Insulation feature

Transmission Line Insulator

A
number of technical papers indicate that porcelain insulators in the porcelain. Thermal cycling and differential thermal expansion
degrade with time and applied electrical and mechanical between materials and the applied electrical and mechanical stress
stress. The electrical stress applied to a suspension insulator grow these cracks, which may develop into carbonised conducting
string is not uniform with the highest stress occurring close to the channels between the metal pin and cap. This produces a lower
live conductor. An AEP study of 1100 service aged porcelain disc insulation resistance and increased dielectric losses and heating in this
insulators came to the following conclusions: disc. Electrical stress is highest near the conductor so it is common for
• Porcelain punctures occur in the region of maximum electrical the insulator closest to the conductor to be in a degraded condition.
stress between the metal cap and the pin. However, degradation also depends strongly on manufacturing
• Long-term high electrical stress affects the electrical properties of imperfections that tend to create stress concentration points,
the insulator porcelain over time. therefore random failures can occur at any position in the string.
• Insulation resistance tests support the tendency of a reduction in
dielectric strength under high electric stress. GLASS INSULATOR DEGRADATION
• Manufacturing variations may lead to localised high stress Loss of mechanical strength through pin corrosion also limits the
concentrations in individual insulators. mechanical life of glass insulator strings. The extent of corrosion is
SP AusNet experience supports the tendency for degradation to again determined visually and by sampling, mechanical testing and
be more common at the higher stress string positions close to the measurement of material loss.
conductor. Manufacturing variations however would explain the Toughened glass insulators do not appear to have a gradual insulation
more random string location of degraded insulators that is also degradation path and are generally accepted to be either broken or
observed. There are a number of possible degradation mechanisms good. Glass insulators are designed to maintain high mechanical
and a number of manufacturing issues that are believed to influence performance even when the glass sheds have been shattered.
degradation. Surface pollution, pin corrosion and shed integrity are the main
condition monitoring concerns with glass insulators.
Insulator Mortar Cement Growth
The cement composition used in insulators to bond the porcelain and
pin inside the cap influences the volume expansion or contraction
over time. Cement expansion can place a mechanical hoop stress on
the porcelain that leads to radial cracking. This tends to be a batch
issue. Interface stresses can also occur at the cement-porcelain and
cement metal interfaces.

Pin Corrosion
Pin corrosion also limits the mechanical life of porcelain insulator
strings. The extent of corrosion is normally determined visually and by Figure 2 Shattered glass insulator with corroded pin
sampling, mechanical testing and measurement of material loss.
Volume expansion of rust products inside the porcelain has been NON-CERAMIC INSULATOR DEGRADATION
proposed as another source of porcelain radial cracking. Zinc sleeves Polymeric insulators have been reported with a range of failure
and other modifications have been adopted in improved designs to modes. Hydro-Quebec has reported a close correlation between
delay the occurrence of pin corrosion. electric field strength variations and surface temperature caused
by faults in polymeric insulators. Hydro-Quebec conclude that their
electric field measurement method is effective in both laboratory and
substation locations. They report that infrared cameras are effective in
the laboratory but they had interpretation difficulties in a substation.
Infrared can be difficult to interpret when the field of view is cluttered
with other equipment giving thermal signatures or if solar reflections
are visible.
SP AusNet’s practice is to inspect lines when the sky is completely
overcast or at night to remove the solar reflection or solar heating
Figure 1 Section view of a porcelain insulator
effects. Overhead insulators inspected from the ground against a
Porcelain Micro-cracking uniform temperature sky are also clear from interference. It is expected
Porcelain material and component manufacturing imperfections that corona and infrared will be effective inspection tools for polymeric
including voids can lead to the formation and growth of micro-cracks insulators but we do not have survey results at this time.
INSULATOR POLLUTION Surface conductivity can be expressed in terms of equivalent salt
In damp conditions a partially conducting layer of pollution on an deposit density C (ESDD) by
insulators surface can increase surface leakage currents and cause sc = (369*C + 0.42) *10-6 (4)
surface heating and dry-band arcs. Higher pollution levels lead to Where: C is the Equivalent Salt Density Deposit (ESDD)
eventual flashover of the insulator string. Insulators are designed
to withstand a reasonable level of pollution under normal service
conditions however environmental factors can lead to an unacceptable
level building up over time.
A variety of conducting materials may pollute an insulator’s surface.
In coastal regions salt spray may be deposited by the wind. In the
vicinity of major roads and industrial areas various chemical products
may be deposited and near quarries or dry areas dust may build up.
The deposition of these films may be fairly random depending on
weather and climate variations over time. This brings an element
of uncertainty into the scheduling and effectiveness of remedial
programs such as periodic washing.

Ceramic Insulators
Pollution flashover is affected by the nature of the insulators surface. Figure 3 Simplified equivalent circuit
Ceramic insulators are said to be hydrophilic meaning that the
surface wets completely under heavy fog or rain conditions. With the
presence of deposited salts a conducting electrolyte film may cover
the insulator surface partially or completely. If the surface is covered
completely increased leakage currents can flow heating the surface
and drying some areas. Dry bands may form interrupting the flow of
current and distorting the voltage field. The dry bands may flashover
and if the resistance of the conducting film is low, eventually bridge
the complete insulator string.
In humid conditions pollution build-up on the lower surface of ceramic
suspension insulators can result in a moist conductive layer being formed
that tends to equalise the voltage across this lower surface. The voltage
drop is then mostly across the cleaner upper surface. This results in
an increased intensity of the voltage field on the top surface and an
increase in the shed dielectric and surface heating. The probability of
external insulator flashover increases for this condition. This condition
can be detected by infrared or corona camera. Figure 4 Insulator flashover characteristic

Polymeric Insulators
There is an extensive literature on pollution of non-ceramic insulators.
Polymeric insulators may suffer loss of hydrophilic surface condition
as they age and corona and arcing can seriously damage the insulator
surface. Corona cameras and infrared cameras are effective in
detecting these problems.

