Lightning protection of smart grids

In this chapter, a broad view of ‘lightning protection’ includes the use of lightning in all proactive protection strategies. A summary of measurement technologies used on electric power systems and achievements of research campaigns will show the origins of some traditional surge waveforms, such as the 1.2/50 standard lightning impulse voltage wave, from nearly 100 years ago. Some of these methods and many results still apply to present-day Smart Grid component protection. The authors also cover the sequential evolution of the following: traditional travelling wave systems (TWS) for finding faults along individual cables and lines, from 1940s; the modern LLS based on travelling waves in two dimensions, from 1980s; and the recent wide-area power system monitoring and measurement systems, using time-synchronized measurements of voltage and current phasors (synchrophasors) from 2005, classed as a ‘Smart Grid’ initiative.