TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION

Surge protection of distribution

equipment
by Glen Medlin, e-LEK Engineering
This article examines the over-voltage protection of distribution equipment such as pole-top transformers and cable circuits using gapped
zinc-oxide surge arresters, and also considers the environmental benefits of using gapped arresters versus non-gapped arresters.

Surge arresters are constructed from

materials that exhibit a strong non-linear
voltage-current relationship. This means
that the resistance of the arrester should be
dependent on the voltage applied across
the block. To begin with, an ideal arrester
should have infinite resistance when
the voltage across it is normal and zero
resistance when the voltage exceeds the
turn on voltage. We do, however, live in a
real world where this ideal voltage-current
relationship is difficult to achieve.
The first over-voltage protection devices
w e r e s i m p l e s p a r k g a p s, w h e r e t h e
spacing was designed so that the gap
broke down during surge conditions. The
main drawback of such a gap is it could
not quench the power frequency arc
and required some form of upstream
protection to trip the line and remove the
fault. Later, expulsion tubes were added
to the gaps to provide a mechanism
to interrupt the power frequency arc.
However, these tubes had limited fault
current extinguishing capabilities. The
fast breakdown of simple spark gaps can
also cause inter-turn faults in transformer
windings due to the extremely high rates
of voltage change associated with spark
gap breakdown.
The next innovation was the gapped silicon
carbide arrester which used blocks of
silicon carbide in series with a spark gap.
Silicon carbide exhibited a non-linear
voltage-current relationship, but at normal
voltage, the resistance across the arrester
element was too low and permitted
hundreds of Amps to flow to ground
(Fig. 1). A series gap was thus added so
that the entire voltage appeared across
the gap in normal conditions. When a
surge occurred, the gap would break
down and the surge would be conducted
to ground through the silicon carbide
blocks. After the surge passed, the silicon
carbide blocks would limit the current to
a value which the gap could naturally
extinguish. This enabled the arrester to
interrupt the power frequency current
after a surge, regardless of the available
fault current.
An improvement on the arrester concept
arrived with the discovery that zinc oxide
(ZnO) had a more favourable non-linear
voltage-current relationship than silicon
carbide. Zinc oxide blocks could withstand
the entire voltage with very little leakage

Fig. 1: Comparison between V-I characteristics of ZnO and SiC [2].

Fig. 2: Construction and voltage distribution of gapped SiC, non-gapped MOV and gapped MOV [2].

current and this permitted the removal

of the series spark gap, creating the so
called gapless arrester or metal oxide
varistor (MOV) (Fig. 1). However, the
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gapless arrester is required to operate at or

below a specific voltage since should this
voltage be exceeded, the arrester begins
to conduct. Zinc oxide also has a positive

TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION

temperature coefficient, which means that
the hotter it gets, the more conductive
it becomes. This property can lead to
a condition known as thermal runaway
where the temperature of the arrester and
the current through the arrester grow until
failure occurs. Gapless zinc oxide arresters
need to be sized to withstand temporary
over voltage without entering thermal
runaway. This requires compromise since,
to withstand the temporary overvoltage,
a higher rated arrester needs to be
specified. However, a higher rated arrester
has a higher discharge voltage and this
erodes the protective margin, which is the
difference between the basic insulation
level (BIL) of the equipment and the peak
discharge voltage of the arrester.
The latest innovation in arrester technology
combines the spark gap from the silicon
carbide arrester with the zinc oxide
elements of the gapless arrester. The
arrester blocks and the spark gaps share
the voltage in steady state conditions
by using resistively graded gaps. This
combination improves the performance
of the arrester in impulse and temporary
over-voltage conditions. Fig. 2 shows how
the technologies were combined.

Fig. 3: TOV capability of non-gapped MOV [3].

