Line arrester application field study

Abstract

Overall, lightning is one of the leading causes of interruptions on Distribution Systems, particularly for utilities that have a medium to high level of lightning activity. This study examines the impact of arrester spacing on the lightning performance of a 12.5 kV distribution system. Sixty of the worst performing circuits, based on historical lightning performance, were analyzed with half of the circuits upgraded to the test arrester configuration and the other half left alone for comparison. After the arrester upgrades were completed, three seasons of lightning and interruption data were collected to compare the two groups. The lightning data analysis was performed with the use of FALLS/sup TM/. To compare the performance of the two groups, the number of interruption/length (km)/ground strike density was used.