Multi-Stage ANN Model for Optimizing the Configuration of External Lightning Protection and Grounding Systems

This paper proposes an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model using a Multi-Stage method to optimize the configuration of an External Lightning Protection System (ELPS) and grounding system. ELPS is a system designed to protect an area from damage caused by lightning strikes. Meanwhile, the grounding system functions to direct excess electric current from lightning strikes into the ground. This study identifies the optimal protection system configuration, reducing the need for excessive components. The ELPS configuration includes the number of protection pole units and the height of the protection poles. In contrast, the grounding system configuration consists of the number of electrode units and the length of the electrodes. This study focuses on the protection system configuration at a Photovoltaic Power Station, where the area is highly vulnerable to lightning strikes. Several aspects need to be considered in determining the appropriate configuration, such as average thunderstorm days per year, ELPS efficiency, total area of photovoltaic module, area to be protected, soil resistivity, electrode spacing factor, and the total required electrode resistance. The proposed multi-stage ANN model consists of three processing stages, each responsible for handling a portion of the overall system tasks. The first stage is responsible for determining the protection pole configuration. In the second stage, the Lightning Protection Level (LPL) classification is performed. Then, in the third stage, the process of determining the grounding configuration is handled. The analysis results show that the Multi-Stage ANN model can effectively determine the configuration with a low error rate: MAE of 0.265, RMSE of 0.314, and MPE of 9.533%. This model can also explain data variation well, as indicated by the high R2 value of 0.961. The comparison results conducted with ATP/EMTP software show that the configuration produced by ANN results in fewer protection pole units but with greater height. Meanwhile, ANN produces a configuration with shorter electrode lengths but fewer units in the grounding system.