Lightning warning is the key technology of initiative lightning protection for transmission line. This paper adopts three levels lightning warning method based on atmospheric electric field threshold

lightning trend forecast and EGM to complete the design and development of lightning warning system’s central station. Firstly

the general architecture of lightning warning system’s central station applicable for transmission line is designed.Then

the paper discusses in details the research and development route of constructing database

pre-data acquisition

computing program for lightning warning

and terminal application software. Finally

a set of lightning warning system for transmission line is developed and applied to power system. Application effect shows that this lightning warning system can send lightning flashover risk warning information timely before the coming thunderstorm. As an effective decision support for operational maintenance and scheduling control personnel

it can improve the level of the initiative lightning protection of power grid.