2156
4, OCTOBER 2007
The Effects of Load Impedance, Line Length,
and Branches in the BPLC—Transmission-Lines
Analysis for Medium-Voltage Channel
Justinian Anatory, Student Member, IEEE, Nelson Theethayi, Member, IEEE, Mussa M. Kissaka,
Nerey H. Mvungi, and Rajeev Thottappillil, Senior Member, IEEE
Abstract—This paper presents the effects of load impedance,
line length and branches on the performance of medium-voltage
power-line communication (PLC) network. The power-line net-
work topology adopted here is similar to that of the system in
Tanzania. Different investigation with regard to network load
impedances, direct line length (from transmitter to receiver),
branched line length and number of branches has been investi-
gated. From the frequency response of the transfer function (ratio
of the received and transmitted signal), it is seen that position
of notches and peaks in the magnitude and phase responses are
largely affected in terms of attenuation and dispersion by the
above said network parameters/configuration. These are observed
in the time domain responses too. The observations presented in
the paper could be helpful in suitable design of the PLC systems
for a better data transfer and system performance.
Index Terms—Broadband power line, channel model, communi-
cation channels, load impedance, transfer function, transmission
lines.
I. INTRODUCTION
ECENTLY, there has been a lot of interest to utilize power-
R line infrastructure for broadband communication services.
However, it has been observed that, there are a number of chal-
lenges associated with data transfer through such network. Ex-
isting power-line topology (geometry and transmission voltage
levels) varies from region to region and country to country. In
countries like Tanzania, it has been observed that the medium-
voltage systems exhibit a potential scope to extend the broad-
band services to end users. The typical line length between far
distribution transformer and the substation is about 4 km, with
around 20 (distribution) transformers distributed along the line
(interconnected) leading to branched network configurations,
Manuscript received July 31, 2006; revised December 5, 2006. This work is a
collaboration research between the Faculty of Electrical and Computer Systems
Engineering, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, through SIDA/SAREC and
the Division for Electricity and Lightning Research, Uppsala University, Upp-
sala, Sweden. Paper no. TPWRD-00426-2006
J. Anatory, M. M. Kissaka, and N. H. Mvungi are with the Faculty of
Electrical and Computer Systems University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es
Salaam 0, Tanzania (e-mail: anatory@engineer.com; kissaka@ee.udsm.ac.tz;
mvungi@ee.udsm.ac.tz).
N. Theethayi and R. Thottappillil are with Division for Electricity
and Lightning Research, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden (e-mail:
nelson.theethayi@angstrom.uu.se; rajeev.thottappillil@angstrom.uu.se).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPWRD.2007.905789
0885-8977/$25.00 © 2007 IEEE
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 22, NO.
with the connecting branch ranges between 30 m to 100 m.
Moreover, the terminal loads experienced by such line config-
uration may not be always characteristic impedance or resis-
tive loads. It is thus appropriate that with such medium-voltage
channel topology a number of case studies are to be carried out
so as to provide guidelines for future optimal planning and de-
sign of communication systems.
Different studies regarding the effect of load impedances,
branches, etc., have been reported in Matthias et al. [1], Pavlidou
et al. [2], Zimmermann [3], and Mathias et al. [1] pointed out
that maximum distance for a lossless data transmission through
power line is about 300 m. Pavlidou et al. in [2] concludes
that “studies are still necessary to better understand and im-
prove the performance of power lines for higher bit rate trans-
mission.” Researchers have investigated the variation time/fre-
quency responses due to the influence of load impedance, line
length and branches without mentioning exactly/clearly, what
was the contribution of each parameter to the stochastic be-
havior (shown later) of channel responses. For example, the an-
swers to the following questions should draw some conclusion
for the performance improvement of medium-voltage commu-
nication channel.
• How much the number of branches contribute to the
signal response?
• How line lengths from transmitter to the receiver and
branched line length (X) influence the signal response?
• How the terminal load (infinite and low) impedances (
and ) influence the signal response?
Moreover in the literature, no complete systematic study was
made to address all the above questions together, perhaps due
to the complexities and uncertainties involved in the system.
Consequently, the authors in this work are only attempting to
seek some answers to the above questions. In the analyses to
be presented the frequency response (or the transfer function as
applicable) is calculated based on [4]–[6] as discussed next.
II. MODEL FOR POWER-LINE CHANNEL
It has been said that optimization of a transmission system
is realizable only when a reasonably accurate channel model
is available [7]; for investigating the power-line network per-
formance in detail. Hensen [8] proposed a simple power-line
model, the model was straight forward, the attenuation was in-
creasing with frequency and do not take into consideration the
multipath phenomenon. The second model was proposed by
Philipps et al. [9], whose transfer function is given by (1). In
ANATORY et al.: EFFECTS OF LOAD IMPEDANCE, LINE LENGTH, AND BRANCHES IN THE BPLC 2157

