Performance of MOV arresters during very close, direct lightning strikes to a power distribution system

In 1996, at the International Center for Lightning Research and Testing (ICLRT) at Camp Blanding, Florida, the responses of MOV arresters in an unenergized test distribution system, composed of an overhead line, underground cable, and padmount transformer with a resistive load, were measured during very close, direct lightning strikes to the overhead line. Arresters were installed on the overhead line at two locations 50 m apart (on either side of the strike point) and at the primary of the padmount transformer which was connected to the line via the underground cable. We obtained arrester data for this test configuration from two lightning flashes (containing a total of five strokes) which were artificially initiated from a natural thunderstorm, using the rocket-and-wire technique. We present the simultaneously-recorded arrester discharge current and voltage waveforms from one lightning stroke for one of the two arresters on the line and for the arrester at the transformer primary. Additionally, we estimate the energy absorbed by the arrester on the line as a function of time for the first 4 ms of the lightning event. The records presented are representative of those for all five strokes.