On the role of shield wires in mitigating lightning-induced overvoltages in overhead lines. Part I: a critical review and a new analysis

The ability of shield wires installed in overhead lines to mitigate lightning-induced overvoltages has been extensively investigated. Unfortunately, these studies came to different results, sometimes contradicting each other: some authors found that shield wires produce a significant overvoltage reduction, while others found the reduction negligible; conflicting results also pertain to the role played by the various parameters involved, such as the relative height of the shield wires compared to the phase conductors. This paper aims to clarify this topic. The paper is organized in two parts: Part I, which starts from the analysis of the theory behind the mitigation effect, is devoted to establishing a more solid base to the topic. Two fundamental improvements are proposed: the first one is the distinction between internal and external of the parameters involved: current literature makes an indiscriminate grouping of all of them; the second one is concerned with the point along the line where the mitigation effect needs to be assessed. Thanks to this new approach, we show that this effect can be precisely quantified. The analysis in this Part I is limited to the basic case of a single grounding point of the shield wire, which represents an unrealistic case. Part II is devoted to completing the study, by applying the proposed approach to more realistic and practical cases.