TABLE I
PARAMETERS USED IN EXAMPLE (EX1)

Fig. 1. Power-line network with multiple branches at a single node.

(1) out of N number of possible signal flow paths, each path de-
layed by time is multiplied by a complex factor (product
of transmission and reflection factors).

(1)

The method in [9] was extended by Zimmermann et al. [3]

to account for the attenuation of the signal flow and is given
by (2). In (2), each path is characterized by weighting factor
(product of transmission and reflections factors) and path length
. The attenuation factor is modeled by the parameters ,
and , which are obtained from measurements. Banwell et al.
[10] proposed a model which accounts for a multi-conductor
configuration. However, the method used widely by power-line
researchers is that due to Zimmermann et al. [3], as its easy
to apply and due to model agreement with measurements. Al-
though a popular model, it still suffers from some drawbacks,
as highlighted in [5] and [10]

(2)

In our investigation, the method proposed in [4]–[6] is used.

For a transmission line with multiple branches at a single node
(e.g., node B in Fig. 1) the generalized transfer function can be
represented by (3a). In (3a), is the total number of branches
connected at node ‘B’ and terminated in any arbitrary load. Let Fig. 2. Simulation results. (a) Model result and (b) ATP-EMTP results.
n, m, M, and , represent any branch number, any
referenced (terminated) load, number of reflections (with total
L number of reflections), transfer function between line n to a Consider now an example (EX1) of an arbitrary power-line
referenced load m, transmission factor at the referenced load configuration with and parameters as given in Table I.
m, respectively. With these the signal contribution factor The configuration was excited by a rectangular pulse with pulse
is given by (3b), where is the reflection factor at node B width 1 and amplitude of 2 V. The pulse is shifted by 0.5
between line to the referenced load m, is the propagation . The output referenced voltage in frequency domain
constant of line that has line length . All terminal reflection is given by (4). The general time domain response is obtained
factors in general are given by (3c), except at source where by inverse Fourier transform of (4)
is the source reflection factor [5]. Also, is the
source impedance, is the characteristic impedance of any (4)
terminal with source while and are source voltage and
load impedance respectively based on Fig. 1
For the above example, the time domain response at is
given in Fig. 2(a). The same configuration was implemented
(3a) in the widely used ATP-EMTP software [11] and the corre-
sponding result is shown in Fig. 2(b). It can be observed that
(3b) the results are comparable.
Now to derive a more generalized case applicable to any line
(3c)
configuration consider a power-line network with distributed
2158 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 22, NO. 4, OCTOBER 2007

Fig. 3. Power-line network with distributed branches.

Fig. 4. Power-line network with three distributed branches.

branches as shown in Fig. 3, the transfer function of such net-

work is given by (5a). In (5a), the parameters used has the same Fig. 5. Simulation results. (a) Model result and (b) ATP-EMTP results.
meaning as in (3a) and is the total number of distributed
nodes, d is any referenced node , is the
transfer function between line n to a referenced load m at a ref-
erenced node d similar to (3a). All parameters used in [(5a), (5b)
and (5c)] are similar to ((3a), (3b), and (3c)) respectively but
with reference node “d”

Fig. 6. Power-line network with a branch.

