EMC14/Tokyo

15P-B5

Lightning strike fault risk

on wind power genaration system
Takatoshi Shindo
Electric Power Engineering Research Laboratory
Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI)
Yokosuka-shi, Japan
shindo@criepi.denken.or.jp
Abstract
The wind power generation systems in Japan have
been damaged by lightning, especially in winter season. I t is
caused by the large energy of the winter lightning and several
protection methods have been investigated based on the
observations of lightning.
Keywords
lightning, risk, wind turbine blade, wind power
generation, charge, surge, grounding,

I.

Introduction

Recently, wind power generation systems have been

increasing all over the world. In Japan, the total power
capacity of the wind power generation is more than 2.5 GW at
present. As the increase of the wind power generation systems,
faults of these systems by lightning have increased especially
in the coastal area of the Sea of Japan. The damage of wind
power generation systems by lightning is much greater than
that in other countries and the establishment of effective
protection methods is strongly required. Many studies of
effective methods to reduce lightning damage of wind power
generation systems have been conducted in Japan and the New
Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization
(NEDO) in Japan has published a guideline for lightning
protection of wind power generation systems in 2008 based on
the observations of lightning to wind power generation
systems and model experiments of lightning hits to wind
turbine blades [1]. In this paper, the studies of lightning
protection of wind power generation systems in Japan have
been summarized.
II.

faults of wind power generation systems by lightning were

investigated through questionnaires sent to wind power
generation
developers by NEDO [1]. The results are
summarized in Table I. It was found that there are many faults
along the coast of the Sea of Japan in winter, which is called
7winter lightning8. The faults of blades are 75% of total faults
for wind turbines of over 1000kW. In summer, lightning
damage of low voltage circuits such as electronic circuits and
minor blade damage occur all over Japan. The total damage
occurrence rate of control systems is larger than that related to
wind turbine blades. In the area of winter lightning, however,
the damage occurrence rate related to wind turbine blades is
much larger than that related to control systems. Yasuda et al.
classified faults of wind turbines into four categories from a
view point of damage levels as shown in Table II [3]. In the
case of the winter lightning, catastrophic damage often occurs.
It is surmised that the main reason of the catastrophic damage
is not a high peak current or steepness of the current waveform
but large energy of the lightning, because material of wind
turbines is severely damaged.

Faults of Wind Power Genaration Systems by

Lightning

According to [2], main components of wind power

generation systems that are damaged by lightning directly or
indirectly are blades, control systems and electric systems.
The number of faults of the wind turbine generator systems
below 450 kW is larger than that above 450 kW. However, the
damage pattern is quite different for larger turbines and
smaller turbines. With smaller turbines (< 450 kW), the most
common damage was to the control systems (more than 30%
in Germany and more than 50% in Denmark) and the faults
rates are reduced for larger turbines (> 450 kW). In Europe,
the fault ratio is 4-8 % per 100 turbine-years. In Japan, the

Copyright 2014 IEICE

593

TABLE I.

DAMAGE OCCURRENCE RATES OF WIND TURBINE GENERATOR

SYSTEMS IN JAPAN [1].

Total
Area of winter
lightning
Other area
TABLE II.

Damage related to
wind turbine blades
(/100systems/year)
5.1
14.0

Damage of control systems

(/100systems/year)

3.2

7.9

7.6
6.1

CLASSIFICATION OF BLADE DAMAGE [3].

Damage level

Examples of damage

Catastrophic

Blade rupture, Blade burnout, Wire melting

Serious

Cracking along bond weld, Tearing at blade edge

Normal

Surface stripping, Receptor loss

Minor

Receptor vaporization, Surface scorching,

Other minor damage

EMC14/Tokyo
III.

15P-B5

Concept of Lightning Risk Management

Basic concept of lightning risk management has been

proposed and the application to wind power generation
systems has been also shown [4,5]. As shown in Fig. 1,
lightning risk management consists of three phase, which are
Lightning Hazard Evaluation (LHE), Lightning Risk
Assessment (LRA) and Lightning Risk Management (LRM).
The first process, Lightning Hazard Evaluation (LHE), is
to evaluate the severity of lightning. The severity of lightning
differs from region to region because lightning frequency is
different. However it is not sufficient to consider the
frequency of cloud-to-ground lightning of the area. Other
factors such as the peak values of lightning currents and the
energy of lightning strokes should be also taken into account.
The second phase, Lightning Risk Assessment (LRA), is a
process to assess the lightning risk from the loss of damage
caused by lightning and their occurrence frequency under a
given lightning hazard. The third phase, Lightning Risk
Management (LRM), is a process to determine the best policy
taking the lightning risk, the loss of the damage and cost of
protection schemes into consideration. If the cost for
protection is very large, it is necessary to transfer the risk by
insurance and so on.
In the case of wind turbine generator systems, three kinds
of damage should be considered, which are
1) damage to blades
2) damage to control and communication systems
3) damage to power systems
Because the cost of damage of wind turbine blades is
much larger than that of other components and its occurrence
frequency is also larger for large wind turbines, the most
important factor is damage to blades in Japan.
IV.

Sea of Japan

Pacific Ocean
a) Summer (April to October)

Sea of Japan

Characteristics of the Lightning in Japan

Pacific Ocean

A. Occurrence characteristics of lightning

In Japan, lightning database based on 17-year observations
by lightning location systems of electric power utilities has
been constructed [6]. Regional occurrence characteristics
obtained from the database are shown in Fig. 2.
!

"#$%&'#'$! ()*)+,!
-.)/0)&#1'!

"#$%&'#'$!

2#34!

53363376'&!

"#$%&'#'$!

