Metal Oxide Surge Arrester: A Tool for Lightning Stroke Analysis

Surge arrester is used to protect the equipment of electrical transmission and distribution systems from the effects of lightning and switching overvoltage. They are very much reliable devices which can work for decades without causing any problems provided they are properly designed, configured, and maintained. This paper examines the effects of lightning strokes in an electrical network and analyzes two different frequency dependent models of metal oxide surge arrester following the IEEE standards. The objective is to create a suitable model of tower which considers the propagation of surge, the footing resistance and the two types of air-gap leaders. It is found that, with the identification of overvoltage, the rate of failure of a substation could be determined. This is done through a comprehensive study that uses different strategies among the one available in literature. It was also found that all the strategies generated a similar transient overvoltage. It was observed that the range of values obtained could be considered as complying with the standards.