IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 25, NO.
4, OCTOBER 2010
Analytical Surveys of Transient and
Frequency-Dependent Grounding Characteristics
of a Wind Turbine Generator System on
the Basis of Field Tests
Kazuo Yamamoto, Member, IEEE, Shunichi Yanagawa, Koichi Yamabuki, Member, IEEE,
Shozo Sekioka, Member, IEEE, and Shigeru Yokoyama, Fellow, IEEE
Abstract—To exploit high wind conditions, wind turbine gen-
erator systems are constructed in places with few tall structures;
as a consequence, they are often struck by lightning. This results
in breakdown and malfunction of electrical, communications, and
control systems inside and adjacent to the wind turbine generator
system because of ground potential rise. Impulse tests were con-
ducted on an actual wind turbine generator system and analyt-
ical surveys based on field tests were carried out using electro-
magnetic field analysis. The ground potential rise of the system
and that around its foundation was measured and analyzed. The
grounding system employed in this study consisted of the founda-
tion, grounding mesh, and foundation feet. The frequency charac-
teristics were calculated using the Laplace transform to get voltage
responses for all types of lightning current waveforms. Step and
typical lightning current waveforms were used to calculate poten-
tial rise responses.
Index Terms—Electromagnetic fields, electromagnetic transient
analysis, grounding, Laplace transforms, lightning, overvoltage
protection, surges, wind power generation.
I. INTRODUCTION
N ATURAL disasters, such as lightning and typhoons, have
caused much damage to wind turbine generator systems
in recent years. Damages caused by lightning are particularly
serious [1]–[4]. Wind turbine generator systems are built in lo-
cations where there are few tall structures so as to obtain good
wind conditions; thus, they are often struck by lightning. To pro-
mote wind power generation, lightning protection methodolo-
gies for wind turbine generator systems must be established.
Manuscript received October 09, 2009; revised January 15, 2010. First pub-
lished March 29, 2010; current version published September 22, 2010. Paper
no. TPWRD-00758-2009.
K. Yamamoto is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Kobe
City College of Technology, Kobe, Hyogo 651-2194, Japan (e-mail: kya-
mamoto@mem.iee.or.jp).
S. Yanagawa is with the Shoden Company, Chiba, Chiba 263-0002, Japan
(e-mail: yanagawa@sdn.co. jp).
K. Yamabuki is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Wakayama
National College of Technology, Gobo, Wakayama 644-0023, Japan (e-mail:
yamab@wakayama-nct.ac.jp).
S. Sekioka is with the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering,
Shonan Institute of Technology, Fujisawa, Kanagawa 251-8511, Japan (e-mail:
sekioka@elec.shonan-it.ac.jp).
S. Yokoyama is with the Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry
(CRIEPI), Yokosuka, Kanagawa 240-0196, Japan (e-mail: yokoyama@criepi.
denken.or.jp).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPWRD.2010.2043748
0885-8977/$26.00 © 2010 IEEE
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3035
Lightning damage to wind turbine generator systems affects
the safety and reliability of these systems. Most breakdowns and
malfunctions of the electrical and control systems inside wind
turbines are caused by ground potential rise due to lightning [5],
[6]. To understand this ground potential rise, we researched the
transient characteristics of grounding by experimental and ana-
lytical methods using a reduced-size model of current wind tur-
bine foundations [7]. Research using simulations of the transient
and steady-state grounding characteristics of wind turbine foun-
dations have already been presented [8]–[18]. However, few pa-
pers which report transient and frequency-dependent grounding
characteristics of an actual wind turbine generator system exist
[19].
The wind turbine generator system used for the field test in
this study is located at a unique disposal site. When lightning
strikes the wind turbine generator system constructed at a site
where the grounding resistivity is very low, the potential rise
at the wavefront typically becomes larger than that of the steady
state. This is because of the inductivity of the grounding system.
Therefore, the transient characteristics of the grounding system
become more important to its steady-state characteristics.
In this paper, experimental studies of the impulse tests con-
ducted on an actual wind turbine generator system at a disposal
site are presented. The ground potential rise of the system it-
self and around its foundations was measured. All measure-
ment results were verified using the finite-difference time-do-
main (FDTD) method [20]. Numerical simulation was useful to
remove instrumental influences such as the induced voltage on
the voltage measuring wire from the measured results. The fre-
quency characteristics were calculated from the numerical cal-
culated results using the Laplace transform [21] to get voltage
responses to all types of lightning current waveforms. The re-
sponses to step and typical lightning currents were calculated.
The grounding system consisted of the foundation, grounding
mesh and wires, and foundation feet. The effects from those el-
ements were also researched.
II. GROUNDING OF WIND TURBINE GENERATOR SYSTEM
A. Importance of Transient Characteristics
Both transient and steady-state characteristics are important
for understanding the grounding phenomena of a wind turbine
generator system. However, the steady state is emphasized in
 3036 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 25, NO. 4, OCTOBER 2010

