Selection of Lightning Arrester

We manufacture Line traps which consists of

1) Main coil (similar to reactor)

2) Lightning Arrester
3) Tuning device

The schematic of a line trap is shown below:

The line trap is connected in series with the transmission line and therefore its
rating depends on the transmission line current. The line trap current rating could
be typically 400A, 630A, 800A, 1250A, 1600A, 2000A or 3150A.The inductance
value of the line trap depends on the blocking frequency band it can offer in
conjunction with the tuning device. A 0.2mH line trap can offer blocking band of
260KHz to 500KHz or a 0.5mH line trap can offer blocking band of 150KHz to
500KHz. Thus, a line trap is designated as 1250A/0.5mH meaning it can carry a
rated power frequency current of 1250A continuously and it has an inductance
value of 0.5mH.

Depending upon the short circuit level of the power transformer the line trap has
to withstand the short time current and impulse current that the transmission line
is supposed to withstand.

The function of the lightning arrester is to protect the main coil from transient over
voltages, surge voltages, etc

Having explained the line trap, I would like to know the method of selection of
lightning arrester for the line traps.

Lets us take two cases of line traps. In the first case, the line trap is being used
for a 220KV transmission line having rated current of 1250Amps. The customer
has specified certain blocking frequency band which necessitates the use of
0.5mH inductance of the line trap. I will designate this line trap as 1250A/0.5mH.
In the other case, the line trap is being used on a 400KV line having rated
continuous current of 2000Amps. The inductance required (based on the
customer’s requirement) is 1.0 mH. The general specifications of these line traps
are as under:

1250A/0.5mH 2000A/1.0mH
Continuous current 1250Amps 2000Amps
rating
Short time current rating 40KAmps 50KAmps
for one second
8/20 microsecond 102KAmps 127KAmps
impulse current rating
Voltage across line trap 196.5 Volts 628.6 Volts
at rated continuous
current
Voltage across line trap 6285 Volts 15714 Volts
at short time current for
one second

The IEC/IS for line trap states that the rated voltage of the lightning arrester shall
be higher than the voltage across line trap at short time current for one second.

It further states that the main coil should be adequately rated for the front of wave
impulse sparkover voltage or the residual voltage caused by the nominal
discharge current of the lightning arrester, whichever is higher.

THE IEC/IS also requires that the lightning arrester should have rated (nominal)
discharge current of 10KAmps.