Pollution Modelling
There are many mathematical models for pollution modelling that
may be used to study insulator performance. A simple model [9] for
the flashover process of a polluted insulator is a conducting pollution
Figure 5 Glass insulator string
layer in series with a partial arc spanning a dry band region. Where
(ra) is the resistance per unit length of the arc and (rp) is the resistance Equivalent Salt Density Deposit
per unit length of the pollution layer, the expression for the voltage ESDD is the amount of common salt (NaCl) deposit that has the
applied across the insulator is same conductivity as the insulator pollution deposit dissolved in the
same volume of water. ESDD is the method that is commonly used in
V = I *(ra * x + rp * (L-x)) (1) standards and by researchers for comparisons between insulator tests
Where: I is the leakage current; X is the length of the arc; L is the and models. Computer studies and experimental results show that
total leakage distance of the insulator a typical characteristic for flashover voltage versus pollution density
(ESSD) is of the form shown in Figure 4.
The resistance per unit length (ra) can be expressed as This graph (Figure 4) shows why the electrical stress ageing is more
ra = A * I – (n+1) (2) intense close to the conductor. It appears that the strong electrical
Where: A and n are arc constants field in this region and the rain wash-down effect also encourages
greater pollution deposition on the lower insulator units.
The resistance of the pollution may be expressed as
rp = l / (PI * Deq * sc) (3) FAULT DETECTION
Where: l is the per unit length; Deq is the equivalent insulator Faulty porcelain insulators have some degradation modes that are
diameter; sc is the surface conductivity impossible to detect by visual inspection. Degradation caused by
internal cracking may be detected if the insulation resistance has
dropped sufficiently to distort the applied electrical field.
Continued from page…
The field is weak across the defective insulator and high on the next good condition and has lower surface heating due to surface leakage
good insulator. currents created by the strong electrical field.
The test methods normally used to detect faulty insulators are:
i Voltage detection or measurements across each insulator live Non-Invasive Inspection Guidelines
(see Figure 6 and Figure 7). The following are some guidelines used internally by SP AusNet for
ii Resistance measurement (Megger) of each insulator de- non-invasive inspection of transmission tower insulators.
energised.  • Inspections should be carried out without interference from solar
iii Electric field measurement near each live insulator. heating or reflection and in low wind conditions. That is under
Note: These 3 methods require physical access to the insulators and overcast conditions or at night-time. Evenings and early mornings
for the insulators to be relatively clean and the humidity to be less are ideal.
than 70%. • Inspections should be carried out when the humidity is above
iv Non-invasive remote inspections using corona cameras and 55% to ensure there is some surface leakage current and corona
infrared cameras. activity.
The high field on the first good insulator after a low resistance • Use a hand held weather station to ensure conditions are suitable
insulator may be detected by an increase in corona using the corona and record the temperature, wind speed and relative humidity.
camera and an increase in the temperature of the insulator above • Inspections should not be carried out when the insulators are
ambient using an infrared camera (about 3-5 ºC above ambient). wet as this high conductivity condition tends to cause voltage
For SP AusNet the definitive confirming test (method 1) is to wash equalisation across the string and masks the defective units.
the insulators and then measure and plot the voltage across each one. • Use a video recorder to capture the video output of the corona
The voltage curve should be fairly smooth (see Figure 6) and evenly and infrared cameras.
distributed for insulators in good condition. • Use a set gain level on the corona camera for recordings to ensure
ease of comparison between fault cases. The gain level can be
Figure 6 220 kV Insulator String dropped during initial investigations to find the source location.
• Use a manual setting on the infrared camera adjusted to a span of
about 8ºC around the insulator ambient temperature.
• Record the tower identification and physical arrangement in a
standard manner to ensure correct identification by field groups.

CONCLUSIONS
Transmission line insulator condition monitoring is being supplemented
by non-invasive methods that increase the efficiency of the inspection
process. There is an ageing population of ceramic insulators that
require increasing surveillance. Traditional test methods are not
suitable for the new one-piece polymeric insulators but the non-
invasive methods are reported as being effective.

Figure 7 220 kV Insulator String – 3 Faulty Units

Interpretation of Corona and Infrared Indications Figure 8 Corona caused by adjacent faulty insulators
If the corona camera and infrared camera detect a problem on a
glass insulator it is almost certainly a pollution problem. If a corona
camera and an infrared camera detect a high field on a porcelain
string it may be caused by adjacent faulty insulators or by pollution.
Very high intensity corona on one or two insulators is more likely to
indicate faulty insulators causing a highly distorted electric field (see
Figure 7 and Figure 8). Whereas pollution is more likely to produce a
symmetrical situation i.e. light corona on many strings on the tower
especially at the live end. Visual inspection with high- magnification
stabilised binoculars can help identify a high pollution situation.
The infrared image shown in Figure 9 is of an insulator string with
two bottom units having low resistance with cracks in the porcelain.
The bottom unit has a “hot” metal cap probably due to resistance
heating through the body of the porcelain. The second unit is “cold”
with a low resistance crack though the porcelain. The third unit is in Figure 9