Co-ordination of spark-gap protection with zinc-oxide surge arresters

Zinc-oxide (ZnO) surge arresters are now well established as a very efficient and reliable form of overvoltage protection against both fast surges, such as those generated by lightning and gas-insulated switchgear, and high-energy surges generated by switching operations and temporary faults on the network. The addition of ZnO surge arresters to existing protection schemes reinforces the system´s reliability and the security of supply. The protection characteristics of the parallel configuration formed by arresters and existing spark gaps at distribution voltages are studied. Tests on various spark-gap geometries, with and without surge arresters in parallel, have been carried out to determine breakdown characteristics, probability curves and voltage-time characteristics for different impulse shapes. It is found that the introduction of the arrester in the circuit modifies the prospective impulse which results in the shift of the breakdown characteristics towards higher voltages. A proposed circuit model, based on laboratory test data, is used to simulate such parallel configurations. Good agreement between test and simulated results is obtained. As a result of these tests, it is recommended that gap-sparkover characteristics based on short-tail (about 5 μs) impulses are used for insulation co-ordination. The role of parallel air gaps in preserving the arrester energy-rating limits is also discussed