The article discusses various types of disturbances affecting an arc column such as changes in length, changes in the intensity of convective heat dissipation using a stream of gas washing around a column, changes in gas atmosphere pressure, and changes in the intensity of laser radiation penetrating the arc. The above named disturbances were included in expressions approximating static current-voltage arc characteristics. The characteristics mentioned above were used to create a number of macromodels based on the Pentegov model of disturbed arcs. The results of processes simulated in an electric circuit were used to demonstrate the usefulness of the models developed and the considerable comfort of such an approach when testing systems with electric arcs.