TLA Presentation 14-09-2015

How to Specify the Optimum Non-Gapped Line Arresters,
NGLA.
High Voltage Technical Seminar
Transmission Line Arrester Applications
• General overview about lightning activities
• General overview about lightning effects on unshielded and shielded
transmission lines.
• General overview about the procedures to improve the transmission
lines lightning performance.
• Transmission Line Arresters (TLA).
page 2 / September 14, 2015

Lightning activities

• In many countries lightning has • Lightning is the most frequent cause

been reported as the main cause of of transmission outage and service
non-scheduled outages on interruption in the United States,
overhead sub-transmission and accounting for about 30% of all
transmission lines with rated voltage power outages, and resulting in
up to 230 kV. economic losses approaching $1
– United States: 57% billion annually – http://www.epri.com
– Brazil: 50 – 70%
– Japan: 70 – 80%
– Denmark: 57%
– Colombia: 47 – 69%

• Lightning effects on transmission lines are more critical in regions with

high electrical activities and / or high soil resistivity
– Load losses on power systems caused by voltage sags due to

lightning transitory activities on transmission lines.
– Critical for all modern industries now so reliant on sophisticated
electronic equipment and especially production process very
sensitive to momentary disturbances on the systems.
– Permanent and transitory disturbances on important lines / whole
system due to outages.

• This fact has been taken by several power supply utilities and
industrial consumers around the world and caused them to invest in
partnership with universities and research centers in the research
programs and field studies, aiming:
– To develop theoretical studies to get a better understanding about
the transient response of shielded and unshielded overhead lines
reached by lightning.
– To get a better understanding about the lightning incidence and its
parameters which have influence on the transient behaviour of the
overhead lines.
– The promotion of improvements along the critical sections of the
overhead lines with poorer lightning performance, thereby
increasing their reliability.

Ground Flash Density (GFD) – World Map

Lightning effects on transmission lines
• Three main aspects are involved in

the lightning performance of the
transmission lines:
– Discharge current characteristics:
peak value, time-to-crest and rate
of rise.
– The attachment process between
lightning channel and the
transmission line components.
– The electromagnetic response of
the line.
Source: Lightning on transmission
lines - IEEE Acapulco 2004

• Main aspects involved in the transmission lines lightning performance:

– The lightning striking point: top of the tower or on the shield wires
(shielded lines); phase-conductors (unshielded lines or shielding
failure).
– Current discharges characteristics.
– The shield wire equivalent surge impedance.
– The electromagnetic coupling among shield wires and phase
conductors.
– The transient response of the tower.
– The effect of the adjacent towers.
– The transient response of grounding systems.
– The disruptive insulation model considered.

• Transmission lines may present several different configurations for the

towers, overhead conductors and tower-footings.
• Different configurations of these components establish different

transient responses under lightning stresses, which reflect on the
calculated values for the resultant overvoltages.

Shielded lines
Transient voltages on
insulators strings
 
VIS i t   Vcrossarmi t   Vinducedi t   VPFi
VISi(t) Transient voltage on the insulators strings (kV)

Vcrossarmi(t) Transient voltage on the crossarms (kV)
Vinduced(t) Induced voltages (kV)
VPFi Power frequency voltage (kV)
Shielded lines
 
VIS i t   Vcrossarmi t   Vinducedi t   VPFi
• Disregarding the “cross-arm effect”:
VIS i t   VTOWER t  1  Ki   VPFi
• Back flashover on the phase I will occur if:
VIS i t   VDischarg ei t 

Shielded lines – back flashover occurrence
• Possibility of back flashover occurring across insulator strings.
Source: National Grid

Shielding failure

• Unshielded Lines:
– Basically all lightning strikes on structures or on the phase
conductors will produce flashovers along the insulator strings.
• Shielded Lines:
– Possibility of back flashover occurring across insulator strings.
– Transmission line lightning performance depends strongly on the
transient grounding system behaviour.
• Shielding failure:
– Flashover occurrence as in case of the unshielded lines.
• Induced voltages:
– Critical for systems with rated voltage up to 45 kV

Procedures to improve the transmission lines
lightning performance
• Increase the line insulation:
– increase the dry arc distance of the insulator strings.
• Improvement in the grounding system:
– reduction of the outages on the shielded transmission lines.
• Shield wire application on unshielded lines or improvement in the
shielding angle for shielded lines:
– reduction in the number of direct strikes on the phase conductors.
– increase the conductor height with increasing the attractive area.
• Transmission Line Arrester (TLA)
– Externally Gapped Lightning Arresters: EGLA
– Non-gapped lightning arresters – NGLA (TLA)

