Distribution arresters have been used on power systems for over a century during which time there has been a complete changeover in housings from ceramic to polymeric. Porcelain arresters often had issues with sealing and water ingress that sometimes resulted in ‘clear sky, sunny day’ failures.

As surge protective devices, arresters mitigate the impact of events that might otherwise trigger outages.

A surge arrester is a device to protect electrical equipment from over-voltage transients caused by external (lightning) or internal (switching) events.