Overvoltage definition:

When the voltage in a circuit or part of it is raised above its upper design limit, this is known as
overvoltage. The conditions may be hazardous. Depending on its duration, the overvoltage event
can be transienta voltage spikeor permanent, leading to a power surge.

Explanation:
Electronic and electrical devices are designed to operate at a certain maximum supply voltage,
and considerable damage can be caused by voltage that is higher than that for which the devices
are rated. For example, an electric light bulb has a wire in it that at the given rated voltage will
carry a current just large enough for the wire to get very hot (giving off light and heat), but not
hot enough for it to melt. The amount of current in a circuit depends on the voltage supplied: if
the voltage is too high, then the wire may melt and the light bulb would have "burned out real
time". Similarly other electrical devices may stop working, or may even burst into flames if an
overvoltage is delivered to the circuit.

What causes Overvoltage?

1. Natural:
A typical natural source of transient overvoltage events is lightning. Bursts of solar wind
following solar flares are also known to cause overvoltage in electrical circuits, especially
onboard space satellites.

2. Man-made

Man-made sources of spikes are usually caused by electromagnetic induction when switching on
or off inductive loads (such as electric motors or electromagnets), or by switching heavy resistive
AC loads when zero-crossing circuitry is not used - anywhere a large change of current takes
place. One of the purposes of electromagnetic compatibility compliance is to eliminate such
sources. An important potential source of dangerous overvoltage is electronic warfare. There is
intensive military research in this field, whose goal is to produce various transient
electromagnetic devices designed to generate electromagnetic pulses that will disable an enemy's
electronic equipment. A recent military development is that of the exploding capacitor designed

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to radiate a high voltage electromagnetic pulse. Another intense source of an electromagnetic
pulse is a nuclear explosion. When Pacific Gas & Electric Company neglected to trim trees that
had grown branches into their high power lines, their system caused the world record
overvoltage of any power system so far, of 90 minutes in East Palo Alto California on August
25, 2011. The overvoltage caused television sets to catch fire and were thrown out the front
doors, exploded light bulbs, fried computers, destroyed surge protectors, blew up the Smart
meters, and sparks shot out of wall outlets. The overvoltage only ended when the Smart meters
blew up, or after 90 minutes when the power was physically cut. The incident was not reported
by PG&E to the California PUC, only that there was a day-long "outage" while the exploded
system components were being restored.

3. Conduction path

The transient pulses can get into the equipment either by power or data lines, or directly through
space from a strong electromagnetic field change - an electromagnetic pulse (EMP). Filters are
used to prevent spikes entering or leaving the equipment through wires, and the devices coupled
electromagnetically to space (such as radio-frequency pick-up coils in MRI scanners) are
protected by shielding.

Overvoltage protection devices and techniques

1. Rod gap 4. Arcing horns 7. Lightning rod
2. Surge Diverter 5. Avalanche diode 8. Spark gap
3. Overhead Earth Wire 6. Gas-filled tube 9. Zener diodes

The over voltage may cause damage to insulators and substation equipment. It is, therefore,
necessary to provide a means to protect the insulators and other apparatus from the harmful
effect of overvoltage. Some devices are available to reduce the amplitude and front steepness of
surges. Some of devices and techniques are described here

Overhead Earth Wire

An overhead earth wire (shown in figure 2) or ground wire is one of the most common devices
used to protect the lines against lightning. It is the wire carried the line supports and runs over
the phase conductors. The purpose of the earth wire is to block the direct lightning strokes, which
would otherwise strike the phase conductors. The waves of lightning reach the adjoining towers
which pass them to earth safely.

In case the resistance of electrical tower or ground is small, the lighting will be raised to very
high voltage, which will cause a flash over from the tower to one or more phase conductors.
Such a flashover is known as black flash over. Back flash over on the line can be minimized by
reducing the tower footing resistance using driven rods and counterpoise where soil resistivity is
high.

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 figure 2 overhead earth wire figure 3 Rod gap

Rod gap

The rod gap (shown in figure 3) is one of the most common frames of protective devices. It is an
air gap between the ends of two rods. The gap setting should be such that it should break under
all conditions before the equipment to be protected is affected. The chief merits of this device are
simplicity, reliability and cheapness. Rod gap has a some restrictions like they are unable to
prevent the flow of power which flows in the gap after the breakdown. It is used in the places
where continuity of supply is not of much importance. In such cases (where continuity is
important), automatic reclosing circuit breakers are used.

Surge diverters

Surge-diverters or lightning arrester is a device used for distracting abnormal high voltage to
ground without affecting the continuity of supply. Surge diverters are three types

1. Expulsion-type surge diverter

2. Valve-type surge diverter
3. Metal-oxide surge diverter

The previously discussed two methods, i.e. earthling screen and over-head earth wire are very
suitable for protecting an electrical power system from directed lightning strokes but system
from directed lightning strokes but these methods cannot provide any protection against high
voltage travelling wave which may propagate through the line to the equipment of the sub-
station. The lightning arrester is a device which provides very low impedance path to the ground
for high voltage travelling waves. The concept of a lightning arrester is very simple. This device
behaves like a nonlinear electrical resistance. The resistance decreases as voltage increases and
vice-versa, after a certain level of voltage. The functions of a lightning arrester or surge dividers
can be listed as below.

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 Under normal voltage level, these devices withstand easily the system voltage as electrical
insulator and provide no conducting path to the system current.
On occurrence of voltage surge in the system, these devices provide very low impedance
path for the excess charge of the surge to the ground.
After conducting the charges of surge, to the ground, the voltage becomes to its normal level.
Then lightning arrester regains its insulation properly and prevents regains its insulation
property and prevents further conduction of current, to the ground.

There are different types of lightning arresters used in power system, such as rod gap arrester,
horn gap arrester, multi-gap arrester, expulsion type LA, value type LA. In addition to these the
most commonly used lightning arrester for over voltage protection now-a-days gapless ZnO
lightning arrester is also used.