Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
1, JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2007
Abstract—Industrial facilities are becoming more and more protect their equipment from surges, users are installing surge-
dependent on computer control of their processes, and as a con- protection devices (SPDs) either at the main circuit breaker
sequence, require an increase in cleanliness and reliability of for the equipment or the branch circuit breaker depending on
the electrical power supply system. Electromechanical subsys-
tems are being replaced by electronic logic. Harmonic interfer- equipment ratings. There are several SPDs available, utilizing
ence, welding, variable speed drives, and other “in plant” noise different overvoltage-protection technologies and topologies.
have reliable mitigation procedures. However, lightning and other The commercially available SPDs significantly differ in terms
external sourced power disturbances rank high on the list of of their surge handling capabilities and the level of protection
“uncontrollable” events that have shut down facilities in recent they provide. Field experience has revealed serious safety issues
years. This paper provides an overview of the causes of power-line
surges and their consequences for an industrial plant. The relevant related to the SPD operation, particularly during its end-of-life
international surge-protection standards will be briefly reviewed, situation.
and their differences will be analyzed. Different technologies uti- Power surges can cause failure, permanent degradation, or
lized in the implementation of various commercially available temporary malfunction of electronic devices and systems. The
surge-protection devices will be presented, followed by a compar- development of an effective SPD is of paramount importance
ative analysis. Finally, the latest trends and the most promising
technologies in surge-protection systems as well as their ability to manufacturers and users of industrial electronic equipment.
to overcome the problems associated with conventional protection Electrical surges have been studied since the 1960s [1]; how-
devices will be overviewed, and experimental data based on field ever, during the last decade, the issue of surge protection for
trials are reported. electronic equipment is receiving more attention. Semiconduc-
Index Terms—Lightning protection, overvoltage protection, tor integrated circuits are much more vulnerable to failure by
surge protection. overstresses compared to earlier electronic circuits.
Modern semiconductor technology has been widely used
I. I NTRODUCTION in many industrial applications. Industrial control systems,
variable-speed drives (VSDs), electronic measurement and
TABLE I
EQUATIONS FOR STANDARD SURGE TEST WAVEFORMS
for 7 h. The short-circuit current is not limited; therefore, the suffer from low energy withstand capability. To overcome this
full available short-circuit current can pass through the SPD problem, SPD manufacturers combine several SAD compo-
device. The test is considered successful if the SPD becomes nents in order to equally share the energy of a surge event within
disconnected from the ac supply by an overcurrent disconnec- the rated parameters of the SAD device. However, installations
tion device, preventing a catastrophic failure of the SPD. in locations, where frequent as well as high energy transients
In 2005, UL revised this standard after receiving reports occur, have revealed the inability of SAD-type SPDs to with-
on catastrophic failure of UL listed or recognized SPD prod- stand high energy transients without failing, while effectively
ucts. The revised version of UL 1449 2nd edition standard protecting the equipment.
becomes effective in February 2007. This revised standard MOV-type surge suppressors can withstand high transient
extends the current range of the abnormal overvoltage testing surges, at the same time maintaining sufficiently low clamping
to include not only the low short-circuit current range (up to voltages to protect the equipment. For this reason, MOV-based
5 A) and the high short-circuit current range (from 25 000 up to SPD systems are considered to be the most effective protection
200 000 A), but also to include intermediate short-circuit cur- technology for industrial applications.
rents (100, 500, and 1000 A). All UL listed or recognized SPDs There are two types of MOV-based SPDs available for
sold in the market must meet these revised safety requirements industrial environments. The first one utilizes a combina-
of the new UL 1449 2nd edition standard. tion of parallel MOVs, while the second type uses a single
MOV disk.
The first type uses commercial-type small-diameter MOVs,
IV. O VERVIEW OF SPD T ECHNOLOGIES which are primarily designed to protect individual electronic
PCBs. Individual commercial-type MOVs do not have the
A. SPD Technologies
required energy handling capability to protect an electronic
There are three basic types of components: the gas dis- equipment from intense surges. They typically consist of an
charge tube (GDT), the silicon avalanche diode (SAD), and MOV disk with a diameter of up to 20 mm coated with resin
the MOV. These components have significant differences in to prevent moisture ingress, which deteriorates the performance
terms of the principle of operation, the performance charac- and shortens the life of the product. To overcome this problem,
teristics, and the ability to handle high transient currents. In several MOVs are connected in parallel to increase the surge
this section, we present the main advantages and disadvantages current capacity of the SPD. The vast majority of SPD manu-
of each of the above technologies with particular focus on facturers are using parallel MOV technology. The differences
their suitability as surge protectors for low-voltage industrial between all these products are mainly focused on the diam-
control systems. eter and the number of the MOVs and the casing. They are
The GDT uses specially designed electrodes fitted inside designed to be installed in power distribution panels (DIN-rail
a tube filled with one or more gases under pressure. They mounted devices), or as a stand-alone permanently connected
are rugged, relatively inexpensive, and have a small shunt SPD device.
