Why Use A Surge Protector? You May Not Know What It Does

In the normal construction or equipment safety design, we will use surge protectors, so why do we use surge protective device in power lines? Let's start with the surge on the line. What exactly is a surge? What kind of harm will a surge cause? Then let's understand why a surge protection device is used.

Surge is actually an electrical term, which refers to a peak value that instantly exceeds the stable value. It includes surge voltage and surge current. To understand it, we can imagine it as a real wave, which often surges suddenly and may even surge up to hundreds of meters. The same is true for surge voltage or surge current. It is like a wave. For some reason (lightning intrusion, operating error, line problem), the voltage and current value will suddenly rise to a large value, which is a surge.

The harm caused by surge is mainly reflected in the line equipment. Take lightning surges, which are the most harmful and account for the highest proportion, as an example. When direct lightning or induced lightning penetrates into the power line through the transmission line, if there is no reasonable internal lightning protection design, a surge current of tens of kiloamperes will appear in the transmission line. If this current penetrates the power line, then various electrical equipment will break down directly. In more serious cases, it may cause equipment to catch fire and even affect human life safety.