(5a)
(5b) III. EFFECTS OF LINE LENGTH

(5c)
A. Length From Transmitter to the Receiver

(6) We now consider a typical medium-voltage line of Tanzanian

power network. All the lines have the following per unit length
parameters with ( , ,
Consider the for example configuration Fig. 4 with three dis- ).1 The configuration under study is given in
tributed branches, the value of is equal to three. The lengths Fig. 6 with . The line length AC was varied
were considered as ( as 4 km, 2 km, 1 km, and 500 m, with length of BD constant at
, ) and load , and 30 m. In the study here B is always the mid point of AC. Point
were terminated in open circuit while and in the line D was terminated in 50 .
characteristic impedance. The configuration was excited by a Fig. 7(a)–(d) shows frequency response of transfer function
rectangular pulse with pulse width 0.5 and amplitude of 2 V. relating the load voltages at C and the sending end as given by
The pulse is shifted by 0.5 . The received response is shown (5) for 4 km, 2 km, 1 km and 500 m, respectively. From Fig. 7
in Fig. 5(a). The same configuration was also implemented in the peak values of signal response were not attenuating signifi-
ATP-EMTP the response is as in Fig. 5(b). Note Fig. 5(a) and (b) cantly with either frequency or line length. Any differences that
are comparable. Next let us study the effects of various param- 1Le = (= D a Ce
) cosh ( =2 ), D a
"= cosh ( =2 ) D (1 m) is the
= "
eters using the above model. separation between two lines and a (100 mm ) is the radius of conductors.
ANATORY et al.: EFFECTS OF LOAD IMPEDANCE, LINE LENGTH, AND BRANCHES IN THE BPLC
Fig. 7. Simulation results for medium channel of power-line link with one
branch. (a) 4 km, (b) 2 km, (c) 1 km, and (d) 500 m.
Fig. 8. Phase response for medium channel of power line link with one branch.
(a) 4 km, (b) 2 km, (c) 1 km, and (d) 500 m.
are seen could be attributed to the finite losses due to the line se-
ries resistance. The position of notches in the signal response of
medium-voltage channel also does not depend on length from
transmitter to receiver.
Fig. 8(a)–(d) shows the corresponding phase responses. It
is observed that as the line length increases there are rapid
changes in the phase response. This could perhaps limit the
available transmission bandwidth of the medium-voltage
channel. Fig. 9(a)–(d) is the received signal for a transmitted
rectangular pulse with amplitude 2 V (pulse width of 1 and
shifted by 0.5 ) for different line lengths. From the received
pulse for all cases the amplitude is fluctuating between 0.7 V
and 0.5 V with distorted shapes. This tells us that in medium
voltage the signals encounter both attenuation and distortions
which do not depend on transmission line length but mainly
due to length of interconnected branches’ and it’s associated
terminal loads. The effects of branch length are studied next.
B. Branched Length
We now consider the configuration as given in Fig. 6 (i.e. the
length of a line from point A to C was kept constant at 4 km).
The branched length was varied as ( , 30 m, 60 m
and 100 m) with B always at the mid of line AC. Point D was ter-
minated in 50 as in the previous case and we repeat the same
exercise as before of calculating the transfer characteristics with
2159
Fig. 9. Received pulses for medium channel of power line link with one branch.
(a) 4 km, (b) 2 km, (c) 1 km, and (d) 500 m.
Fig. 10. Simulation results for medium channel of 4 km with one branch of
length (a) 15 m, (b) 30 m, (c) 60, and (d) 100 m.
respect to the load at C. Fig. 10(a)–(d) show the corresponding
frequency responses for various branch line lengths. It is ob-
served that in all cases the peaks of frequency responses was not
either attenuating with frequencies or branch length similar to
the earlier case. Where as, the position of the peaks and notches
is case dependant unlike the previous case. The generalized ex-
pression for frequency position ( in MHz) of ith peak in terms
of branched line length (X in m) is approximately given by (7).
Similarly, the positions of the notches are given by (8)
(7)
(8)
As the length of branched line increases the number of
notches increase. The phase response for the case under study
had similar behavior as in Fig. 8(a). It indicates that the length
of branched transmission line still doesn’t affect the phase
response of medium-voltage channel.
Fig. 11(a)–(d) shows the received time domain signal for a
rectangular pulse injected at the sending end similar to the pre-
vious cases for various branch lengths. From the results it can
be observed that the received signal has similar peak to peak
characteristics compared to earlier case. As the branched length
2160
Fig. 11. Received pulses for medium channel of power line link with one
branch of length (a) 15 m, (b) 30 m, (c) 60, and (d) 100 m.
Fig. 12. Power-line medium-voltage network with distributed branches.
tends to be shorter the signal tends to be more distorted. Next
let us study the effect of number of interconnected branches.
IV. EFFECTS OF NUMBER OF BRANCHES
We consider the medium-voltage channel with distributed
branches as shown in Fig. 12. The number of branches was
varied in the link between points A and J. The distance between
points A and J was 4 km, while all branches were 30 m long.
The number of branches was varied as 2, 5, 10 and 15. Note
that for each case the distances between the branches were
equal and equally distributed between the link A and J. The
terminations of all the branches were 50 . Fig. 13(a)–(d)
shows the corresponding frequency responses for different
number of branches. It is observed that the positions of notches
are not changed. But as the number of branches increases the
attenuations of notched point tends to increase.
The phase responses were comparable to previous case as
shown in Fig. 8(a). Fig. 14(a)–(d) shows the received time do-
main signals for the same injected source at the transmitting end
as in previous case.
For the case of two distributed branches the signal peak to
peak voltage was between 0.4 V and 0.05 V, similarly for 5
branches the signal peak to peak voltage was between 0.2 V
and 0.3 V. For more than ten branches the signal peak to
peak voltage was 0.1 V. This indicates that in medium-voltage
channel as the number of branches increases it creates both at-
tenuations and severe signal distortions.
V. EFFECTS OF LOAD IMPEDANCE—A SPECIAL CASE
This study is emphasized here because, it is common that
the loads at the termination of branched lines are not always
line characteristic impedance or resistive, rather it could be a
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 22, NO. 4, OCTOBER 2007
Fig. 13. Simulation results for medium-voltage channel with distributed
branches. (a) 2 branches, (b) 5 branches, (c) 10 branches, and (d) 15 branches.
Fig. 14. Received signals for medium-voltage channel with distributed
branches. (a) 2 branches, (b) 5 branches, (c) 10 branches, and (d) 15 branches.
Fig. 15. Power-line medium-voltage network with a branch.
case dependant arbitrary load, like, low or high impedance (R
type) compared to line characteristic impedance and practical
load impedance (RL type) representing transformers, machines,
etc. For discussions below we considered the configuration as in
Fig. 15. The length of line AC was kept constant and equal to 4
km, while branch BE of length 30 m is connected to the middle
of line AB. The termination of point E was varied according to
the given load impedance under investigation. Note that and
are the characteristic impedances of the line AB.
A. Resistive Load
We consider the following load impedances with values 2 ,
20 , 200 , 624 , 2 and 20 terminated at E. Note 624
is the characteristic impedance of the line BE. Fig. 16(a)–(d)
shows the frequency response for medium-voltage channel
for various termination impedance at BE. For the load im-
pedances less than channel characteristic impedance the
position of notches is unchanged with no attenuation [see
ANATORY et al.: EFFECTS OF LOAD IMPEDANCE, LINE LENGTH, AND BRANCHES IN THE BPLC 2161

