Lightning activity is frequent in the main grid from west to east of China Southern Power Grid, where the terrain and adverse weather conditions are bad, differentiated distribution of lightning fault is significant, and it’s a big challenge to carry out effective protection. Research progress of lightning performance evaluation technology of EHV and UHV overhead transmission lines of China Southern Power Grid in recent years are introduced in this paper. Firstly, lightning activities within China Southern Power Grid area and operation against lightning of EHV and UHV overhead transmission lines are researched and summaried, and the causes of lightning trip are analyzed. A numerical simulation model aimed at calculating the distribution of corona space charge of UHVDC transmission lines under lightning conditions are proposed, the initial condition of positive upward leader produced by large-sized bundled conductors are obtained through experiments. A numerical model aimed at calculating the lightning surge response of complex conductor system are proposed based on FDTD, and the accuracy of the model is verified through actual measurement on model line transient response. Lightning protection analyzing system for transmission line(LPTL) is developed. By using LPTL, comparisons between lightning performance evaluation results and operating experience of typical transmission lines are carried out, so that the engineering applicability of the software is verified. In the future, further works should be done to develop the basic research on mechanism of lightning shielding failure of DC lines, correct and improve LPTL, in order to provide effective means for lightning protection design and improvement of transmission lines.