2#34!

8)')$676'&!
!

FIG.1 BASIC CONCEPT LIGHTNING RISK MANAGEMENT.

Copyright 2014 IEICE

a) Winter (November to March)

FIG.2 LIGHTNING FLASH DENSITY IN JAPAN (AVERAGE FROM 2002 TO 2008)

As you notice, most of lightning flashes in winter season

are concentrated in the coastal area of the Sea of Japan. Please
note that the values of flash density in winter are much smaller
than those in summer.
B. Characteristics of charges transferred by lightning
From the observations of lightning to towers at the top of
Mount San Salvatore [7, 8] in Switzerland, the occurrence of
lightning that transfers charges of more than 300 C is shown.
In the case of negative flashes, the probability is about 1%, but
in the case of positive or bipolar flashes, the probability is
much larger. From the observations at Gaisberg tower in
Austria, the occurrence probability of lightning that transfers
charges more than 300 C is about 1% in the case of negative
flashes [9].

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Observations of the winter lightning to isolated towers

have been carried out by many researchers in Japan and it has
been reported that the winter lightning often transfers much
larger amount of charges than those of usual summer lightning
[10-13]. It has been clearly shown by observations of the
winter lightning to wind turbines at Nikaho Wind Park using
special Rogowski coils of which frequency response is as low
as 0.1 Hz [14]. Fig. 3 shows cumulative distributions of
observed current peaks and transferred charges of lightning to
wind turbines at Nikaho Wind Park for various types of
currents [15].
Table III shows current observation results of the winter
lightning at different sites on the coast of the Sea of Japan. It
is clear that charge transfer exceeding the value of 300 C,
which is the value shown in an IEC Technical Report on
lightning protection of wind turbines [2], often occurs in the
case of the winter lightning.
Recently lightning current is directly observed at 27 wind
power generation systems in Japan in a 5-year project of
NEDO [16]. Fig. 4 shows cumulative distributions of the
absolute values of transferred charge observed at wind
turbines in the coastal area of the Sea of Japan.

FIG.4 CUMULATIVE DISTRIBUTION OF TRANSFERRED CHARGE OBSERVED AT

WIND TURBINES IN WINTER IN JAPAN [16].

About 6% of the observed flashes transferred charge

exceeding 300 C in absolute values. Transferred charges of
more than 1000 C are also observed.
Furthermore, concentration of lightning to tall structures
has been observed in winter lightning [17].
It is therefore necessary to protect wind power generation
systems against winter lightning in Japan.
V.

FIG.3 CUMULATIVE DISTRIBUTION OF CURRENT PEAKS AND TRANSFERRED

CHARGE OBSERVED AT NIKAHO WIND PARK.
TABLE III.

OCCURRENCE OF LIGHTNING WITH LARGE AMOUNT OF

CAHRGES IN WINTER IN JAPAN.

Observation
site

Year

Number of
samples

Goishigamine
Wind turbine:
H=60m
Kashiwazaki &
Fukui
Tower K:
H=80m
Tower F:
H=200m
Nikaho
Wind turbine:
H=90m

20042006
19781986

Copyright 2014 IEICE

20052008

Maximum
transferred
charge

Total 110

Percentage
of lightning
with a
charge of
more than
300 C
4%

Total 97
Positive 32
Negative 65

7%
12%
3%

>1000C

Positive 16
Negative
147
Bipolar 42

6%
0%
12%

430C

687 C
(Bipolar)

Lightning Protection Methods for Wind Power

Generation Systems

A. Interception of lightning
Several methods have been proposed to protect wind
power generations systems against lightning. One of
promising schemes is to put the receptor(s) on a blade surface
to intercept lightning and make lightning current flow into the
ground safely. Model experiments using actual wind turbine
blades [18-20] show that a receptor put at the tip of a blade
effectively intercepts lightning, especially for negative
lightning. However, the direction of lightning leaders
approaching a blade is an important factor for inception
efficiency of a receptor system. In the case of winter lightning,
upward lightning from a tall structure often occurs [14, 15, 21,
22]. Under such a condition, a metal receptor that covers the
tip of a blade is an effective method to intercept lightning and
to protect wind turbine blades from the catastrophic damage.
In the case of the winter lightning, to construct a high
tower on a coastal side is also effective to capture lightning
[23] because winter thunderstorms come from a direction of
the Sea of Japan. However, this scheme is not always costeffective and multiple towers may be necessary for a wind
farm where many wind turbines exist along a line.
B. Reduction of transient overvoltages
As stated above, the damage of a blade by winter lightning
is important for wind power generation systems in Japan and
main concern of manufacturers and wind power generation
developers has been how to protect wind power generation

595

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systems against winter lightning. However surge voltages

generated at low voltage circuits are also important and
several studies have been carried out such as numerical
analysis with the EMTP (Electro-Magnetic Transients
Program) and the FDTD (Finite-Difference Time-Domain)
method, and scale-model experiments [24-29]. From these
studies it is concluded that the grounding system of a wind
power generation system is important to reduce surge voltages
caused by lightning.
VI.

Conclusions

The lightning that occurs in the coastal area of the Sea of

Japan in winter season is hazardous to wind power generation
systems and lots of studies have been carried out in Japan.
One of most effective countermeasures is a receptor system
that covers the tip of a blade of a wind turbine.
How to construct the grounding system of wind power
generation systems is also important to reduce surge voltages
generated by lightning to prevent outages of low voltage
circuits for control and communication, which may use many
electronic components and/or computers.
The mal-operation of computers used in wind power
generation systems by external disturbance such as induced
voltages by lightning will be increased and how to prevent it is
an important problem in future..
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