Some effects of temperature on multiple column metal oxide devices

Metal oxide elements are capable of dissipating considerable energy in terms of joules per cubic centimeter or joules per gram, and elements of reasonable size are capable of discharging the energy associated with most surge arrester applications. Surge arresters designed using metal oxide elements have been in service since 1976. However, a single column consisting of elements of usual diameter is not capable of discharging a long, 500 kV or 800 kV transmission line under all of the switching conditions generally considered; therefore, metal oxide arresters for application at these voltages are usually designed with two columns of elements in parallel. Furthermore, devices for series capacitors protection or protection of valves and filters in DC converter stations and similar applications are often required to discharge several tens of times more energy than required by station applications, and are hence designed using several columns of elements in parallel. The objective of this paper is to describe some of the effects of temperature on the operation of parallel multiple column devices