Which method shall be used?
INPUT OUTPUT:
Current outage Desired outage
number number
• Lightning studies and analysis using computational tools, in which for

the desired transmission line configuration is estimated number of
transmission line outages per 100 km . year.
– Current configuration and other configurations considering different
procedures to improve the line

• Basic Information Required for Modelling TLA for transmission lines:
– System voltage
– Basic configuration of the line:
– Tower type, phase-to-earth and phase-to-phase distances, shielded
or unshielded line, phase conductors and shield wire sags, span
length between towers, conductors diameters, etc.
– Short-circuit currents and temporary overvoltages conditions.
– Ground Flash Density of the region crossed by the linet.
– Grounding system
– Other

• Starting from the results obtained in the theoretical studies and
knowing the target number of desired outages for the lines, methods
and procedures to improve the lightning performance of the line have
been evaluated taking into account the cost – benefit balance and:
– from the methods currently available to improve the overhead

unshielded and shielded lightning performance, in most of the cases
Transmission Line Arresters (TLA) sometimes associated with
the improvement of transient grounding behaviour have been
usually considered as the most effective.

Transmission Line Arrester – TLA
• Generality:
– TLA been Installed in parallel with
insulators strings on systems up to
800 kV for lightning protection and
to controll switching overvoltages.
– Installed along critical sections of
transmission lines with poorer
lightning performance to reduce
non-schedule outages due to
lightning.
• reducing system interruption.
• increasing system reliability.
– NGLA or EGLA configuration.

Which Application?
• To reduce non-schedule outages of unshielded and shielded
overhead transmission lines due to lightning:
– reducing system interruption caused by lightning.
– reducing or eliminating line trips due to lightning increasing the
service intervals of breakers.
– maintaining vulnerable networks from outage.
– eliminating interrupted power supply for sensitive industrial
processes.
• Controlled switching overvoltage profile along the line:
– a good alternative to pre-insertion resistors.

Which Application?
• Extended station protection:
– reducing both amplitude and steepness severity of the incoming
overvoltages entering an air or a GIS substations.
– eliminating insulator flashover (back flashover) near substations.
• Compact lines or Upgrading system voltage with existing line
insulation:
– less environmental impact & easier to get right-of-way permission
– increasing the system voltage without the necessity to change the
line design / configuration.
• To protect double circuit lines:
– avoiding the interruption of both circuits simultaneously.

Which Application?
• Minimize tripping of unshielded and shielded lines due to lightning:
– New transmission lines projects with high theoretical indexes of
outages due to lightning.
• Reduced costs for grounding systems;
• In some cases shield wires may be eliminated.
– To improve the lightning performance of existing unshielded and
shielded overhead lines with poorer lightning performance.
• Benefits for the utility:

– Utilities are required by demand to increase availability and reliability
of transmission systems. Therefore eliminating operational high cost
outages and mandatory penalties is high on the agenda.

Which Arrester design?
• No Gapless Line Arresters (NGLA)
+ Indication of overloaded NGLA by disconnector.
+ Reasonable current/energy sharing for kA currents.
+ Can be used for all applications.
– May be longer and heavier than EGLA.
– Mechanical stress on disconnector lead.
• Externally Gapped Line Arresters (EGLA)

+ No continuous voltage stress on ZnO-unit.
– Can only be used for tripping protection on shielded lines.
– Tricky coordination with insulator withstand levels in order to avoid spark-
over for slow front or TOV events.
– Minimal current sharing and no indication of overloaded EGLA.
page 24
TLA selection for NGLA
• Totally different application than substation arresters:
– Used to protect self-restoring equipments.
– Short protective distances.
– Its only purpose is to prevent flashover of the insulators strings
• Rated voltage and MCOV:
– Highest voltage of the system & maximum temporary overvoltages
and their duration.
• Housing characteristics.
• Maximum protective levels required.
• Energy requirements for lightning & switching surges.
• TLA short-circuit capability.
• Environmental conditions and mechanical considerations.

