Evaluation of the Failure Frequency of Surge Arrester taking into account the Reduction of Energy Capability due to Direct Lightning Strike to Distribution Lines

Abstract

Surge arresters (SAs) installed on distribution lines to prevent lightning outage may fail when the energy of lightning current flowing into SAs exceeds their withstand capability. Although the previous research has been reported that the energy withstand capability of SAs decreases due to the repetitive flow of lightning currents, the influence of this decrement on the SAs failure rate has not been studied. In this paper, we assessed the failure frequency of the SAs considering the decrease of the energy capability of SA due to repetitive flow of lightning currents by means of lightning outage rate calculation program for medium-voltage distribution lines developed by CRIEPI.