During the latest EDM Conference in April, our team has presented one technical paper on “Pollution of Overhead Line Insulators: Update on Standards and Insulator Performance under Severe Contamination for AC and DC Lines”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Coastal conditions or airborne dust can easily disrupt overhead lines operations. Solving this problem requires a good understanding of the phenomenon involved, the basics of pollution interaction over insulation coordination but also the options available in the selection of the most appropriate solution. IEC 60815 is a guide intended to assist engineers in the management of pollution and design of lines crossing contaminated environments. It is currently under revision. Other IEC standards are also being drafted to provide solutions and facilitate the evaluation of the performance of insulators in such conditions. After a review of the fundamental aspects of pollution definition and evaluation methods, this paper will give an update of the ongoing standardization work in IEC in this field. A second part of this paper will present an update on the performance of different insulator designs in various pollution conditions including silicone coated glass insulators. Finally, and because pollution accumulation on insulators is different in AC and DC, a special focus will be made on HVDC insulation options and pollution mitigation methods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n