A Power Line Lightning Protection Method for Television and Radio Stations

Abstract

The existing research on lightning protection focuses on risk assessment or equipment selection. There has not been any thorough research about lightning protection including risk assessment for a building in order to identify the risks when selecting lightning protection equipment according to technical requirements and cost optimization. The objective of the current paper is to propose a new risk computational method of damages by lightning for a Television and Radio Station (TRS). The new computational method consists of nine steps for identifying two risk indices, human life loss (R1) and service loss (R2). If the value of R1 is higher than the regulatory limit value RT1 and the value of R2 is higher than the regulatory limit value RT2, the damage risks due to lightning are very serious. Therefore, the TRS is necessary to select lightning protection solutions to reduce these risks. In addition, the paper proposes a six-step procedure for selecting and testing surge protective devices. The proposed calculations are then applied to a real TRS in Vietnam, and some testing results are simulated in Matlab-Simulink.