A surge is a short duration voltage spike that appears on either mains or a low voltage cable i.e telephone or computer line, whilst this surge can result from other sources other than lightning surges caused by lightning tend to be of a much higher level and subsequently have a potential to be much more dangerous and damaging.
The first stroke of lightning during a thunderstorm can produce peak currents ranging from 1,000 to 100,000 Amperes with rise times of 1 microsecond. It is hard to conceive of, let alone protect against, such enormous magnitudes. Fortunately, such threats only apply to direct hits on overhead lines. Hopefully, this is a rare phenomenon. More common is the induced surge on a buried cable, in one test, lightning-induced voltages caused by strokes in ground flashes at distances of about 5 km were measured at both ends of a 448 meter long, unenergized power distribution line.
Malaysia
