Induced Overvoltage Caused by Indirect Lightning Strikes in Large Photovoltaic Power Plants and Effective Attenuation Techniques

Indirect Lightning Stroke (ILS) is considered an urgent issue on overall power systems due to its sudden dangerous occurrence. A grid-connected solar Photovoltaic (PV) power plant of 1MW was considered and analyzed using PSCAD/EMTDC software. The effect of grounding grid resistance ( R_{g} ) on the induced voltages caused by the indirect strokes was discussed. The Transient Grounding Potential Rise (TGPR) variation with R_{g} was presented and discussed. Four different models were proposed and installed for the system under study, which includes a combination of the Externally Gapped Line Arrester (EGLA) with the Non-Gapped Line Arrester (NGLA). The results show that when the R_{g} was reduced from 5 to 1 ohm, TGPR decreased by about 79.63%, whereas the peak value was reduced by about 91.3% nearby the striking position. Four models of EGLAs were proposed to reduce the induced transient overvoltage effectively. The four models showed a remarkable ability to reduce the backflow current (BFC) and, consequently, the induced overvoltage. The EGLA's type with the composite air gap reduced the TGPR by about 77.04 % and reduced the induced overvoltage nearby the striking position by about 51.3%.