PES Awards Paper An Examination of the Pollution Performance of Gapped and Gapless Metal Oxide Station Class Surge Arresters

The existing pollution test procedure described in ANSI C62.1 is not sufficient for metal oxide arrester designs. This paper describes alternatives to the standard ANSI pollution test and illustrates the results of these alternative tests when performed on station class metal oxide arresters. The tests described do not define preferred pollution methods. Rather, they are intended to compare the thermal performance of two sizes of multiple-unit gapped and gapless metal oxide arresters when energized at their maximum continuous operation voltages (MCOV) and subjected to the defined pollution conditions.