Study on Thermal Stability Characteristics of Surge Arrester for High Power

전력용 피뢰기의 열안정화 특성

ZnO surge arresters continuously endure the operating voltages during the operation course, and in the mean time, which need to withstand occasionally transient voltages of lightning and switching overvoltages. Under these voltages, the ZnO varistors inside arresters would have aging phenomena, one important result of aging phenomena is the increasing of resistive currents of varistors, which leads to the increasing of power losses of varistors. And the operating voltage is continuously applied on the ZnO varistors, there is a degradation phenomenon existing in ZnO varistors. When the degradation reaches a certain degree, then the arrester must stop operation. The degradation is related to the applied voltage ratio, the applied voltage ratio is high, the degradation is quickly. When the power loss is higher than the thermal dispersion ability of house of arrester, then the arrester will thermally breakdown. In this study the thermal stability characteristics of surge arresters for high power wil be discussed on the view point of watt losses and thermal breakdown.