The Lightning Power Electromagnetic Simulator for Transient Overvoltages (LIGHT-PESTO) Code: A User-Friendly Interface With the MATLAB-Simulink Environment

The protection of power lines from lightning transients is a crucial issue that has involved the efforts of many researchers around the world. The need of relying on a precise method for the computation of the overvoltages waves travelling on the transmission lines is fundamental when the possible occurrence of flashovers has to be evaluated. The overvoltages behavior is directly related to the complexity of the power systems: as a consequence, a tool able to take into account this factor has a strong importance in the research framework. This letter presents the Lightning Power Electromagnetic Simulator for Transient Overvoltages (LIGHT-PESTO) code, which is based on an interface of a previous developed algorithm for the computation of lightning transients on a power line with the MATLAB-Simulink environment. The proposed interface allows the user to set in an easy and intuitive way the main parameters related to the lightning channel, to the overhead transmission lines, to the ground and to the surrounding power system.