Location of direct lightning impacts to overhead transmission lines by means of a time of arrival algorithm

A method for locating direct lightning impacts on overhead transmission lines is proposed. The method is based on the time of arrival of traveling waves generated by the lightning current injected into the overhead ground wire. The method requires the currents measured or calculated through the earth wire at each end of the transmission line and its length as input parameters. These signals are digitally processed and used by the method in order to estimate the lightning impact point. The performance of the method was evaluated by means of a Montecarlo simulation taking into account randomly generated values for the lightning discharge parameters and for the impact points along the transmission line. As a conclusion, it is shown that besides its excellent behavior, the results obtained can be used to identify transmission line sections with high flashover rates and with possible insulation problems.