planning the grounding system, because it is not easy to mea-

sure its transient characteristic; therefore, the transient charac-
teristics are often neglected.
When a wind turbine generator system is constructed in a
mountain area where the soil resistivity is comparatively high,
the steady-state grounding resistance becomes more important
than the transient grounding resistance in many cases. A poten-
tial rise caused by a lightning strike to a wind turbine generator
system is more remarkable at the wave tail than at the wavefront.
The potential rise at the wave tail depends on the steady-state
grounding resistance. When a wind turbine generator system is
constructed at a low resistivity site, such as a coastal area or a
disposal site, a significant potential rise occurs due to the induc-
tivity of the grounding system. The transient grounding resis-
tance at the wavefront, which depends on the inductivity of the
grounding system, is larger than the steady-state resistance.
The abovementioned contents are qualitatively known in the
field of the grounding; quantitative studies have become very
important for wind turbine generator systems constructed in di-
verse locations. In such studies, the FDTD method, which is one
type of electromagnetic field analysis, was applied to grounding
simulations [19], [22]; its applicable accuracy was verified in
Chapter IV.

B. Grounding of Offshore Wind Turbine Generator System

The soil around the actual wind turbine generator system at the
disposal site where the measurements were performed had elec-
trical characteristics similar to seawater; this was because the soil
at the disposal site contained a lot of seawater. The target wind tur-
bine generator system had four long foundation feet, like those of
offshore wind turbines, to increase the bearing capacity of the soil.
The grounding characteristics of the foundation constructed on
the disposal site exhibited inductivity as explained in the previous
section. The construction of offshore wind turbine generator sys-
tems has been prohibited in Japan because of fishery rights, de-
struction of the environment, etc. However, there are several wind
turbine generator systems in coastal areas. Depending on gov-
ernmental energy policy, investigations into the feasibility of off-
shore wind turbine generator systems at Choshi, Chiba are in the
offing. Therefore, the grounding characteristics of the wind tur-
bine foundation at disposal sites should be researched to estimate
the grounding characteristics of low-resistivity sites.
III. MEASUREMENTS
A. Grounding System Including Foundation
Fig. 1 shows in detail the foundation of the actual wind tur-
bine generator system, grounding mesh and foundation feet used
in our measurements. A quadrangle and octagon exist as the
top surface of the foundation. In many cases, the tower foot is
buried by a few meters; however, it was not buried in this wind
turbine. The grounding system was not connected to any sur-
rounding wind turbines. For many wind turbines in Japan, the
lightning current is actively led to the grounding mesh under-
neath the foundation from the tower through grounding wires
covering the foundation, not to the foundation itself. However,
the foundation is not explicitly isolated from the tower; these
Fig. 1. Foundation of the actual wind turbine generator system.
are connected through the anchor. When the grounding char-
acteristics of a wind turbine generator system are researched, a
grounding system including both the grounding wires and foun-
dation should be considered.
As shown in Fig. 1, the shape of the foundation was rectan-
gular and parallel-piped, with dimensions of 8.5 m 8.5 m 2
m. The foundation was constructed with reinforced concrete; the
intervals between reinforcing were about 30 cm. The tower was
connected to the foundation at ground level. The depth of the
foundation was 2 m, and the length and diameter of the founda-
tion feet were 50 m and 1 m respectively to enhance the bearing
capacity of soil. The foundation feet were also made of rein-
forced concrete. A grounding mesh existed underneath the foun-
dation; its size was about 8.5 m 8.5 m, the cross section of the
wires for the grounding mesh was 60 mm , and the intervals
of the wires were about 4.25 m. It is connected to the foun-
dation feet. The stratiform ground resistivity at the site of the
wind turbine generator system is shown in Fig. 2. The Wenner
method was utilized to measure the resistivity. The steady-state
grounding resistance of the grounding system of the wind tur-
bine generator system was 0.062 .
B. Experimental Conditions
Fig. 3 shows the experimental setup. The current was led to
the foundation from the impulse generator with insulated copper
wire (length: 150 m; cross section: 5.5 mm ) as the current lead
wire. The height of the current lead wire was about 1 m. The
fast front current generated by the impulse generator was in-
jected into the foundation through a resistance of 500 from