Steady state operation of gapped MOV

arresters
During steady state conditions where the
voltage across the arrester is the normal
system line to ground voltage, U n, the
voltage is shared equally between the
spark gap structure and the MOV disks.
This allows a reduction in the number of
spark gaps as they are now only required
to withstand half the voltage compared
to the silicon-carbide design. The number
of MOV disks is also reduced since they
are required to withstand half the voltage
compared to gapless arrester designs. The
voltage sharing is achieved by using silicon
carbide grading rings.
Temporary overvoltage ( TOV) operation of
gapped MOV arresters
When the voltage across the gapped MOV
arrester is increased during TOV conditions,
the voltage sharing between the MOV
elements and the gap structure changes
from the 50/50 distribution found during
normal conditions. The voltage across
the gap structure increases faster than
the voltage across the MOV disks and
this enables the arrester to withstand the
TOV better than non-gapped designs. The
change in voltage distribution is caused
by the silicon carbide resistive grading
rings responding differently to over-voltage
when compared to the MOV elements. To
explain, the non-linearity of the voltagecurrent characteristic of silicon carbide is
lower than that of zinc oxide, which means
that the resistance of silicon carbide, as a
function of the applied voltage, decreases
at a lower rate than zinc oxide. Therefore,
as voltage across the gapped arrester
increases, more voltage begins to appear

Fig. 4: TOV capability of gapped MOV [3].

across the gap rather than the zinc oxide

disks. The zinc oxide disks do not begin
to conduct and therefore cannot enter
thermal runaway. Fig. 3 shows the TOV
capability of a non-gapped MOV arrester,
while Fig. 4 shows the TOV capability of a
gapped MOV arrester.
Impulse operation of gapped MOV
arresters
The gapped MOV arrester design has
fewer zinc oxide disks in series than the
non gapped arrester of the same rating
and this causes a desirable reduction is
the discharge voltage for all discharge
currents. The gapped MOV arrester also
uses fewer spark gaps than the silicon
carbide design and this causes a reduction
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in the front-of-wave sparkover value

compared to silicon carbide arresters.
There is generally a slight increase in
the 50 Hz sparkover compared to silicon
carbide, which is a result of the superior
TOV capability of the gapped arrester. The
front of wave sparkover is a result of the
spark gap and the values are a function
of the design of the spark gap. The voltage
sharing between the zinc-oxide disks and
the spark gap result in lower sparkover
values during impulse conditions since it
has fewer gaps and a lower voltage across
it at the instant of sparkover compared to
silicon carbide. Fig. 5 shows the voltage
and current discharge characteristics for
gapped silicon-carbide, non-gapped
MOV and gapped MOV. It can be seen

TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION

For example, a new 22 kV transformer with no
excess arrester lead length and protected
by a 24 kV rated gapless surge arrester will
have 65% protective margin for a 40 kA
8/20 s current impulse, assuming a BIL of
150 kV. This may appear sufficient, but two
factors will tend to reduce this margin:
Excess arrester lead length
If t h e ov e r h e ad l i n e i s take n to th e
transformer bushing first, and then to
the arrester terminal, then the inductive
volt drop across the connection lead
will add to the discharge voltage of the
transformer. The ground connection of
the surge arrester is, in almost all cases, in
series with the arrester and thus also adds
to the discharge voltage. The inductive
volt drop is a function of the inductance
per unit length, length of the connection
lead and the rate of change of current as
per the well known formula:
(2)
Where L is the inductance of the connection
wire (determined primarily by diameter and
length)
For example, if we have a 1 cm diameter
aluminium surge arrester lead of 1 m length,
then the approximate volt drop for an
8/20 s 40 kA current surge will be 5,2 kV.
Faster surges will increase the volt drop
further. For our previous example, this
additional voltage will drop the protective
margin to 56%.
In general, this effect becomes more
significant on the lower voltage classes as the
inductive volt drop is small in comparison to
the discharge voltage for higher voltages.
Fig. 5: Discharge current and voltage
characteristics for Gapped SiC, non-gapped
MOV and gapped MOV [2].

that the peak discharge current is lower for

the gapped MOV compared to the older
technologies.
Applications of gapped MOV arresters
The gapped MOV arrester has application
in both the overhead and underground
distribution network, where it will provide
lower discharge voltages and hence better
protective margin, and an improved TOV
withstand capability compared to gapless
MOV arresters.
Overhead distribution equipment
protection
Overhead distribution equipment, is
exposed to substantial surge events
originating from direct and induced
lightning strikes. As such,it will benefit
substantially from the improved protection
margin offered by gapped MOV arresters.
The protection margin is given by [2]:
(1)

