Based on the daily power grid disaster data during 1996-2009 in Beijing, power grid disasters caused by the thunder and lighting (hereafter referred as power grid lighting disasters) are investigated. Results show that power grid lighting disasters present seasonal and daily variations in Beijing. Seasonal variation characteristic of power grid lighting disasters is mainly centralized from June to September, account for 88.4%. The highest appear in August, it can account for 32.9%. And daily variation characteristics analysis shows that from 1500 BT to 2100 BT is the high-incidence period. The analysis on spatial distribution of power grid lighting disasters indicates that there are more disasters in the north than those in the south. In terms of the same period of the daily thunderstorm data, economic and population characteristics, five indices are selected to evaluate the risk of power grid lighting disasters in Beijing, such as power grid lighting disaster probability, power grid lighting disaster frequency, power grid lighting disaster density, economic vulnerability module and life vulnerability module, respectively. And the different power grid lighting disaster evaluation indices are investigated. Four-grade classification methods are used to classify the evaluation indices in order to assess the risk of the power grid lighting disasters in Beijing. Firstly, the five indices are classified into four degrees with a given value as follow: The highest and the lowest degrees are 1.0 and 0.2, while the intermediate degrees are 0.8 and 0.5. Secondly, the comprehensive vulnerability evaluation index of power grid lighting disasters is obtained by adding the degree values of five indices. Then the comprehensive vulnerability evaluation index is also graded as four degrees, which are defined as the maximal damageable area, the high-damageable area, the medium damageable area and the lower damageable area. Finally, regional vulnerability zoning of the power grid lighting disasters are obtained by the average value of the power grid lighting disaster vulnerability evaluation indices. From the result of risk zoning, it can be concluded that the relatively higher power grid lighting disaster risk zones mainly locate in urban area of Beijing, while risks of mountain areas and their piedmont areas are relatively lower. Results of power grid lighting disaster vulnerability evaluation might be provided for the power grid lighting protection and disaster reduction proposal in Beijing.