Estimation of flashovers in the EHV/UHV lines on east coast due to lightning produced by Bay of Bengal cyclones

The modern world relies on continuous and reliable power. Lightning is one of the natural threats that can lead to, amongst others, power interruptions and damage to equipment. It is a threat even for EHV and UHV grids and forms the primary reason for outages. Cyclones can bring many lightning strikes to the electric grid within a few days. In addition to the above, it can affect the system's stability. The Bay of Bengal produces a considerable number of cyclones that affect the electric grid on the east coast. As such, there is no effort to quantify the consequential threat of lightning flashovers; hence, the present work was undertaken. The electro-geometric model (EGM), suggested by IEEE standards, assessed the normalized number of strokes to the phase conductor and intercepted by the tower/ground wire. The associated probabilities are also estimated for typical EHV and UHV lines. Lines are modeled in EMTP to assess the flashovers. The cyclones' trajectory, speed, and ground flash density are evaluated based on the literature. The possible number of flashovers in the EHV and UHV grid along the East Coast is accessed using the same. The maximum number of flashovers is also estimated for engineering purposes, which seems to range in thousands.