Application of Dynamic Lightning Protection in Multi-Terminal Flexible DC Transmission System

Lightning activities occur frequently in most areas of China, and lightning strike is the significant cause of power grid accidents such as transmission line tripping. The traditional lightning protection model requires large-scale construction and maintenance costs. Under this background, dynamic lightning protection is widely studied as the most effective lightning prediction method in recent years. Meanwhile, with the continuous development of power science and related technologies, a high-voltage direct current transmission technology using voltage source converters has emerged (commonly known as “Flexible Direct Current Transmission” in China, abbreviated as VSC-HVDC). It utilizes the turn-off characteristics of IGBT components to fundamentally solve the defect of traditional DC transmission that cannot achieve passive inverters, and enables the DC system to supply power to marginal loads, with active and reactive power controlled separately. Therefore, using VSC-HVDC control strategy to realize power flow control in multi-terminal DC transmission system is one of the effective means to realize dynamic lightning protection of power grid. This paper analyzes the application of VSC-HVDC control method in dynamic lightning protection, and provides application examples of different control methods.