E-CIGRE 2020

As announced in April, the CIGRE Session 2020 has been postponed to 21-25 August 2021.

A digital Session will be organized from 24 August to 3 September 2020.

Our Scientific Director Jean-Marie GEORGE will present one technical paper on leakage current monitoring for the assessment of performance of insulators during this e-session.

Jean-Marie GEORGE has also participated to the writing of another paper about field experience on RTV coating insulators on HVDC line, which will be presented the same day by Massimo Marzinotto – Electrical Engineer of Terna SpA.

Please join us on the September 2nd, on channel 3 – 2:00 PM – 6:30 PM CEST for the e-session SC B2 OVERHEAD LINES – PS2: ENHANCING OVERHEAD LINE PERFORMANCE to follow the presentation of these two papers.

B2-218 Assessment of performance of insulators through leakage current monitoring under contaminated conditions presents by J.M. George

J.M. George – Sediver – France
C. PONS – EDF – France
WL. VOSLOO – ESKOM – South Africa

Pollution is a very generic term describing environmental conditions which can trigger leakage currents on the surface of insulators and possibly flashovers as a result of excessive currents. The selection of optimum insulating solutions for contaminated environment must take into consideration simultaneously the ability to prevent flashovers and a minimum level of ageing and degradation under those severe conditions. The monitoring of leakage current can be an interesting parameter to determine threshold values for a given type of insulator prior to be overwhelmed by the contamination surrounding the equipment.

This paper describes the long-term study performed in parallel between two test stations where leakage currents have been monitored on various insulator designs. Polymer insulators with similar leakage distance to toughened glass insulators either with silicone coating or without were monitored in Koeberg by ESKOM and simultaneously in Martigues test station by EDF.

After a brief description of the insulators used in this program as well as the typical parameters defining both test stations, the paper will focus on the various current patterns obtained over the course of time as well as visual observations from the various samples exposed in their respective environments.

B2-208 Field experience and laboratory results on the application of RTV coating on HVDC lines presents by M. Marzinotto

M. Marzinotto – TERNA – Italy
J.M. George – Sediver – France
G. Pirovano – RSE – Italy

The utilization of RTV pre-coated insulators is rapidly expanding worldwide thanks to the very positive laboratory and field returns.

TERNA started the installation of pre-coated glass cap and pin insulators in 2003 on AC lines up to the 380kV voltage level and today there are more than 1 million units installed in the Italian high voltage grid. No flashover was reported through all these years of service and insulation washing was no longer needed on those line equipped with RTV insulators. Every year tests for the evaluation of both coating degradation and ageing are performed on different units removed after different years of service from the lines. The outcomes of such tests are different since they are strictly related to the environment in which the insulators are exposed. In the worst condition sensitive changes related to degradation or ageing have been pointed out, even if both laboratory tests and field experience confirm their high level of endurance.

Since 2008 TERNA decided to gradually expand the installation of pre-coated glass cap and pin insulators on HVDC lines considering the very good returns of the AC applications.

Since degradation and ageing are different in DC, specific tests were performed in laboratory to make some inference on endurance.

This paper reports different type of tests on RTV pre-coated cap and pin insulators for DC applications with the aim to characterize the behavior on new and field returned units among which results from the multi-stress ageing test (known as 2000 hour Terna’s test), which represents a particularly significative test for the overall evaluation of the performances of the insulators. The results of such tests are compared with the results of tests carried out on naturally aged insulators (after 7, 8 and 9 years of installation) in order to quantify the extent of aging in operation and estimate the useful life of the RTV coating.

New insulator strings were tested in laboratory in different string configurations (“I” string, “V” string and quite horizontal string) and applying in sequence twice the 2000 h ageing test.

Test results from laboratory and field aged samples pointed out interesting information. A discussion on the comparison of such results in terms of hydrophobicity, hydrophobicity recovery and reduction of flashover performances (evaluated through the “quick flashover method”) is reported, since both hydrophobicity recovery and flashover voltage reduction are considered as operational degradation factors for ageing inference.

Both tests on laboratory aged sampled and on field returned samples highlight the high level of reliability of pre-coated glass cap and pin insulators also for DC applications.

More informations

Complete e-session program : https://www.cigre.org/share/article/5215/e-session-programme

Register now : https://www.cigre.org/article/GB/events/cigre-e_session/e-session-registration