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 YAMAMOTO et al.: ANALYTICAL SURVEYS OF TRANSIENT AND FREQUENCY-DEPENDENT GROUNDING CHARACTERISTICS
Fig. 2. Stratiform ground resistivity at the site of the wind turbine generator
system estimated by the Wenner method.
Fig. 3. Experimental setup.
a current lead wire, as shown in Fig. 3. The peak value of the
current was 60 A, and the wavefront was about 0.3 s. The
comparatively large resistance of 500 was connected in se-
ries with the impulse generator; the power source could there-
fore be considered as a current source. The resistance worked
as a matching impedance to reduce the current reflections on
the current lead wire. The impulse generator was grounded by
several grounding rods (length: 1.5 m; diameter: 20 mm); the
steady-state grounding resistance was 7.5 .
The injected current was measured at the end of the current
lead wire near the foundation with a current probe, as shown
in Fig. 3. The potential rise of the foundation was measured as
the voltage difference between the top of the foundation and the
voltage measurement wire (length: 70 m; cross-section: 2 mm ).
The ground terminal of the passive probe was connected to the
top of the foundation so that the case of the oscilloscope can be
same potential at the measuring point. The height of the voltage
measurement wire was 1 m, and it was grounded at the remote
end through a matching impedance. The surge impedance of the
voltage measuring wire was about 500 ; therefore, the 400
resistance was connected between the remote end of the voltage
measuring wire and a grounding rod (length: 0.5 m; diameter:
20 mm). The bottom of the grounding rod was buried about a
0.1 m depth, and the grounding resistance was about 100 .
This was how the noise induced on the voltage measuring wire
was discharged to the ground readily. The potential rise around
the wind turbine generator system was measured as the voltage
between the conductive rods and the voltage measurement wire
at intervals of 1 m (0 to 10 m from the edge of the foundation,
as shown in Fig. 4) around the foundation, and 2–4 m (over 10
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3037
Fig. 4. Measuring point of the potential rise around the foundation.
m from the edge of the foundation, as shown in Fig. 4) for fur-
ther distance. The potential rise was measured at 21 locations.
The bottom of the conductive rod (length: 0.3 m; diameter: 10
mm) was buried about a 0.1 m depth at each measured point to
measure the potential rise, the ground terminal of the passive
probe was connected to conductive rod so that the case of the
oscilloscope can be same potential at the measuring point. As
shown in Fig. 3, the current lead wire and voltage measurement
wire were not orthogonalized around the wind turbine. Mutual
electromagnetic induction between the current lead and voltage
measuring wires may have existed.
C. Measuring Instruments
The impulse generator had a capacitance of 1.5 F, and it was
discharged using a gap switch. The charging voltage was about
30 kV for these measurements.
A TDS3054C oscilloscope (Tektronix) was used to measure
the voltage and current waveforms; its bandwidth was dc-500
MHz. A P5100 passive probe (Tektronix) was used for voltage
measurements; its bandwidth was dc-250 MHz, and its input
capacitance was up to 2.75 pF. A PEARSON 150 was used as
the current probe; its bandwidth and usable rise time were 40
kHz–20 MHz and over 20 ns, respectively. The measurements
performed using these instruments were accurate, with a rise
time of several hundred nanoseconds.
D. Measured Results
The measurement results are shown in Fig. 5. Fig. 5(a) and (b),
respectively, shows the injected current and potential rise at
the top of the foundation. The injected current showed a ramp
wave which includes wide frequency component, and its peak
value and rise time were approximately 60 A and 0.3 s, respec-
tively. The voltage was inductive at the wavefront. The ratio of
the maximum voltage at the wavefront to the current at the same
time was approximately 13 V/A. This value was greater than the
steady-state grounding resistance. The voltage waveform oscil-
lated after the wavefront. The medium value of the voltage grad-
ually decreased to the steady-state grounding resistance of 0.062
. We believe that the oscillations were caused by the inductance
and capacitance of the grounding system and the traveling wave
phenomena on the tower and down conductors in the blades.
 3038
Fig. 5. Transient characteristic of the grounding system for an actual wind tur-
bine generator system. (a) Injected current into the foundation. (b) Potential rise
of the foundation.
As mentioned above, the grounding characteristics of the
