♦ ARRESTER ♦

Arrester
LIFETIME &
REPLACEMENT SCHEDULE

A
common question is how arrester while discharging a current of by industry standards after the set of
long should a distribution a specified level. This is usually mea- standard design tests. For MOV arrest-
class arrester be in service sured with a 10 kA surge current. This ers, the maximum increase in discharge
before it needs to be re- value is then compared to the voltage permitted is 10% and for SiC
placed. There type arresters, it is 20%.
are several factors that will This means that after hav-
influence this decision. The ing seen duty, an in service
first concern is if the arrester SiC arrester may have expe-
can still do the job of pro- rienced
This a larger shows
summary degradation
that
tecting equipment from ov- in its protective properties
the polymer station class
ervoltage surges. A second compared
surge to MOV
arrester designs.
provides a
concern is the ability of the better level of protection
Power Frequency
arrester to withstand the sys-
Voltage
tem line-to-ground operat- Energy Capability
ing voltage. The ability of the arrester to
Station and intermediate
withstand the system volt-
Protective Level class surge
age lies witharresters typi-be-
the arrester
The condition of a surge ar- cally
ing atare used
high in substation
resistance at nor-
rester relative to its protec- applications where the
mal line-to-ground voltages.
tive levels is almost impos- possibility
When thisofabilityhigh energy
is com-
sible to determine in the discharges exist.
promised from things These such
field. The proper way to discharges
as MOV orcan SiCbeblock
from fail-
line
check the performance of switching or other
ure, moisture ingress orsystem
the arrester is to bring it into other causes the arrester may
a laboratory environment Due to internal airspace and threat of moisture ingress, polymer fail. The dielectric integrity
arresters should replace porcelain.
and measure its sparkover if of the arrester can be mea-
it is a gapped type arrester sured by the use of a simple
(i.e., Silicon Carbide or gapped MOV). manufacturer’s catalog discharge volt- megger, meters made by Hi-Test De-
The sparkover voltage of these arresters age to make sure the arrester is still tection, Inc. or Doble type test equip-
is often the limiting factor as to the clamping below this level. ment. The arrester should appear elec-
arrester's level of protection. trically as an open circuit since its im-
You can appreciate the difficulty in mea-
For gapless MOV arresters, the appro- suring these values in the field. A good pedance is so high. If the arrester ap-
priate property to measure is the dis- indication might be to look at the maxi- pears as a low resistance, it should be
charge voltage (clamping voltage) of the mum change in these properties allowed replaced.
 Competitive Pressure
Got You Down?

It seems that every other article in industry trade

magazines deals with competitive and deregula-
tion issues. The utility landscape is changing more
rapidly today than ever in the past. One of the
ways that utility companies can reduce costs is by
using less expensive surge protection. Ohio Brass
can help with this evaluation by providing
information on the amount of energy that a
transmission line can deliver to the surge arrester.
This information will allow the utility to deter-
mine if a station or intermediate class surge
arrester is needed.
You can get additional information on this by
ordering Ohio Brass publication EU1426-H
“Calculation of Arrester Energy During Transmis-
sion Line Switching Surge Discharge” and
The cost of performing field tests on distribution EU1427-H “Energy Capability of Ohio Brass
arresters may at first seem to be cost prohibitive PVN Arresters”. ■
compared to the cost of the product itself. How-
ever, because these arresters are installed in areas
that are in direct contact with the general public, a
failure of one of these arresters could pose a safety
hazard. Therefore, the industry needs some gen-
eral guidelines, especially in regard to the large num-
ber of porcelain-housed SiC arresters in service.
Recommendations
A recently published IEEE paper gives some guid-
ance in this issue. This paper by Dr. M. Darveniza
appeared in the October 1996 issue of the IEEE
Transactions on Power Delivery. Due to concerns
over possible moisture ingress, this paper recom-
mends that all silicon carbide porcelain arresters
that have been in service for over 13 years be re-
placed. He concluded that degradation was evident
in 75% of arresters tested.

POWER
SYSTEMS, INC. &
TiPS NEWS
View from Vol. 4,
No. 2 APRIL 1998
573-682-5521 Fax 573-682-8714 http://www.hubbellpowersystems.com
NOTE: Because Hubbell has a policy of continuous product improvement, we reserve the right to change design and specifications without notice.
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