Selection of the Rated Voltage
• Temporary Overvoltages (TOV)

along the transmission lines can be
higher than the Temporary
Overvoltages at the substation.
URATED
TOV SA TOV 2
TOV 1
MCOV
VMAX
Housing requirements
Shed profiles, dry arcing distance and the

flashover distance of the housing shall
warranty the minimum creepage distance
required as well as the good performance of
the housing for steady-state and transient
conditions.
page 31 /
Housing requirements
Lightning impulse withstand voltage of the housing:

According to IEC 60.099-4 – Ed. 2.2 / 2009: LIWV ≥ 1,3 x LIPL
Lightning Impulse Protective Level of the Arrester (LIPL)
During the operation of the TLA it is expected to have residual

voltage levels higher than the LIPL of the arrester once discharge
currents with higher magnitudes will flow through the TLA.
For a 100 kA discharge current striking on the tower (probability of ≈

3,46% of being exceeded), it is expected to flow a discharge current
up to 40 kA through the TLA, depending on the number of TLA
installed on the tower reached by the lightning as well as line
configuration and the ground surge impedance.
page 32 /
Housing requirements: lightning impulses
 Lightning impulse withstand voltage of the housing:
Condition 1: LIWVC ≥ 1,10 x TLA residual voltage at 40 kA (8/20 µs):
LIWVC  LIWVN  eH 1000/ 8150 IEC 60.071-2
LIWVC Lightning impulse withstand voltage for an altitude H above

the sea level (m);
LIWVN Lightning impulse withstand voltage for an altitude H ≤
1000 m; H Altitude of the transmission line above the sea
level (m).
Conditions above exceeds the requirement from IEC 60.099-4
being more realistic for TLA application
page 33 /
Housing requirements: creepage distance
TLA to be installed on 220 kV transmission lines with

highest system voltage of 245 kV for altitudes in the
range from 4,100 m – 5,000 m above the sea level
Pollution level: 25 mm / kV Phase – Phase
DLFN – Minimum creepage distance for H ≤ 1.000 m:
DLFN = 25 mm / kV phase-phase x 245 kV = 6.125 mm
page 34 /
Housing requirements: creepage distance
TLA to be installed on 220 kV transmission lines with

highest system voltage of 245 kV for altitudes in the
range from 4,100 m – 5,000 m above the sea level
DLFC – Minimum creepage distance corrected for H = 5,000 m:
DLFC  DLFN  e0.5. H 1000/ 8150 Estimated equation for 50 - 60 Hz
DLFC Creepage distance for an altitude H above the sea level (m);
DLFN Creepage distance for an altitude H ≤ 1000 m;
H Altitude of the transmission line above the sea level (m).
 50001000
0.5. 
DLF4600m  6125  e  8150 
 6125  1.278  7,829mm
page 35 /
TLA selection – NGLA – Which Energy class?
• Different application than line discharge for substation arresters:
– Substation arresters shall take all line discharges and system

capacitor discharges.
– EGLA typically has IEC class 1 blocks.
– For NGLA the energy class depends on:

• if the transmission line is unshielded or shielded.
• the transient grounding system behaviour.
• numbers of TLA installed on the protected tower & along the line.

Energy requirements for lightning
• Lightning striking on the tower
– Simplified model to evaluate the energy handling by TLA / NGLA.
– Conservative model to evaluate a single phase.
– This model does not consider the effects of the adjacent towers and
considers the grounding impedance as a lumped resistance.

Energy requirements for switching surges
• Reclosing of a 600 km transmission line – Simplified ATP analysis
– Arresters installed on the substation – No TLA installed
Simulation time
using ATP Draw
program

Power frequency
source
characteristics:
245 kV system

Line parameters:
R, L and C for
positive and zero
sequences

• The energy absorbed by TLA during switching surge on the
transmission lines depends on the length of the line as well as the
number of TLA installed along the sections of the line.
• TLA installed along the sections of the transmission lines share the
total energy among them reducing the energy absorbed by each
TLA.
• For switching surges lower energy discharge class can be chosen

when many TLA are installed along the line.

How many and in which phases?
• The effectiveness of TLA for lightning performance improvement of
overhead lines is associated with the criteria used for TLA selection,
quantity and best location of TLA along the overhead lines.
• Electrical Studies:
– Simulations to optimize the number and the location of TLA:
• Calculation of the overhead transmission lines lightning
performance for different line configurations.
– Simulations to define and estimate the energy requirements for TLA:
• Studies to define the maximum energies absorbed by the TLA,
considering the lightning characteristics; the transient grounding
behaviour and the possibility of multiple strokes occurrence.

