiber tube which
interrupts the arc after discharging the surge by the generation of
gasses.
• When a voltage surge occurs that is sufficient to spark over the series
gap and the gap in the fiber tube, discharge current flows to ground.
The arc in the tube attacks some of the fiber of tube walls, releasing a
large amount of a relatively cool, non-conducting gas.
• The gas produced in fiber tube acts not only to extinguish the arc but
also builds up high pressure and expelled through the lower electrode
which is hollow. As the gas leaves the tube violently, it wipes out the
ionized air around the arc. Due to this strong deionization effect, arc
goes out at current zero instant and will not be re-established.
• An expulsion type lightning arrester has a current rating in addition to
the voltage rating. The maximum current rating must be equal to the
short-circuit current available at the point of installation. These are
generally used on towers for the protection of transmission lines.
 Advantages :

• Notmuch expensive.
• Easy to install.
• Improved performance.

Limitations :

• Limited number of operations are possible because fiber material

is used up during each operation.
• Discharge of gases during operation hence can not mounted
in enclosed equipment.
• Poor Volt- Ampere characteristics.
• Not suitable for protection of expensive equipments.
3. Valve type Arrester :
• It consists of an outer ceramic body containing a set of resistances (valves) and spark
gaps in series. The resistances are made of a special silicon carbide ceramic.
• It possesses the characteristic of being substantially an insulator at one voltage and
then changing to an excellent conductor at a higher voltage; the transition is due to
voltage changes only, not to heat as in other valve materials. High-voltage surges
spark across the air gap and discharge current flows through the valve to ground.
• Since the valve has a low resistance under high voltage and a high resistance at a
normal voltage so as soon as system voltage becomes normal current flow stops. The
arc gets extinguished and the arrester regains its original state.
• The valve type arrestors are extensively used for the protection of generating stations,
sub-stations, overhead lines, cables and rotating machinery.
• They are rated for voltage only and are designated as 70%, 80%, and 100% arresters.
The 80% arresters are suitable for solidly grounded systems. Whereas, 100% arresters
are used on systems with isolated neutrals or those earthed through impedances.
• The valve type arresters have been classified into the four types as under:
• Secondary Type
• Distribution Type
• Line Type
• Station Type
• Secondary type lighting arresters are used with medium voltage
apparatus, where the equipment is installed in farms and other
lightning-prone areas.
• Distribution type arresters are used on lines and substations up to 22
kV.
• Line type arresters are normally used for voltages up to 66 kV though
they can be used for higher voltages also.
• Station type arresters provide the highest degree of protection and
should be used where the cost of the protected equipment or the
importance of service continuity justifies the extra investment on their
account.
Advantages :
• Very effective protection against surges.
• Operation is very quick & rapid (Less than 1 second).
Limitations :
•Performance is adversely affected by the entry of moisture into the
enclosure.
Horn Gap Arrester
• As the name suggests, this arrestor has two metal rods in horn-shaped. The
arrangement of these metal rods can be done around a small air gap. The distance
between these two rods can be increased because they increase from the gap. The
metal rods are located on ceramic insulators.
• The connection of the horn can be done by connecting it to two dissimilar wires. One
side of the horn can be connected to the line throughout a resistance & choke coil
whereas the other side is grounded efficiently.
• The resistance restricts the flow of current toward a minute value. The choke coil is
used to provide less reactance at the usual power frequency and also provides high
reactance at transient frequency. Therefore the choke coil doesn’t permit the
transients to go into the apparatus to be protected. The gap among the horns can be
adjusted so that the usual supply voltage is not sufficient to cause an arc.
Advantages :
• Arc is self clearing hence no possibility of short circuit.
• Series resistance limits current to very low value.
Limitations :
• The bridging of gap by some external agency (birds) can render the device useless.
• Setting of horn gap can change due to corrosion.
• Time of operation is long.
 Multigap Arrester :

• These types of arresters are designed with a sequence of metal

cylinders that are insulated and divided through air gaps with each
other. In the sequence of cylinders, the primary cylinder is
connected toward the electrical line, whereas the remaining
cylinders are connected to the ground by series resistance. Some of
the gaps among the next cylinders contain a shunt resistance that
grabs a surge when there is a surplus of voltage.