system showed strong inductiveness at the wavefront; the
steady-state grounding resistance was as low as 0.062 . For
offshore wind turbine generator systems, similar grounding
characteristics should be observed. Transient phenomena obvi-
ously become more important than steady-state phenomena for
lightning protection design.
The potential around a wind turbine generator system in-
creases when it is struck by lightning. To investigate the poten-
tial rise, the fast-front current was injected into the grounding
system, as shown in Figs. 3 and 4. The injected current was
much the same as the results shown in Fig. 5(a), where the peak
value was 60 A and the wavefront was about 0.3 s.
Fig. 6(a) shows the measured potential rise around the wind
turbine generator system at several points. Fig. 6(b) shows the
relationship between the maximum potential rise and the dis-
tance. The waveshape shown in Fig. 6(a) was almost analogous
to the potential rise shown in Fig. 5(b). If the skin effect of the
ground is not considered and the shape of the grounding system
is assumed to be a semisphere, the grounding impedance is as-
sumed to be a pure resistance, the maximum potential rise is
found to be inversely proportional to the distance from the foun-
dations. A few differences existed in comparison with the in-
versely proportional waveform because the measurement results
in Fig. 6(a) showed surge behavior.
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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 25, NO. 4, OCTOBER 2010
Fig. 6. Potential rise around the wind turbine generator system. (a) Waveforms
of the potential rise. (b) Peak values of the potential rise.
The time characteristics of the wind turbine grounding system
are shown in Fig. 5. Its frequency characteristics are shown in
Fig. 7(a) and (b). The grounding characteristics of the wind tur-
bine were inductive over 10 kHz. From the transfer function
of the grounding system, the time responses to all the different
lightning waveshapes could be calculated.
The abovementioned measured results included the influence
of the surge propagations on the tower and blades, the induced
voltage on the voltage measuring wire, an input capacitance of
the voltage probe, the position of the current lead wire, and so on.
If we want to obtain the independent grounding characteristics of
the foundation, a model of a wind turbine with a grounding system
should be established in numerical electromagnetic field analysis
such as through the FDTD method, and the independent model
of the grounding system should be calculated. In the following
section, the FDTD calculated results are presented.
 YAMAMOTO et al.: ANALYTICAL SURVEYS OF TRANSIENT AND FREQUENCY-DEPENDENT GROUNDING CHARACTERISTICS
Fig. 7. Frequency responses of the grounding system on the actual wind turbine
generator system. (a) Absolute value of the grounding impedance. (b) Phase
value of the grounding impedance. The frequency responses are calculated from
the measurements shown in Fig. 5.
IV. ANALYTICAL CONSIDERATIONS
A. Analytical Conditions
The measurements presented in Section III were reproduced
by using electromagnetic field analysis through the FDTD
method. The analytical setup is shown in Fig. 8.
The dimensions of the analytical space were 120 m 90
m 200 m, and it was divided into cube cells with a side
length of 1.0 m. The absorbing boundary condition was 2nd
order Liao. The ground level was 100 m from the bottom of the
analytical space; the resistivity of the ground was the same as
that shown in Fig. 2. Thin-wire models to model the current
lead wire, voltage measuring wire, grounding mesh, and light-
ning conductors in blades were used [23]. The nacelle was a
rectangular parallelepiped conductor of 2 m 2 m 5 m, and
the tower was a tube conductor with a stair-like surface, 3 m in
diameter and 43 m in height. The foundation was a rectangular
parallelepiped of dimensions 8 m 8 m 2 m; the foundation
foot was also modeled as a rectangular parallelepiped of 1
m 1 m 50 m. The current source parallel with the resistance
of 500 was connected between the foundation and current
lead wire. The current lead wire and voltage measuring wire
were connected to the absorbing boundaries.
B. Comparisons of Measurements and Calculations
Fig. 9(a) shows the calculated and measured injected currents.
The rise time and peak value were approximately 0.3 s and
60 A, respectively. Compared with the measurements shown in
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3039
Fig. 8. Analytical setup for the FDTD analyses.
Fig. 5(a), the calculated injected current agreed well with the
measured current.
At the wavefront, there were a few differences. However, the