Fig. 16. Results for a medium-voltage channel with a branch terminated in low
impedances. (a) 2
, (b) 20
, (c) 200
, (d) 624
, (e) 2 k
, and (f) 20 k
. Fig. 17. Signal received with a branch terminated in low impedances. (a) 2
.
(b) 20
. (c) 200
. (d) 624
. (e) 2 k
. (f) 20 k
.

Figs. 16(a) and (b)]. It is interesting to observe that when the

load impedance lower the peaks are at 0 dB and the notches are
at 40 dB. As the load increase the peaks are increase and the
notches decrease. As the load is characteristic impedance peaks
and notches disappear. When the load impedance increase be-
yond the characteristic impedance the peaks and notches behave
in the same way as if it were approaching lower impedances,
but with a shift in their frequency position. Note the generalized
expression for the frequency position of notches for the load
impedance terminated in impedance less than line characteristic
impedance is given by (8) while for termination impedance
greater than line characteristic impedance is given by (9).
Similarly, the position of peak frequency for load impedance
less than line characteristic impedance is given by (7), while
for load impedance greater than line characteristic impedance
is given by (10). The phase responses in the frequency ranges Fig. 18. Signal for medium-voltage channel with branch and terminated in in-
ductive load with (a) 0.1 mH, (b) 1 mH, (c) 10 mH, and (d) 100 mH.
0–1 MHz has similar features as in Fig. 8(a)

