Arrester Service Conditions and Other Considerations Page 1 of 6

TRANQUELL® SURGE ARRESTERS

Arrester Service Conditions and Other

Considerations

Arrester Contamination
TRANQUELL® arresters are built in accordance with contamination
tests outlined in ANSI/IEEE C62.11. More demanding tests than
those outlined in the ANSI/IEEE C62.11 have shown that
TRANQUELL arresters have outstanding capability to withstand the
effects of very severe external contamination. In applications where
severe contamination is anticipated and extra leakage (creepage)
distance is required for other station insulation, the arrester leakage
distance should be reviewed. An arrester connected line-to-ground
needs to have a leakage distance no greater than that required for
the other line-to-ground insulation in the station. Extra leakage
distance arrester housings are available. Manual hot washing of
TRANQUELL arresters with a single stream of pressurized, de-ionized
water is permissible, provided electric utility industry accepted
safety precautions are observed.

Arrester Failure & Pressure Relief

In the event that the capability of a TRANQUELL arrester is
exceeded, the metal oxide disks may crack or puncture. Such
damage will reduce the arrester internal electrical resistance.
Although this will limit the arrester's ability to survive future system
conditions, it does not jeopardize the insulation protection provided
by the arrester. In the unlikely case of complete failure of the
arrester, a line-to-ground arc will develop and pressure will build up
inside the housing. This pressure will be safely vented to the outside
and an external arc will be established provided the fault current is
within the pressure relief fault current capability of the arrester. This
low-voltage arc maintains equipment protection. All ratings of metal
top porcelain station arresters will withstand a system available
short circuit current of at least 65,000 amperes rms. symmetrical
(169,000 amperes, first crest) in accordance with the test
procedures outlined in ANSI/IEEE C62.11 and IEC 99.4. Porcelain
arresters with higher pressure relief capability are available upon
request. Pressure relief/fault current capability for all GE TRANQUELL
arresters is shown in Table 5.

Table 5- Pressure Relief / Fault Current

Fault Current
Arrester rated Voltage Housing
Arrester Type Capability (a
(kVrms Type
sym.)
3 - 36kV Polymer NormalDutyDistribution 10,000
3 - 36kV Polymer Heavy Duty Distribution 20,000
3 - 36kV Polymer Riser Pole 20,000
3 - 72kV Polymer Intermediate 20,000
90 - 144kV Polymer Intermediate 80,000
3 - 144kV Polymer Station 10,000
3 - 48kV Porcelain Station 65,000
54 - 360kV Porcelain Station 93,000
396 - 612kV Porcelain Station 65,000

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Once an arrester has safely vented, it no longer possesses its

pressure relief/fault current capability. An arrester that has vented
should be replaced immediately.

For a given application, the arrester to be selected should have a

pressure relief/fault current capability greater than the maximum
short-circuit current available at the intended arrester location
including appropriate allowances for system growth. As with any
porcelain arrester, the pressure relief apertures should be oriented
away from adjacent apparatus to minimize damage to that
apparatus in case of a pressure relief operation. In applications
where an arrester pressure relief/fault current capability is exceeded,
it should be mounted in an enclosure to prevent a safety hazard. A
physical installation of this nature might be used for the protection
of a large generator.

Ambient Temperature
Ambient temperature is an important consideration in the
application of metal oxide arresters. Metal oxide materials exhibit a
temperature dependent loss characteristic; the higher the ambient
temperature, the higher will be the disk temperature when the
arrester is operated at its continuous voltage capability. The
referenced standards indicate that the ambient temperature not
exceeding 40°C is the standard service condition for arresters.
TRANQUELL arresters are designed to operate at a weighted average
temperature of 45°C with excursions to 60°C.

Altitude
TRANQUELL arresters are designed for altitudes not exceeding
10,000 ft. (3000 m) above sea level. For higher altitude
applications, extra clearances may be required in the design of the
arrester housing. In general, the insulation design of the substation
will dictate the arrester clearances. For each 300 ft. (100 m) above a
10,000 ft. (3000 m) altitude, arrester clearances should increase
approximately one percent [7].