potential rise of the foundation as shown in Fig. 9(b) showed
inductive characteristics, which also agreed well with the mea-
sured values overall.
Fig. 10 shows comparisons of the potential rise around the
foundation at several points. As seen in the potential rise of the
foundation, inductivity was observed in the FDTD simulations.
Fig. 11 shows the comparisons of the calculated and measured
peak values of the grounding potential rise. The calculated re-
sults near the foundation agreed well with the measured results,
as shown in Fig. 6. However, the values at points far from the
foundation had small differences. The straiform ground resis-
tivity measured by Wenner method as shown in Fig. 2 doesn’t
agree with the actual stratiform ground resistivity completely.
It is an approximate result, and might influence the above men-
tioned differences.
C. Pure Characteristics of the Grounding System and Effects
of Each Element Composing the Grounding System
The FDTD calculations were performed without the tower
and down conductors in the blades. Other calculated conditions
were the same as the calculation shown in Fig. 8. Compared with
the calculated results of the potential rise in Fig. 9(b), there was
about a 10% difference at the wavefront, as shown in Fig. 12,
because of the positive reflection of the voltage traveling wave
from the tips of the blades.
 3040
Fig. 9. FDTD calculated results of the grounding system compared with the
measured results. (a) Injected currents into the foundation. (b) Potential rises of
the foundation.
To get the pure characteristics of the grounding system, the
FDTD calculation was performed without the tower and the
down conductors in the blades. In these calculations, the cur-
rent was led from the -direction wire connected to the overhead
boundary to the foundation to reduce electromagnetic induction
to the ground surface and voltage measuring wire, as shown in
Fig. 13. The current waveform also changed a little at the wave-
front, as shown in Fig. 14(a), because the direction of the cur-
rent injection was changed; the influence from the current in
the ground was reduced. As shown in Fig. 14(b), the potential
rises were compared for four conditions. Case 1 was a funda-
mental case that included the foundation, grounding mesh, and
foundation feet. Case 2 studied the influence of the grounding
mesh underneath the foundation and included the foundation
and foundation feet. Case 3 studied the influence of the founda-
tion feet connected to the bottom of the foundation and included
the foundation and grounding mesh. Case 4 had just the foun-
dation. As shown in Fig. 14(b), there was not much difference
in the waveforms. The skin depth of the ground was about 2 m
at a frequency of 1 MHz and grounding resistivity of 15 m;
therefore, the current in the ground mainly flowed on the sur-
face at the wavefront. At the wave tail, there was also not much
difference in the wave forms. The ground resistivity was very
low, as shown in Fig. 2, thus the potential rise at the wave tail
was far smaller than that at the wavefront; the differences in the
potential rises at the wave tail were not remarkable.
Fig. 15 shows the calculation result for the ground with a re-
sistivity of 100 m. Other calculated conditions were the same
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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 25, NO. 4, OCTOBER 2010
Fig. 10. Comparison of measured and calculated potential rises around the
wind turbine generator system. (a) 0 m from the edge of the foundation as shown
in Fig. 4. (b) 5 m from the foundation. (c) 10 m from the foundation.
as shown in Figs. 13 and 14. The results in Fig. 15 show the ef-
fects of the incidental, such as the grounding mesh and founda-
tion feet. Depending on the grounding resistivity, the foundation
feet affected the grounding impedance at the wave tail but not
so much at the wavefront. The grounding mesh underneath the
foundation did not affect the grounding impedance significantly
at both wave tail and wavefront. From these results, it is clear
that the inductance of the foundation caused the steep potential
rise at the wavefront.
The frequency characteristics of the grounding system in
Case 1, as shown in Fig. 13 and 14, are shown in Fig. 16(a)
and (b). The frequency characteristics of Cases 2–4 also had
the same results. The grounding characteristics of the wind
turbine were inductive over 10 kHz. From the transfer function
of the grounding system, the time responses to all the different
lightning wave shapes can be calculated. As examples, potential
rise responses to a step current with a peak value of 1 A and a
 YAMAMOTO et al.: ANALYTICAL SURVEYS OF TRANSIENT AND FREQUENCY-DEPENDENT GROUNDING CHARACTERISTICS 3041