Equipment age
As cellulose transformer insulation ages, it
tends to show a decrease in the impulse
insulation strength. Studies [5] show that
the decrease is approximately 1% per year
of operation. For example, a 30 year old
22 kV pole top transformer with a 1 m surge
arrester lead and a 24 kV rated gapless
arrester would have 9% protective margin
left. If this transformer was protected by a
gapped arrester of the same rating, then
the protective margin would be 26%.
Underground systems
Water treed XLPE cables are sensitive
to impulses and it is critical to keep the
magnitude of impulses entering these
cables as low as possible. If surge arresters
are only applied at the overhead line to
cable termination, then the protective
margin is given by Eqn. 2, except that the
discharge voltage used is twice the 10 kA
arrester discharge voltage due to voltage
doubling effects. If arresters are placed
at the termination and the remote open
end, then Eqn. 2 is used, but the discharge
voltage is the 10 kA discharge voltage of
the arrester at the termination plus half the
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remote end 1,5 kA discharge voltage. For

example, for a 22 kV system protected by a
gapless arrester at the termination only, then
the margin of protection is only 3%. Using a
gapped arrester of the same rating would
improve the protective margin to 28%. A
15 kV rated gapped arrester on the same
system would improve the protective margin
to 95% without causing TOV problems.
Other benefits
Reduction in inventory
Due to the improved TOV and discharge
voltage characteristics of gapped surge
arresters, it is possible to use the same
arrester on 11 and 22 kV resistively earthed
systems without significantly impacting
the 11 kV margins of protection or
22 kV TOV capability. A single 15 kV rated
gapped arrester would provide 86%
(down from 94%) and 194% (up from
65%) protective margin on 11 and 22 kV
systems respectively. TOV capability of the
15 kV gapped arrester on 22 kV systems is
22,6 kV for 24 hours.
Reduced environmental impact
Gapless surge arresters typically dissipate
50 mW per kV [6] rated voltage so a 24 kV
rated arrester dissipates 1,2 W continuously.
Conservative estimates place the number
of pole top transformers in South Africa at
approximately 325 000. If we assume they
are all three phase 22 kV, then the upper
limit for continuous surge arrester losses
is approximately 1,2 MW. Gapped surge
arresters typically dissipate 12 times less
power than gapped surge arresters the
equivalent loss would have been 100 kW.
References
[1] D A Gonzales, J A Bonner, K Argiropoulos:
Benefits of gapped MOV arrester to improve
system reliability and extend equipment life,
12th International Conference on Electricity
Distribution, CIRED, pp. 2.14/1 2.14/5, Vol. 2,
1993.
[2] D C Henr y, H E Fletcher: Protection of
underground circuits with gapped MOV
technology offers improved margins of
protection, presented at 43rd Annual Power
Distribution Conference, October 23rd, 1990
[3 Cooper Power Systems publication I235-5:
UltraSIL Housed VariSTAR Surge Arresters 5 kA
and 10 kA Class 1 IEC 60099-4 (IEC99-4) for
MV Systems to 36 kV.
[4] Cooper Power Systems publication 235-99:
UltraSIL Polymer-Housed Evolution (10kA) Surge
Arresters.
[5] H Z Ding, Z D Wang, P N Jarman: Effect of
ageing on the impulse breakdown strength
of oil-impregnated pressboard used in
power transformers, 2006 Annual Report
Conference on Electrical Insulation and
Dielectric Phenomena, pp. 497 500.
[6 Cooper Power Systems publication B23508033: Taking Protection to the Extremes:
UltraSIL Polymer-Housed Distribution-Class Surge
Arrester.
[7] 2008 Eskom Annual Report, retrieved from www.
eskom.co.za, May 2009.

Contact Glen Medlin, e-LEK Engineering,

Tel 012 349-2220, glen@elek.co.za v