(9)
Fig. 17(a)–(f) is the received signal for a medium-voltage
channel with one branch and terminated 2 , 20 , 200 , 624
,2 and 20 respectively, for a injected 2 V rectangular
pulse with pulse width 1 , shifted by 0.5 . It is observed that
as the load impedance increases from lower to higher values,
both signal attenuation and distortions tends to reduce
The phase response had minor difference were observed com-
pared to Fig. 8(a). Fig. 18(a)–(d) is the received signal for a
medium-voltage channel with 4 km and one branch terminated
in 0.1 mH, 1 mH, 10 mH, and 100 mH, respectively for the same
voltage source as used in the previous case. It can be observed
that as the inductance tends to be lower the signal distortion in-
creases.

(10) VI. CONCLUSIONS

B. Inductive Loads
The effect of inductive terminal loads is also worth investi-
gating. For this an RL load termination at terminal E of Fig. 15
was considered, where the inductance varies as 0.1 mH, 1 mH,
10 mH, and 100 mH, with constant resistance of 50 . The fre-
quency response has the same behavior as in Fig. 16(d). This
indicates that the behavior of inductive load is like open circuit
at high frequency as expected.
The notches in the medium-voltage channel do not depend on
the line length from the position of the transmitter and receiver.
The increase in line length between transmitter and receiver
causes rapid changes in phase responses. The pulse distortion
does not depend on the line length between transmitter and re-
ceiver. The position of notches in frequency response depends
on the branched line length. The increase in branched line length
tends to limit the available bandwidth in the medium-voltage
channel.
2162
The position of deep notches does not change with a number
of distributed branches. As the number of distributed branches
increases the amplitude of notched points tends to increase.
The peak points in the frequency responses tend to fluctuate
as number of distributed branches increases. As the number of
distributed branches increases it creates both signal attenuations
and distortions.
As the load impedance increases towards the line charac-
teristic impedance the peaks attenuations tend to increase and
notches tends to improve. As the termination impedance tends
to an open circuit signals are less attenuated. As the inductive
load tends to be low the signal experiences severe distortion.
Larger the inductive loads, the shapes of the received signals
behave as if load were open circuit. The position of notches in
frequency response tends to shift from one region to another re-
gion as the termination impedance changes.
The sensitivity analysis presented here has important impli-
cation for the possible design considerations of PLC equipment.
REFERENCES
[1] M. Götz, M. Rapp, and K. Dostert, “Power line channel characteris-
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[2] N. Pavlidou, A. J. Han Vinck, J. Yazdani, and B. Honary, “Power line
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[3] M. Zimmermann and K. Dostert, “A multipath model for the power-
line channel,” IEEE Trans. Commun., vol. 50, no. 4, pp. 553–559, Apr.
2002.
[4] J. Anatory, N. Theethayi, R. Thottappillil, M. M. Kissaka, and N. H.
Mvungi, “The effects of interconnections and branched network in the
broadband powerline communications,” presented at the Int. Gathering
of Radio Science, Oct. 23–29, 2005.
[5] J. Anatory, M. M. Kissaka, and N. H. Mvungi, “Channel model for
broadband powerline communication,” IEEE Trans. Power Del., ac-
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[6] J. Anatory, M. M. Kissaka, and N. H. Mvungi, “Powerline communi-
cations: The effects of branches on the network performance,” in Proc.
IEEE ISPLC, Mar. 2006, pp. 70–75.
[7] E. Biglieri, Politecnico di Torino, “Coding and modulation for a hor-
rible channel,” IEEE Commun. Mag., no. 5, pp. 92–98, May 2003.
[8] C. Hensen and W. Schulz, “Time dependence of the channel charac-
teristics of low voltage power-lines and its effects on hardware imple-
mentation,” AEU Int. J. Electron. Commun., vol. 54, no. 1, pp. 23–32,
Feb. 2000.
[9] H. Philipps, “Modelling of powerline communication channels,”
in Proc. 3rd Int. Symp. Power-Line Communications Applications,
Lancaster, U.K., 1999, pp. 14–21.
[10] T. Banwell and S. Gali, “A novel approach to the modeling of the
indoor powerline channel—Part I: Circuit analysis and companion
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[11] H. W. Dommel, Electromagnetic Transients Program (EMTP Theory