Selection of disconnectors characteristics
• Which reclosing system is used?
– How fast is it?
– How many reclosing may occur?
– Typical short-circuit currents?
• Electrical characteristics.
– When the disconnector shall operate.
– When the disconnector shall not operate.
• Proper mechanical strength.

– Vibrations should be verified.
page 43
Selection of disconnectors characteristics
• Typical disconnector data:

– Curve showing opening
time versus current.
– Standard distribution types
are not suitable as soon as
NGLA with higher energy
capabilities are used.
– No opening for lightning
stresses allowed.
– Only operate if NGLA is
overloaded.
page 44
Important disconnector characteristics
• The disconnector must always continue its opening operation once it
is triggered to operate even if the system voltage trips.
• A disconnector is a simple device that typically reacts on heating
from power frequency like currents. It can never distinguish between
TOV currents or slow oscillating slow front currents passing through
the NGLA or real short-circuit currents.
– This shows the importance to always select a high enough rated
voltage so that the NGLA do not see TOV stresses that can
interfere with its disconnector operation.
– If not, disconnectors with a better coordination to selected NGLA
and systems conditions shall be selected.
page 45
NGLA - Proper disconnector coordination
1. Disconnector operates before the line trips: this depends how
quick the disconnector operates plus how quickly it can quench the
arc during falling out, which will be strongly weather dependent.
This is then a race between the line protection scheme and the
disconnector and may vary from incident to incident. No tripping
occurs.
2. Disconnector operates before fast reclosing of the line: this
means that once triggered the disconnector shall continue to
disconnect even if the power supply is switched off. This should be
a repeatable operation depending on coordination of the line
protection scheme including fast reclosing time and the
disconnector opening time.
page 46
NGLA - Proper disconnector coordination
3. Disconnector has not completed its operation when reclosing
occurs: this should not happen as this leads to a system
disturbance and also leads to a second short-circuit stress on the
NGLA which significantly increase the risk of complete
disintegration of the arrester with larger pieces coming down. This
indicates a mismatch of disconnector opening times compared to
the line protection scheme of the system and may cause system
disturbance every time there is a NGLA failure.
4. A fourth scenario is that the disconnector operates but the
arrester is not overloaded or failed: this should not occur and
indicates either a disconnector not matching the NGLA
characteristics or a mechanically too weak disconnector design.
page 47
Field performance and trial results
• Field experience with line arrester´s application:
– Technical literatures and field evaluation have been reporting the
effectiveness in the application of transmission line arresters for the
improvement of transmission line lightning performance in many
countries around the world in special in USA and Japan.
– Good field experience and the proven results obtained in the
improvement of the overhead lines lightning performance have been
encouraging more and more users to develop studies and research
programs to evaluate the line arresters application.

• Few registrations of electric and mechanic failures in the line arresters
have been observed and detected.
– Electric failures:
• higher energies absorbed by line arresters.
• Temporary overvoltage issues
– Mechanic failures:
• disconnection of some line arresters due to failures in the flexible
cable and in the links connection (eye screw) caused by the
incidence of strong winds and / or vibration in the line.

• Mechanic failures (source CEMIG):
Details of the disconnector operation due to mechanical failure

TLA have been tested and have presented good electrical results

Field experience
• Buena Ventura – Peru – 138 kV

Field experience
• Antamina – Peru – 220 kV

Field experience
• REN – Portugal – 230 kV

Field experience
• Unshielded compact line – 420 kV
Source: Different Transmission Line Arrester Applications, Installations,

and Designs – MSA / ABB – CIGRÉ tutorial – Rio de Janeiro – 2005

Field experience
• Protection of double circuit line – 420 kV

Field experience
• Protection of double circuit line – 420 kV
Source: Limitation of switching overvoltages by line arresters in combination

with controlled switching - Carl E. Solver - CIGRÉ 2006 - Q1.12 – Paris

Field experience
• Controlled switching overvoltage - Russia

Field experience
• Controlled switching overvoltage – 800 kV
Source: Application of 800 kV SF6 Dead Tank Circuit Breaker with

Transmission Line Surge Arresters to Control Switching Transient Over Voltages
IEEE Trans. Power Delivery, Vol. 17, n. 4, p 957-962 Oct. 2002.

General considerations
• Lightning has been reported in many countries as the major cause of

non-scheduled outages on sub-transmission and transmission
overhead lines, creating many issues and damages for power supply
utilities and their consumers. Losses and damages in the USA caused
by lightning exceed an annual value of 1 billion dollars.
• Power supply utilities and industrial consumers in partnership
with universities and research centers have been establishing and
developing research programs seeking lightning performance
improvement of their lines. Lightning evaluation shall be using
computational simulations, in way to define quantity, best location and
TLA characteristic. Usually an economical analysis allows to obtain
an optimized solution for the lightning performance improvement.

