Experimental Study on Absorption Energy of a Distribution Line Arrester by a Scale-Model Technique

Abstract

Lightning overvoltages due to a nearby lightning stroke, a direct lightning hit, a backflow lightning current caused by ground potential rise or a backflow current flowing from a customer's facility appear on power distribution lines because the insulation level of the distribution lines is relatively lower than that of the transmission lines. However, it is difficult to represent sufficiently the lightning overvoltages in a numerical simulation. A new factor of the scale-model technique for absorption energy analysis of a surge arrester is introduced in the paper. The factor is determined from the voltage-current characteristic and the critical absorption energy of the surge arrester. This paper describes experimental results on the backflow currents using the proposed scale-model technique. The experimental results confirm that the scale-model technique using the proposed factor is applicable to the study on absorption energy of a surge arrester in a distribution system. This paper introduces a new factor of the scale-model technique to make an experiment for analysis taking into account the voltage-current (V-I) characteristic and the absorption energy of a surge arrester. Then, experimental results considering the surge characteristics of the surge arrester by the scale-model technique are described, and it is confirmed that the proposed factor is applicable to lightning surge analyses of surge arresters on power distribution lines. 6T.