Response Characteristics of a ZnO Arrester Under Nanosecond Electromagnetic Pulse

Zinc oxide arresters, a major type of overvoltage protection equipment in power systems, can suppress transient lightning overvoltage, operation overvoltage, and other types of power surges. However, the response characteristics and protection effects under nanosecond pulses, such as those in a high-altitude electromagnetic pulse conduction region, remain unclear. Therefore, the surge protection performance of arresters should be properly understood, and high-performance arresters should be developed. In this study, critical parameters, including overshoot peak voltage, residual voltage, response time, and voltammetry characteristics of a representative 10 kV ZnO arrester under nanosecond pulses, were obtained using a double exponential pulse current injection source. The overshoot peak voltage of this arrester under a nanosecond pulse is 2.19 times of lightning impulse residual voltage, and the residual voltage ratio under a nanosecond pulse is 4.31. The average response time is approximately 45 ns, and the response time is independent of the nanosecond pulse amplitude. Furthermore, an electromagnetic transient model of this type of lightning arrester is established based on the CIGRE guidelines, as well as a method to determine the key parameters. The model can simultaneously account for the response characteristics of the small current region and the conduction region of the arrester, which properly agrees with the experimental results.