Quantifying the Shielding Effect of Trees Against Lightning Strikes for Power Transmission Lines

Power transmission lines are often built along terrains where trees surround the right-of-way in British Columbia, Canada. These trees provide natural shielding against direct lightning strokes to transmission lines. In this paper, a new method is proposed to quantify the shielding effect of trees based on LiDAR survey data. This method takes as input the statistical parameters for the trees around the edge of the right-of-way such as heights, distance to centerline, and density per span. LiDAR survey data are collected for transmission line corridors in BC Hydro's system. Calculation results are shown for a new transmission line project in British Columbia.