• From the methods used to improve the overhead lines lightning

performance, line arresters have been usually considered in most
of the cases as the most effective. Sometimes, this effectiveness
and cost – benefit balance increases with some improvement in the
grounding systems for fast transients.
• The appropriate dimensioning of the TLA energy handling capacity is

a important factor for a good transmission line lightning performance,
once the TLA energy handling capacity is one of the most important
factors for an appropriate performance of the TLA in the systems.

• The improvement observed in the transmission line lightning

performance with TLA installed along the lines or in their critical points
proves the efficiency and the reliability of the TLA application. Good
field experience and the proven results obtained in the improvement
of the overhead lines lightning performance have been encouraging
more and more users to develop studies and research programs to
evaluate the line arresters application.

• Technical activities and R&D projects have been done in way to

diffusing technical information about the improvement of the overhead
lines lighning performance; to increase the line arresters application
field and its reliability; as well as to encourage more users and
researchers in the participation of lightning studies.
– to evaluate the electric and mechanic performance of line arresters;
– to get detailed information about lightning activities and parameters;
– to evaluate energy requirements for lightning activities.
– to analyze and to evaluate other applications for line arresters, such
as: compact lines; controlled switching surge overvoltages profile
along the line; upgrading system voltage with existing line insulation;
extended station protection; etc;

Thank You For Your Attention!
September 14, 2015

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How to Specify the Optimum Non-Gapped Line Arresters,

page 2 / September 14, 2015

page 3 / September 14, 2015

• In many countries lightning has • Lightning is the most frequent cause

page 4 / September 14, 2015

• Lightning effects on transmission lines are more critical in regions with

– Load losses on power systems caused by voltage sags due to

page 5 / September 14, 2015

page 6 / September 14, 2015

page 7 / September 14, 2015

• Three main aspects are involved in

page 8 / September 14, 2015

• Main aspects involved in the transmission lines lightning performance:

page 9 / September 14, 2015

• Transmission lines may present several different configurations for the

• Different configurations of these components establish different

page 10 / September 14, 2015

VISi(t) Transient voltage on the insulators strings (kV)

• Disregarding the “cross-arm effect”:

VIS i t   VTOWER t  1  Ki   VPFi

• Back flashover on the phase I will occur if:

page 12 / September 14, 2015

Source: National Grid

page 13 / September 14, 2015

page 14 / September 14, 2015

page 15 / September 14, 2015

page 16 / September 14, 2015

Which method shall be used?

• Lightning studies and analysis using computational tools, in which for

page 17 / September 14, 2015

page 18 / September 14, 2015

– from the methods currently available to improve the overhead

page 19 / September 14, 2015

page 20 / September 14, 2015

page 21 / September 14, 2015

page 22 / September 14, 2015

• Benefits for the utility:

page 23 / September 14, 2015

• Externally Gapped Line Arresters (EGLA)

page 29 / September 14, 2015

• Temporary Overvoltages (TOV)

Shed profiles, dry arcing distance and the

Lightning impulse withstand voltage of the housing:

Lightning Impulse Protective Level of the Arrester (LIPL)

During the operation of the TLA it is expected to have residual

For a 100 kA discharge current striking on the tower (probability of ≈

LIWVC  LIWVN  eH 1000/ 8150 IEC 60.071-2

LIWVC Lightning impulse withstand voltage for an altitude H above

TLA to be installed on 220 kV transmission lines with

Pollution level: 25 mm / kV Phase – Phase

DLFN – Minimum creepage distance for H ≤ 1.000 m:

DLFN = 25 mm / kV phase-phase x 245 kV = 6.125 mm

TLA to be installed on 220 kV transmission lines with

DLFC – Minimum creepage distance corrected for H = 5,000 m:

DLFC  DLFN  e0.5. H 1000/ 8150 Estimated equation for 50 - 60 Hz

– Substation arresters shall take all line discharges and system

– EGLA typically has IEC class 1 blocks.

– For NGLA the energy class depends on:

page 36 / September 14, 2015

page 37 / September 14, 2015

page 38 / September 14, 2015

page 39 / September 14, 2015

page 40 / September 14, 2015

• For switching surges lower energy discharge class can be chosen