Distribution arrester outages caused by lightning backflow current flowing from customer's facility into power distribution lines

Abstract

Direct lightning strokes are considered to be a main cause of damage to surge arresters on power distribution lines. Recently, lightning performance of distribution lines has been observed using still cameras, and lightning-caused distribution outages on hilltop areas on the coast of the Sea of Japan have been investigated. This research has shown a possibility that lightning backflow current flowing from customer facilities into distribution lines causes damage to surge arresters on the distribution lines. We have investigated the lightning backflow current flowing from customer facilities into distribution lines as a cause of damage to surge arresters. The main results are as follows: (1) The electric charge of the backflow current flowing into distribution lines is more than 60% of that of the lightning stroke current. (2) If the grounding resistance of the customer's facility is not low, the failure rates of a surge arrester caused by backflow current due to winter lightning is more than 90% of that caused by direct lightning strokes. © 1999 Scripta Technica, Electr Eng Jpn, 126(3): 9–20, 1999