Advanced computational methods in lightning performance the EPRI Lightning Protection Design Workstation

In 1992, EPRI (Palo Alto, CA) released a lightning performance simulator for overhead lines, called LPDW (Lightning Protection Design Workstation). The program is based on travelling wave simulation like EMTP, with customizations for lightning analysis, and with interfaces to lightning data collected by the National Lightning Detection Network. The code has been tailored for use by utility engineers, rather than by consultants or researchers. Over the years, dozens of EPRI-member utilities have successfully used LPDW for their own lightning performance analyses. A simple case input and output is illustrated, and the impact of lightning environment assumptions is illustrated. The present work on version 6 includes the use of improved lightning data, more pole modeling options, and commercialization for broader access to the software, including international users.