Performance of 10 kV Metal-Oxide Arresters Excited by High-Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse

Abstract

For acquiring the performance of 10 kV metal-oxide arresters (MOAs) for power systems under high altitude electromagnetic pulses (HEMP), this research has designed a series of tests to analyze the residual voltage of the arresters when changing the number of arresters in parallel. During the test, two types of arresters have been selected, one’s inner disc diameter is 122 mm and the other’s is 40 mm. There are five arresters of each type. When the load of the pulse generator is 60 Ω, the output is a double exponential waveform, which risetime is 20 ns and the full width at half maximum is between 500~550 ns. Also, the peak value of the output current can be adjusted from 2.5 to 5 kA. To simulate the working condition, arresters have been connected to a 10 kV transformer. The test results show that arresters connected in parallel can decrease the residual voltage and the current flowing into the transformer effectively.