Fig. 11. Comparisons of the calculated and measured results of the peak value
of the grounding potential rise.

Fig. 13. Analytical setup for the FDTD analyses. The current is led from the z
direction wire connected to the overhead boundary.

Fig. 12. FDTD calculated results to study the influence of the tower and down
conductors in the blades. Injected current into the foundation was the same as
that shown in Fig. 9(a). Above figure is the potential rises of the foundation in
cases with and without the tower and down conductors.

typical lightning current with a peak value of 30 kA, the wave-

front of 5.5 s and the stroke duration of 75 s [24] are shown
in Fig. 17. The step current is adopted because the waveform
includes wide frequency component. The above mentioned
measured results do not include the influence of surge propa-
gations at the tower and blades; they are the independent and
pure characteristics of the grounding system.

V. CONCLUSION
This paper has presented the results of experimental and
analytical studies investigating the grounding characteristics
of an actual wind turbine generator system at a disposal site
and the potential rise around it. The analytical results using
the FDTD method agreed well with the measured results of
the field tests.
The characteristics of the grounding system showed strong
inductivity at the wavefront. The tower and down conductors in
the blade clearly affect the transient of the potential rise at the Fig. 14. FDTD calculations to study the influence of the incidental elements.
wavefront. Depending on the grounding resistivity and wave- (a) Injected currents into the foundation. (b) Potential rises of the foundation.
front, the foundation feet affect the grounding impedance at Case 1 includes the foundation, grounding mesh, and foundation feet. Case 2
includes the foundation and foundation feet. Case 3 includes the foundation and
the wave tail but not so much at the wavefront. The grounding grounding mesh. Case 4 includes just the foundation.
mesh underneath the foundation does not significantly affect the
grounding impedance at either the wave tail or front. The in-
ductance of the foundation causes the steep potential rise at the The frequency responses of the pure characteristics of the
wavefront. grounding system were presented to obtain voltage responses to

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 3042 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 25, NO. 4, OCTOBER 2010

Fig. 15. FDTD calculated results of the grounding system when the ground has
100
m resistivity. (a) Injected currents into the foundation. (b) Potential rises
of the foundation.