Mounting Considerations
TRANQUELL arresters are designed to be self-supporting for base
mounting in a vertical position. However, units for other mounting
arrangements are available on request. Arresters may be
horizontally mounted if the cantilever loading, including arrester
weight, icing, and terminal loads, does not exceed the maximum
working cantilever strength. Where applicable, the pressure relief
vents should be located on the underside of the arrester. Units for
suspension mountings are also available. The rated working
cantilever strengths for various arrester ratings are shown in Table 6
and are defined in accordance with ANSI C29.9 [8]. The defined
strengths exceed the requirements for US Seismic Zone 3 (< 0.2g).
For arresters installed in higher zones, seismic requirements need to
be specified. In the installation of arresters, recommended
clearances between the arrester and any adjacent equipment must
be observed. Failure to do so may result in unwanted flashovers and
electrical overstress to internal arrester elements. TRANQUELL

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arresters are designed to have a uniform voltage gradient along the

length of the porcelain column. Where applicable, a grading ring is
mounted on top of the arrester to establish a more uniform voltage
distribution along the arrester. Clearly, if the arrester were mounted
adjacent to a ground plane, this uniformity would be disturbed. To
avoid such a situation, the minimum clearances to ground planes
and other phase conductors must be observed.

Field Testing
In general, it is impractical to fully test an arrester in the field
without high-voltage test equipment and accurate instrumentation.
Instead, the arrester leakage current can be used to monitor the
over-all state or condition of the arrester. For example, an abnormal
leakage current measurement can be indicative of a wet, surface-
contaminated, or vented arrester. More information regarding field
testing is available on the GE website (www.ge.com/capacitor).
Arrester leakage current can be monitored by a surge-counter
leakage meter or by an oscilloscope connected directly to a surge-
counter test connection. Typical arrester leakage currents of station
arresters operating at their continuous voltage capability and at 20°
C are in the range of one-half to three milliamperes. Contamination
of the arrester housing will contribute another component to the
leakage current. If leakage current is to be used as an indication of
arrester condition, the arrester must be clean, and the voltage and
temperature must correspond to some standard test conditions,
specific to each arrester location.

Arrester Selection Summary

The arrester selection process should include a review of all system
stresses and service conditions expected at the arrester location.
System stresses include continuous operating voltage, temporary
overvoltages, and switching surges. If arresters of different ratings
are required to meet these specific to each arrester location. Arrester
Selection Summary The arrester selection process should include a
review of all system stresses and service conditions expected at the
arrester location. System stresses include continuous operating
voltage, temporary overvoltages, and switching surges. If arresters
of different ratings are required to meet these individual criteria, the
highest resulting rating must be chosen. The arresters' capability for
contamination, pressure relief, ambient temperature, and altitude
must exceed the specified requirements.

INSULATION COORDINATION

Once an arrester has been selected, the protection it provides to the

equipment insulation can be determined. This protection is
dependent on the protective characteristics of the arrester, the
lightning and switching surges expected on the system, and the
insulation characteristics of the protected equipment. It is quantified
in terms of the protective ratio which is the ratio of the equipment
insulation withstand to the arrester protective level. The objective is
to meet or exceed the minimum protective ratios for the various
classes of voltage surges as recommended in the application
standards. An alternate measure is the percent protective margin
which is the protective ratio minus one, times 100 %. For example,
a protective ratio of 1.53 corresponds to a 53 % protective margin.

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Arrester Protective Characteristics

The protective characteristic of TRANQUELL® arresters is solely
defined by the discharge voltage and is generally proportional to
arrester MCOV. For any one arrester, the discharge voltage is a
function of the magnitude of the arrester current and, in the impulse
region, of the time to crest of the arrester current. In general, for
any specific applied impulse current through the arrester, the time-
to-crest for the voltage wave will be less than the time-to-crest for
the current wave. Figure 1 shows the test results of a 10 kA 8/20 ms
current impulse test. TRANQUELL protective characteristics have
been defined for fast impulse currents with times-to-crest shorter
than 8 ms. Available data on lightning strokes and simulation
studies on impulse transients within substations both indicate that
arresters in service may be subjected to fast current impulse waves.
To illustrate arrester protection for slower transients, the discharge
voltages have been defined for standard switching surge currents.
The arrester protective characteristic is a continuous function
defined over a range of discharge currents and their resultant
discharge voltages. The insulation withstand of equipment on the
other hand, is generally defined only at three voltage points through
the use of the standard switching surge, the full wave, and the
chopped wave tests. To facilitate comparison with these three
withstands, three corresponding protective levels of the TRANQUELL
arrester have been selected as indicated in Table 6.