capacitance; therefore, they do not limit the bandwidth of high- The application of these devices for protection of industrial
frequency circuits as much as other nonlinear components. equipment revealed several problems regarding their perfor-
However, there are three major drawbacks that prohibit their mance and safety which will be described in Section V.
use in low-voltage industrial applications involving sensitive The second type of surge protection is based on the use of a
equipment. single MOV disk capable of adequately handling the energy of
the surge event. This is achieved by utilizing an industrial grade
1) They can be slow to conduct. The conduction threshold MOV material and by increasing the disk diameter to 80 mm.
depends on the rate of change of the transient voltage, Resin coating has been replaced with an aluminum housing
which is usually in the order of several hundreds of volts. which also acts as a heat sink to the MOV. This type of SPD
This level of protection is inadequate to prevent damage technology will be described in detail in Section VI.
in sensitive electronic systems like VSDs.
2) In some situations, they are difficult to turn off after the
transient has ended. This phenomenon is described as the B. Modes of Protection
follow current. The presence of follow current results in A typical single phase configuration of the power service
temporary disconnection of the power to the equipment includes one phase wire and one neutral wire, which sometimes
to be protected for as long as the follow current lasts. is grounded at the service entrance of an installation. There are
3) The spark, which is developed between the electrodes in three modes of protection.
a GDT, is a violent effect. When the GDT switches from
the insulating state to the conduction state, the high value 1) Line-to-neutral (L-N)—An SPD module installed be-
of dI/dt can cause problems to the equipment close to tween the line and the neutral protects the equipment from
the GDT. surges originated mainly from disturbances generated
on the distribution grid. It can be caused by capacitor
SADs are semiconductor devices that can respond rapidly to bank switching, operation of transfer switches, or by the
a transient voltage surge. They clamp the transient overvoltage switching on/off of nearby equipment (air conditioners,
at a relatively low residual voltage. On the other hand, they elevators, motors, generators, etc.).
SAMARAS et al.: ELECTRICAL SURGE-PROTECTION DEVICES FOR INDUSTRIAL FACILITIES—TUTORIAL REVIEW 155
Fig. 18. Power-line surges measured in a 24-h period after installing the
single-MOV-based SPDs (Site A).
Fig. 17. Power-line transient overvoltages measured in a 24-h period before
installing single-MOV-based SPD (Site A).
Fig. 20. Power-line surges measured in a 24-h period after installing a Fig. 21. Residual voltage and surge current through a parallel-MOV device
conventional parallel-MOV-based TVSS (Site B). during successive strikes.
Kostas Samaras (M’96) graduated from the School Chris J. Salmas (M’97) received the Diploma from
of Physics, University of Athens, Athens, Greece, Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, Edmonton,
received the M.Sc. degree in radio engineering and AB, Canada, in 1994 and the B.S. degree from the
telecommunications from the University of Athens, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada, in
and the Ph.D. degree in wireless communications 1997, both in electrical engineering.
from the University of Oxford, Oxford, U.K. He He has four years experience as an electrician. In
has also completed the PMD at Harvard Business 1998, he joined A. Comeau & Associates which was
School. then purchased by Schlumberger in 2002. He has
Prior to joining Raycap Corporation, Athens, held various positions, including Project Engineer
Greece, he conducted research with the Wireless and Manufacturing Manager, and is currently the
Research Lab of Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technolo- Power Module Program Manager at the Edmonton
gies, from 1998 to 2000. Previously, he was as a Lecturer with the University of Product Center, Edmonton, AB, Canada. He has worked on oil and gas
Oxford from 1997 to 1998, and an Assistant Professor with the Department of plant electrical/controls projects as well as in manufacturing/engineering for
Electronics at the Technological Educational Institution of Lamia, Greece. He transformers and VDSs. He is the holder of one patent.
has authored or coauthored several academic publications, and he is the holder
of 16 patents.