Voltage balancing performance of an insulator with ring-shaped parallel gap lightning protection device

Aside from locating lightning flashover points and guiding power frequency arcs, power frequency electric fields can also be standardized using ring-shaped parallel gap lightning protection devices (PGLPD). Therefore, the ring-shaped PGLPDs can be more frequently used in high-voltage (HV) and extra-high-voltage (EHV) transmission lines. We simulated the voltage-balancing performance of the ring-shaped PGLPD through an electric field distribution model of composite insulators on the basis of COMSOL Multiphysics 4.3b software. Results show that in contrast to rod-shaped PGLPDs and shielding rings, the ring-shaped PGLPD can rapidly divert power frequency arcs and perform significantly better in terms of voltage balancing. In addition, the simulation demonstrates that the ring-shaped PGLPD can be considered as an alternative to shielding rings. Consequently, we recommend the ring-shaped PGLPD for HV and EHV transmission lines.