Comparison of Surge Arrester Technologies
16 December 2016Protection of Drive Frequency Converters Against Sudden Overvoltage
18 December 2016
Factories and sensitive devices located in factories can burn out as a result of impulses coming from the grid. These impulses can originate from the grid or from natural sources such as lightning.
1-Neutral Line Breakage
Neutral line breakage or neutral cut-off is an event that occurs frequently in low voltage facilities, contrary to popular belief, and causes serious damage to the end-user side. As a result of this event, devices are exposed to phase-to-phase voltage and burn out.
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Sensitive devices can easily burn out as a result of neutral line breakage.
To prevent failures that may occur in neutral line faults, Class C+D sudden overvoltage protectors placed in a cascaded manner are required.
2-Lightning Strike
Lightning and chaotic natural events are one of the most important causes of grid-borne AC fluctuations and impulses. Especially lightning striking power transmission lines can head towards your facility in the form of a traveling wave. Also, lightning impulses coming from the ground are one of the main causes of device burnouts.
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Surge arresters should be used against lightning strikes.
3-Harmonic Sources
Arc furnaces, welding machines, switching elements, and power electronics circuits are systems that seriously produce harmonics and distort grid quality. These impulses occurring in the grid cause damage especially to electronic card burnout, PLC, and automation systems.
4-Grid Dips and Swells
Voltage dip (sag) is the event of a short-term drop (0.5 – 30 periods) of the effective value of the grid voltage at nominal frequency (0.1 pu – 0.9 pu). The general cause of voltage dips occurring in the grid is the activation of large loads or short-circuit faults. Voltage dip can again cause sensitive devices in factories to burn out. Voltage swell is the increase of voltage to a value greater than 110% for a period longer than one full cycle. Its cause is load reduction and frequency problems in the grid. Voltage dips or swells can also damage devices.
Importance of LV Surge Arrester
Facilities where many sensitive devices are found, such as factories, must be protected against the AC voltage impulses we explained above. For this, starting from main panels, main panel, sub-panel, and sensitive devices must be protected with LV surge arresters. You can watch how a factory is protected from sudden overvoltage impulses from our video below.
