Simulation study on lightning protection of distribution transformer with zinc oxide arrester

Currently, few researches related to lightning protection of distribution transformer with zinc oxide arrester are reported on both home and abroad. This paper establishes a model of zinc oxide arrester and distribution transformer under lightning stroke. In order to verify the lightning protection of zinc oxide arrester to distribution transformer, two distribution network simulations are carried out by using PSCAD. One is the condition without zinc oxide arrester, another one is with zinc oxide arrester to be installed in distribution transformer´s high voltage side. Besides, this paper also carries out a distribution network simulation with zinc oxide arrester installed in both high voltage side and low voltage side of a distribution transformer. The importance of zinc oxide arrester for preventing distribution transformer from damage of lighting is shown by comparison of different simulation results.