Improved zinc oxide surge arresters using high voltage gradient 300 V/mm, 400 V/mm ZnO elements

Zinc oxide surge arresters using zinc oxide (ZnO) elements have been widely used for insulation coordination in the world´s power systems. These ZnO elements have basically reference voltage of about 200 V/mm. Recently, new ZnO elements having about 1.5, 2 times high voltage gradient zinc oxide element have been developed. This paper describes applications of high voltage gradient 300 V/mm ZnO elements to high performance porcelain type surge arresters and oil immersed surge arresters, and 300 V/mm or 400 V/mm ZnO elements to gas insulated tank type surge arresters for power systems. Adequate selection of voltage gradient of ZnO elements makes more compact design of the surge arresters