Best Practices

in the
Application
of Transmission Line Arresters

High Voltage Surge Arresters Section

NEMA US G 100-2020
Overview of Transmission Line Arrester Operation

• The arrester clamps the voltage across the

insulator under all circumstances, even
with high ground resistance on the pole.

• The insulator will never flashover from

lightning or switching surges.

• Fails open and restores full system BIL

Arrester Reliability Considerations
Early Mature
Porcelain Porcelain
Polymer Polymer Designs
5% Gapped Sic Era MOV Era
Failure rates of
 
modern day
Arrester Failure Rate % of total Installed

One-time design or
manufacturing issues
.5%
  MOV arresters
Distribution Arresters
manufactured in
  the USA are in
.05%
the 200 parts per
 
  million range.
 
Mechanical issues
.005% TLA Arresters
200ppm

1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020

Lowering Line to Ground Clearances on
EHV systems 345kV and above
TLAs can
economically control
the switching surge
amplitudes allowing
for reduced
clearances
 EHV System Clearance Examples With and Without Arresters Installed
Lowering line
System Voltage
Line to Line (kV)
Insulated to
Line BSL
Switching
Surge
Factor
Clearance
without
Arresters
Clearance with Optimal
Arrester (inches)
Clearance Reduction % Reduction in
with Arresters Clearance with
to ground
clearances on
(kV) (inches) Arresters
pu (Inches)

NGLA 258/209kV

EHV systems
per IEEE per IEEE
per IEEE 1427 SSL =515kV SSF   NGLA   NGLA  
1427 1427
1.75
362 550 1.86 50 47   3   -6%  
362
362
650
825
2.2
2.79
61
81
47
47
 
 
14
34
 
 
-23%
-42%
 
  345kv and
above
362 1050 3.55 110 47   63   -57%  
        NGLA 420/335kV          
SSL =832kV SSF of
1.86

550 900 2 91 84   7   -7%  

550 1050 2.34 110 84   26   -23%  
550 1300 2.89 150 84   66   -44%  
550 1550 3.45 195 84   111   -57%  

Table 1
Voltage
Upgrading

Increasing Power Flow

with Substation and line
voltage upgrading
without re-insulation
Transmission line voltage upgrading
without re-insulation
If more power flow was needed, this is a
69kV line that could be a candidate for
uprating to 115kV

Plenty of clearance, plenty of spacing and

already has arresters for lightning.
Switching would not even be an issue.
Transmission line voltage upgrading
without re-insulation

In this 138kV system, there is ample

room for higher voltage without any
change of insulators. This is a good
example of high insulator length to
spacing ratio.
 Temporarily reduces
minimum approach
distance (MAD)
• Minimum approach distance can be reduced
by the temporary installation of arresters

• Due to its minimal weight the line arrester is

a perfect candidate for this application
Lower lightning-induced momentary
outages

Lower isochoric area may not

benefit from arrester
however
backflash remains a potential
problem for most
Lower lightning-induced
momentary outages by
reducing backflash rate
Methods
• run a study of the system to determine
if arresters will improve outage rate
• install arresters on every phase of
every pole
• apply arresters in area prone to
outages
• mountain tops
• dry planes
• rocky soil

Skip Backflash section

The Backflash

Time = 0
The first event is the strike. Of course there was
already a great deal of activity just to connect this line
to the cloud, but that is for another sequence.

When the strike pins to the wire, it sets up a voltage

surge that travels in both directions down the line. (1-
50 million volts)

This is all happening at nearly the speed of light and

until the surge actually finds ground, there is little
current flow.
The Backflash
Time = 1
In a few Nano-seconds, the voltage front meets the
down ground and travels toward earth at the tower
bottom. While at the same time it is inducing a
voltage on to the phase conductors
When it reaches earth, the current begins to flow.
The voltage along the tower increases rapidly due to
ground potential rise. This potential rise is caused
by the resistance of the ground rod of the tower.
This tower voltage rises as the current begins to
flow.
The Backflash
Time = 2
The voltage at the base of the base of the
insulators and on the phase conductors increases
as the surge increases in amplitude

If the voltage at the base of the insulator

increases at a faster rate than the induced
voltage on phases, it can reach the CFO of the
insulator
The Backflash
Time = 3
The voltages continue to increase across all
components as the surge crests.
The Backflash
Time = 4 (.5-2 µsec)
If the voltage across the insulator exceeds the CFO, it can
flashover from the pole down ground to the phase.

This is the backflash……

It flashes from the base to the conductor which is intuitively

backward since the down ground spends its entire life
except for these few microseconds at ground potential.