Fig. 17. Potential rise responses to step and typical lightning currents. (a) Po-
tential rise response to a step current. (b) Typical lightning current waveform.
(c) Potential rise response to the typical lightning current.

will provide useful basic data for lightning protection of wind

turbine generator systems at low resistivity sites, including off-
shore wind turbine generator systems.

Fig. 16. Frequency responses of the grounding system on the actual wind tur-
bine generator system. (a) Absolute value of the grounding impedance. (b) Phase
value of the grounding impedance. The frequency responses are calculated from
the analytical results shown in Fig. 14.
all types of lightning current waveforms. As examples, the po-
tential rise responses to step and typical lightning currents are
calculated.
The installation features of the wind turbine generator system
employed in this study were very similar to those used at sea.
The long foundation feet were much like those of an offshore
wind turbine generator system. The results given in this paper
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Kazuo Yamamoto (M’98) was born in Osaka, Japan
in 1974. He received the B.E., M.E., and Ph.D.
degrees in engineering from Doshisha University,
Kyoto, Japan, in 1997, 2000, and 2007, respectively.
He was with Nara National College of Technology
from 2000 to 2006. He was an Assistant Professor at
Kobe City College of Technology from 2006 to 2007,
where he is currently an Associate Professor. From
1998 to 1999, he was a Visiting Researcher at the
Manitoba HVDC Research Centre, Winnipeg, MB,
Canada. Since 2008, he has been a Research Fellow
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3043
with the Infrastructure Research Center at Doshisha University. His research in-
terests include lightning protection.
Shunichi Yanagawa was born in Kanagawa, Japan,
in 1961. He received the Bachelor’s degrees in engi-
neering from Tokai University, Kanagawa, Japan, in
1985.
He joined Shoden Corp., where he is currently
an Executive Research Scientist. He had been the
Director of the Techno Center at Shoden Corp.
from 2004 to 2008. Currently, he is a Manager
of the Technology Development Department. His
research interest includes the research and product
developments concerning lightning protection.
Koichi Yamabuki (M’99) was born in Osaka, Japan,
in 1970. He received the B.E., M.E., and Ph.D.
degrees in engineering from Doshisha University,
Kyoto, Japan in 1994, 1997, and 2000, respectively.
In 1999, he jointed Wakayama National College
of Technology, where he is currently an Associate
Professor. From 2006 to 2007, he was a Visiting Re-
searcher at University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy. His
research interest includes lightning protection.
Dr. Yamabuki is a Research Fellow with the Infra-
structure Research Center at Doshisha University.
Shozo Sekioka (M’00) was born on December 30,
1963. He received the B.Sc. and Dr.Eng. degrees
in electrical engineering from Doshisha University,
Kyoto, Japan in 1986 and 1997, respectively.
He joined Kansai Tech Corp. in 1987. He was
an Associate Professor at Shonan Institute of Tech-
nology from 2005 to 2007, where he is currently a
Professor. He has been engaged in lightning surge
analysis in electric power systems.
Shigeru Yokoyama (M’83–S’91–F’96) was born
in Sendai, Japan, on March 5, 1947. He received
the B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of
Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan, in 1969 and 1986, respectively.
He joined the Central Research Institute of Elec-
tric Power Industry (CRIEPI), Japan, in 1969. Since
then, he has been engaged in the research of lightning
protection on power systems, buildings, and wind tur-
bines. He holds posts of Research Advisor at CRIEPI.
He was Professor at Kyushu University from 2001
through 2007. He was a Vice President at the Insti-
tute of Electrical Engineers of Japan in 2001.
Dr. Yokoyama is a chairman of the IEC TC 81 (Lightning Protection)
Japanese committee.