Book). Portland, OR: Bonneville Power Administration, 1986.
Justinian Anatory (S’06) received the B.Sc. and
M.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering from Univer-
sity of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in
1998 and 2003, respectively.
He was a Software and IT Engineer with Beta
Communication Consulting Co., Ltd., Dar es Salaam,
before again joining the University of Dar es salaam
in 2001. Currently, he is an Assistant Lecturer with
the Faculty of Electrical and Computer Systems
Engineering, University of Dar es Salaam. His re-
search interests include power-line communication,
wireless communication, communication networks, and teletraffic engineering.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 22, NO. 4, OCTOBER 2007
Nelson Theethayi (S’04–M’06) was born in India, in 1975. He received the
B.E. degree in electrical and electronics (Hons.) from the University of Mysore,
Mysore, India, in 1996, the M.Eng. degree in high-voltage engineering from the
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India, in 2001, and the Ph.D. degree in
electricity with specialization in electrical transients and discharges from Upp-
sala University, Uppsala, Sweden, in 2005.
Currently, he is a Researcher with the EMC Group of the Division for Elec-
tricity of Uppsala University. His research areas are electromagnetic compat-
ibility, high-voltage engineering, electrical power systems, modeling and ex-
perimental investigation of lightning phenomena and lightning interaction, and
analysis and design of lightning protection systems for power, railway, and com-
munication systems.
Dr. Theethayi is a member of the Subcommittee "Lightning" Technical Com-
mittee TC-5 of IEEE-EMC, IEEE Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Society
(DEIS), IEEE Power Engineering Society (PES), and IEEE Industry Applica-
tions Society (IAS).
Mussa M. Kissaka received the B.Sc. degree in
electrical engineering from the University Dare es
Salaam, Dare es Salaam, Tanzania, in 1989, and the
Ph.D. degree in telecommunications engineering
from the University of Manchester, Manchester,
U.K., in 1994.
Currently, he is Senior Lecturer in the Department
of Telecommunications Engineering, Faculty of
Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering,
University Dare es Salaam. His research interests
includes rural telecommunications and computer
networks.
Dr. Kissaka is a registered professional engineer with the Engineers Regis-
tration Board (ERB) of Tanzania.
Nerey H. Mvungi received the B.Sc. degree in
electrical engineering from the University Dare es
Salaam, Dare es Salaam, Tanzania, in 1978; the
M.Sc. degree in electronics control from Salford
University, Salford, U.K.; and the Ph.D. degree from
Leeds University Leeds, Leeds, U.K.
He was with the Phillips Center for Technology,
Eindhoven, Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Currently,
he is a Senior Lecturer with the University of Dar es
Salaam. His research interests are in control and in-
strumentation, computer communication and applied
electronics, lightning protection, rural access, power-quality aspects, and remote
monitoring and control of energy consumption.
Rajeev Thottappillil (S’88–M’92–SM’06) was
born in India in 1958. He received the B.Sc. degree
in electrical engineering from the University of
Calicut, Calicut, India, in 1981, and the M.S. and
Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the
University of Florida, Gainesville, in 1989 and 1992,
respectively.
He became an Associate Professor at Uppsala Uni-
versity, Uppsala, Sweden, in 1996 and was promoted
to the rank of Full Professor in 2000 in the area of
electricity with a special emphasis on transients and
discharges at the Division for Electricity, which is affiliated with the Depart-
ment of Engineering Sciences at Uppsala University. His research interests are
lightning phenomenon, electromagnetic interference, and electromagnetic-field
theory. He has published more than 100 scientific articles, of which 40 are in
refereed journals. He has also written a book chapter on lightning electromag-
netic field computation.
Prof. Thottappillil is Chairman of the EU project COST action P18 “Physics
of Lightning Flash and its Effects,” in which groups from 23 countries are in-
volved. He is also a member of SC 77C of SEK, IEC on High Power Transients
and the Subcommittee "Lightning" Technical Committee TC-5 of IEEE-EMC.