This is the part of the event that we are interested in with

insulation coordination studies. What effect this surge will
have the substation.

But its not over yet…..

The Backflash
Time = 5 (20-50 µsec)
The lightning stroke is over and the voltages on the lines
revert back to their pre-strike levels. But the air around the
insulator is seeping with ions and still highly conductive.

When the AC voltage reaches a high enough level, it now

flashes forward from the phase conductor to the down
ground.
The Backflash
Time = 6 (50 µsec to 200ms)
When the insulator flashes over for a second time, power
frequency current flows to ground and a fault is now
underway on the circuit and will remain there until a
breaker interrupts the event.

At that point the event is over assuming no damage

occurred on the insulator.
The Backflash
The surge that is transferred onto the phase conductor has
entered the station within a few µsec, even before the fault
was initiated.

This is the impulse that becomes the concern of insulation

coordination in substations.
 Compact lines
The compact transmission line often
features the following:
• Single-pole structures
• Relatively short spans (30–150 m)
• Armless or single-arm construction
• Reduced separation between phases
• Suitability for narrow right-of-way
or roadside installation

69kV Compact line in Lakeland Florida with limited

height due to no shield wire.
 Open breaker scenario
protection
TLAs as line entrance arresters to protect open breakers
When a breaker is closed, both bushings are
relatively protected by the transformer arresters.
However, if the breaker is open, the line side of the
breaker is not only unprotected, it is also subject to
double the normal surge voltage which can easily
flash the bushing over.

Skip Backflash section

Open Breaker Scenario Overview
Incoming Surge
Open breaker Scenario
At System CFO or BIL

Transformer

Arrester
 Open breaker Scenario
Incoming Surge

At System CFO or BIL

Transformer

Arrester
 Open breaker Scenario

Incoming Traveling Wave

Transformer

Arrester
 Open breaker Scenario

Incoming Traveling Wave

Transformer

Arrester
 Open breaker Scenario

Incoming Traveling Wave

Transformer

Arrester
 Open breaker Scenario

Incoming Traveling Wave

Transformer

Arrester
 Open breaker Scenario

Incoming Traveling Wave

Voltage Clamped by the
Transformer

Transformer

Arrester
 Open breaker Scenario

Incoming Traveling Wave

Transformer
Clamped by Arrester

Arrester
Now with the Breaker Open
 Open breaker Scenario
Incoming Surge

At System CFO or BIL

Transformer

Arrester
 Open breaker Scenario
Incoming Surge

At System CFO or BIL

Transformer

Arrester
 Open breaker Scenario

Incoming Traveling Wave

Transformer

Arrester
 Open breaker Scenario

Incoming Traveling Wave

Transformer

Arrester
 Open breaker Scenario
Total Voltage
Incoming Traveling Wave Across Bushing

Transformer

Arrester
 Open breaker Scenario
Total Voltage
Across Bushing

Incoming Traveling Wave

Transformer

Arrester
 2X
Open breaker Scenario
Total Voltage
Across Bushing

Incoming Traveling Wave

Transformer

Arrester
 2X
Open breaker Scenario
Total Voltage
Across Bushing
Incoming Surge

At System CFO or BIL

Transformer

Arrester
 Open breaker Scenario With Line Arrester

Incoming Surge At System CFO or BIL

Transformer

Arrester

Arrester
 Open breaker Scenario With Line Arrester
Incoming Traveling Wave
Clamped by Arrester
Transformer

Arrester

Arrester
 Open breaker Scenario With Line Arrester

Clamped by Arrester
At .4*BIL
Incoming Traveling Wave
Transformer

Arrester

Arrester
 Open breaker Scenario with Line Arrester
Total Voltage
Across Bushing
.8*BIL

Incoming Traveling Wave

Transformer

Arrester
Arrester

Need to check
Separation Distance
to see if it works
Lower new line
construction
costs

By using arresters on the

exposed phases of a
transmission line instead of
shield wires, significant
savings can be seen.
Lower new line
construction
costs

In the case shown in table 2,

for a lightning proof line,
the savings would be 5.2%
of the initial construction
cost. It could be higher if
only the top two phases
were protected by arresters.
Table 2: Table 15 of NYSERDA report on cost savings using arrester in place of OHGW
Extending the life of breakers in the station
Lowering
system losses
By replacing OHGW with arresters
Lowering
system losses
By replacing OHGW with arresters

Table 3: Cost savings from using arresters instead of OHGW

Utilizing transmission line arresters can
• make line lightning proof
• lower construction costs
• increase system reliability
• reduce the size of a right of way
• and more