Question about lightning arresters...?

Question

Givin that lightning arresters help protect live wires on power lines from lightning strikes, what method of lightning arrester installation would be more economical and effecient in protecting damage to the power grid from lightning strikes?.....

Fewer lightning arresters installed on few poles but are larger and can handle more lightning capacity?

or

more lightning arresters installed on more of the poles but smaller and can handle less lightning capacity?

Answer 1

Either method would be effective.

lightning arresters are usually simple in design and manufacture.

Answer 2

It's not about the capacity of the arresters to handle the strikes, it's more about providing adequate protection.

The wires have a resistance and if you space out the arresters too widely, the lightning will strike the cables and then leap from them to another convenient conductor, instead of through the arrester.

You can also have secondary problems with radio interference being emitted from the cables during lightning strikes if the strike isn't bled off quickly and effectively to ground. All of this requires a low resistance to ground and if the surge has to travel through too great a length of cable, the resistance of the cable itself is too high then and prevents effective dissipation of the strike.

Hope this helps!