Lightning and the Perth-Geraldton 132 KV Line

Although in an area of low to moderate thunderstorm activity, the design and operation of the 440 kM 132 kV line from Perth to Geraldton was largely controlled by the lightning. An unusual design, with structures consisting of three independent 23.6 m (50 feet) poles, was developed to utilise the arc quenching properties of wood to achieve a reasonable lightning performance without recourse to the provision of overhead earthwires. The paper describes the line design, the first three years of operating experience, and presents a detailed comparison between the observed and predicted frequency of lightning strikes, flashovers and damage to the line.