Analysis of Lightning Activities in Wind Farm Based on Lightning Location data and Voronoi Diagram

Abstract

Addressing the issue that the mutual shielding effect of several wind turbines is not fully considered in the current techniques of assessing the lightning risk of wind farms. This study suggests a Voronoi diagram-based method for analyzing lightning activity in wind farm with wind turbine clusters. The outcomes of lightning activity analysis using the conventional grid approach and the Voronoi diagram method suggested in this research are contrasted using a wind farm in Yunnan Province of China as an example. It demonstrates that the suggested approach is better suited for determining the lightning risk associated with a single wind turbine. It is capable of performing an analysis of the lightning parameters of a single wind turbine, including the cloud-ground lightning density, positive lightning ratio, median peak current, and average number of lightning return strokes, etc. Additionally, this approach may detect changes in pertinent lightning parameters both before and after the wind farm is set up. Therefore, it is more appropriate to offer technical assistance to wind farms, especially large wind farms, in order to develop specialized lightning protection strategies.