Lightning Correlation Description

Utility Systems now offers lightning correlation in its Master Station software.  Utilizing streaming global positioning satellite lightning data and a database of transmission line structure coordinates.   The Master Station can automatically determine whether a fault was due to a lightning strike.  The Master provide a list of all line towers that are within 1 to 5 kilometers of the lightning strike.  This list is emailed within minutes of the fault to line crews and engineers thus providing a more accurate fault location especially if the strike occurs on a tap off of the main transmission line.

Each transmission line is assigned a unique identification associated with the normal fault location line group file.  When a fault is identified on this line, this line ID is placed in the fault summary and automatically sent to the Master Station. 

The Master Station searches through the lightning data to find a lightning stroke occured within the user programmable time tolerance.  The time tolerance can be set from 1 to 10 milliseconds.  If a match is found, the correlation software will seek out every structure on the transmission line, be it tower or substation, that is within the user programmable distance tolerance.   The distance can be set from 1 to 3 miles or 1 to 5 kilometers.