Table 6 - Cantilever Strength

Rated Ultimate Max. Working

Arrester Rated Housing Cantilever Cantilever
Arrester Type Stength Strength
Voltage (kVrms) Type
in-lbs N-m in-lbs N-m

3-36kV Polymer NormalDutyDistribution 1,500 169 600 68

3-36kV Polymer Heavy Duty Distribution 3,000 339 1,200 136
3-36kV Polymer Riser Pole 4,000 452 1,600 181
3-72kV Polymer Intermediate 4,000 452 2,000 226
90-144kV Polymer Intermediate 10,000 1,130 5,000 565
3-144kV Polymer Station 20,000 2,260 10,000 1,130
3-48kV Porcelain Station 70,000 7,909 28,000 3,163
54-360kV Porcelain Station 150,000 16,947 60,000 6,779
39-612kV Porcelain Station 200,000 22,596 80,000 9,038

Three protective levels are selected for coordination with the

transformer insulation characteristics. They are described as follows:

Switching Surge Protective Level

This is the crest discharge voltage that results when a 36/90 ms
current impulse is applied to the arrester. To define the arrester's
switching surge protective level, a "switching surge coordination
current" is defined for the various system voltages. These currents
are: 500 amperes for maximum system line-to-line voltages to 150
kV, 1000 amperes for systems 151 to 325 kV, and 2000 amperes for
systems above 325 kV.

Impulse Protective Level

This is the crest discharge voltage that results when an 8/20 ms
current impulse is applied to the arrester. The resultant crest

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voltages for a variety of crest currents are given in the applicable

Arrester Characteristics Table. To allow coordination with
transformer insulation, a specific current impulse magnitude must be
selected based on the system voltage. Reference [5] provides
guidance for this selection.

Front-of-Wave Protective Level

This is the discharge voltage for current impulses having a faster
time to crest than the 8/20 ms current impulse. This resultant crest
voltage is listed as the front-of-wave (FOW) protective level. This
protective level is derived by applying a series of current wave
impulses to an arrester with varying times to crest (1, 2, 8 ms) and
extending the measured voltages to 0.5 ms in accordance with
ANSI/IEEE C62.11.

Protective Ratios
The three-point method is usually applied for insulation coordination.
In this method the protective ratios are calculated at three separate
points within the volt-time domain; namely switching surge, full
wave, and chopped wave regions. If the following protective ratios
are met or exceeded, satisfactory insulation coordination will be
achieved according to the minimum recommendations given in ANSI
C62.22.

Switching Surge Withstand

>= 1.15
Switching Surge Protection Level
Full Wave Withstand (BIL)
>= 1.20
Impulse Protection Level
Chopped Wave Withstand
>= 1.20
Front-of-Wave Protection Level

These calculated protective ratios assume negligible arrester lead

length and separation distance between the arrester and the
transformer. In many cases, the calculated protective ratios exceed
the minimum protective ratios recommended by ANSI by a
considerable amount in actual power system applications.

Figure 11

Figure 1. Arrester voltage and current oscillograms for10kA 8/20m s

current impulse test.

As a specific example in protective ratio calculation, consider a

550kV BIL transformer protected by a 144kV rated TRANQUELL
polymer station surge arrester. The three transformer insulation

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withstand voltages are as specified in ANSI C57.12.00[9]. The

calculated ratios indicate that the arrester would provide excellent
protection for the transformer insulation. If the separation distance
between the transformer and arrester is not negligible, the
transformer voltage can oscillate above the arrester voltage during
lightning transients, thus reducing the protective ratio. Guidance in
estimating these effects can be obtained from ANSI C62.22 and
References [10] and [11]. When making such transformer voltage
estimates for shielded stations, it is suggested that the front-of-
wave protective level of the arrester be used as an approximation for
the arrester voltage. In decisive situations, it is suggested that
digital computer studies be performed in which the arrester and
substation details can be modeled.

Table 7
Transformer Insulation Withstand Arrester Protective Level and
and Test wave Description Test Wave Description
Switching Surge Switching Surge
(250/2500 ms voltage wave) (36/90 ms current wave)
Full Wave Impulse
(1.2/50 ms voltage wave) (8/20 ms current wave)
Chopped Wave Front-of-wave
(1.2/50 ms voltage wave) 0.5 ms front wave

Table 8
Transformer Transformer Arrester
Protective
Withstand withstand Protective
ratios
Tests voltages (kV) Levels (kV)
Switching
745 518 1.44
Surge
Full Wave 900 604 1.44
Chopped
1035 683 1.52
Wave

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