Development of Laboratory Test Method to Perform Artificial Pollution Test on Composite Insulators Intended for HVDC Applications by Solid Layer Method

• Published in: IEEE transactions on dielectrics and electrical insulation 2024-02, Vol.31 (1), p.1-1
• Main Authors: Rajamani, P, Aravind, K A, Rajeshwara Rao, K, Krishna, B, Urukundu, K, Devender Rao, K, Nirgude, Pradeep M
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Electric utilities; Environmentally friendly manufacturing techniques; Flashover; Guidelines; HVDC composite insulators; HVDC transmission; Insulators; laboratory test method silicone composite insulator; Laboratory tests; pollution test on composite insulators; Powders; Reproducibility; Solid layer pollution test; Solids; Surface contamination; Test methods; Test procedures; Transmission lines; Water pollution
• ISSN: 1070-9878; 1558-4135
• DOI: 10.1109/TDEI.2023.3307668

To transmit electric power to long distance load centers HVDC transmission lines are widely used in recent years. Insulators are one of the vital equipment in transmission lines and are exposed to different ambient atmospheric pollution. In some cases, may be due to either of very high pollution and/ or improper dimensioning, a flashover may occur across insulation at normal operating voltage. Such unwanted flashover may be avoided by optimum design and dimensioning of insulators. Pollution performance studies in many cases determines the dimensioning of insulators. IEC TS 61245 gives guidelines to perform artificial pollution test on glass and ceramic insulators, intended for HVDC application. Now a days, due to inherent advantages, utilities are using composite insulators and till date no standardized test procedure is available to conduct artificial pollution test on composite insulators. However, for optimum dimensioning of composite insulators a standard test procedure is mandatory. In this work following the guidelines of IEC TS 61245 and CIGRE WG C4.303 round robin test report 555, a laboratory developed test method is proposed to perform artificial pollution test on composite insulators intended for HVDC applications by solid layer method. Step by step procedure of proposed test method along with its validation in terms of representativeness and repeatability is reported. Reproducibility of developed method is validated successfully by performing test on large scale, ±500 kV composite insulators intended for HVDC applications.