LEAKAGE CURRENT EXTRACTION METHODS Since the leakage current flows through a surge arrester only when it is connected

to a voltage source, therefore off-line leakage current extraction methods are not available. One possible off-line method is to take the surge arrester out of service to some testing facility. But this approach is never used as it puts the power system under a very high risk if a surge spears on the line when its arrester is out of service for testing. Various methods for the on-line extraction of leakage from the grounding cable of surge arrester have been developed, with all having their own advantages and disadvantages. Again there are two possible online methods also. The first method involves connecting the LCM testing device in series with the grounding cable of the surge arrester. This method is also not preferred because of the same reason that the surge arrester has to be put out of service for a very short time for connecting the device and putting the surge arrester online again. There is also a very high risk in this method that if a surge appears on the line when the testing device is in operation, then it can be completely destroyed due to the very high amount of current flowing through it. Moreover, since the time required for current sensing is pretty small, so it is laborious to make the connection every time by removing the original surge arrester connections. Therefore, this method is avoided even though the value of current measured is quite accurate. The second method involves the extraction of leakage current by electromagnetically inducing the leakage current into the LCM testing device without disturbing the original connections of the grounding cable. This method is implemented by using a Hall Effect sensor or a current transformer. Hall Effect sensors are devices which give a voltage proportional to the current which is producing the magnetic field in which the Hall Effect sensor is placed. There are two disadvantages of using this method. First is that an external voltage supply is to be provided to this sensor for operation. Second and the major disadvantage is that the voltage produced by these sensors is a replica of the magnetic field of the current, but one cant determine the exact waveform of current which is creating the electromagnetic field along with its harmonics by the use of output voltage of Hall Effect sensor. So this method is avoided because the main concern in LCM method is the third harmonic component of the current. Current transformers are special type of transformers designed to electromagnetically induce the actual current flowing in a wire without any loss about the information of harmonics in the original current. This is the ultimate method for the leakage current extraction and is the most popular and widely used method now-a-days. This is a highly accurate method as the current induced is of the same value as of the original leakage current. There are two ways of using this method. The first one is by using a clamp on current transformer attached with the LCM testing device. This CT can be simply clamped on to the grounding cable of surge arrester each time testing is to be done and successful results can be obtained. A more modern method is that a CT is permanently mounted on the arresters grounding cable. This can be used to send the current to the LCM device automatically remotely or by connecting the CT to the LCM testing device with probes.