Estimation of the surge arrester outage rate caused by lightning overvoltages

The computation based on the lightning limiting parameters method of the surge arrester minimum energy absorption capability is presented. The sensitivity analyses of certain lightning parameters like lightning current-wave duration and equivalent circuit parameters are performed. The influence of the tower footing impedance to the surge arrester failure rate due to the exceeding energy absorption capability is investigated. The method of selection of the medium voltage surge arrester energy absorption capability based on the allowed failure rate is proposed.