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2, April 1998 66 1
Abstract : Hydro-Quebecs experience with polymer insulators In addition to the 735 kV level, Hydro-Quebec has also
began in 1977. A sixteen km section of a 735 kV transmission line installed over a thousand more composites insulators on
near Quebec City was then re-insulated with 282 composite insula- circuits of 120,230 and 3 15 kV in and around the Montreal
tors of three different makes in equal proportions. The objective was area, mainly to improve the visual aspect of the overhead
to study them under real service conditions in order to evaluate their
performance and to assess the relative merits of each make. This lines and to gain additional service experience. Although a
experimentation was later extended to some other lines and/or volt- few units from other manufacturers were sometimes also
age levels and has continued up to now. During all these years, installed, Hydro-Quebec experience has centered mainly on
various methods of testing composite insulators in-service have the three original makes. Monitoring of the insulators was
been experimented and early in the nineties, the first device devel- performed at regular intervals over the years. During each of
oped at IREQ for in-situ testing of porcelain insulators by the elec- the first four years samples were removed from the lines and
tric field method was modified and adapted for use on composite subjected to visual examination, occasionally electrical and
suspension insulators. This paper presents a few cases of insulators mechanical tests were also performed. Starting in 1981,
having a particularly dangerous type of failure mode and found on visual inspection in-situ was carried out about every two
the lines by the use of the electric field method. Some background
information on the detection of defects by this method is also given years.
and some of the experiments done in the laboratory on composite Over the years, the possibility to extend the use of com-
insulators to define the limits of the method are described. posite insulators to other transmission lines was revisited
periodically, but problems found on the experimental insu-
Keywords: composite insulators, insulator scanner, insulator tester, lators were cause for concerns. The first type of concerns had
electric field measurement, power transmission lines, hot line test, to do with the aging of the insulators and the corresponding
automatic instrument. degradation in performances both electrical and mechanical,
over the long term. The second type of concerns evolved
I. INTRODUCTION around quality control during manufacturing and the main-
tenance problem of being able to detect defective units in
Hydro-Quebec is one of the electrical utilities in the world, service. Because of these concerns, a moratorium on the use
that has had the longest continuous transmission line experi- of composite insulators on new transmission lines was put
ence with polymer insulator technology. This experience has into effect in Hydro-QuCbec. In 1991 the planning and oper-
been described in more details in reference [I] but will be ating personnel met to consider lifting this moratorium. At
quickly summarized here. that meeting it was concluded that the first type of concerns
Hydro-Quebecs experience with polymer insulators had been satisfactorily addressed by the improvements made
began in 1977. A 16 km section of a 735 kV transmission to the new generations of composite insulators. However the
line near Quebec City was then re-insulated with 282 com- maintenance problem of in-service testing still remained. In
posite insulators of three different makes in equal propor- order to address this concern a decision was then taken to
tions. The objective was to study them under real service proceed with adapting for use on composite insulators, the
conditions in order to evaluate their performance and to as- detection technique based on the electric field measurement
sess the relative merits of each make. In 1981, the experiment that had been previously developed in IREQ for porcelain
was extended to a second 735 kV line on which a 120 km suspension insulators [2].
section was equipped with 1100 more composite insulators. The prevalent opinion in Hydro-Quebec, is that most
visible problems with composite insulators can be found by
visual inspection made from the tower, and these represent
PE-932-PWRD-0-05-1997 A paper recommended and approved by
the IEEE Transmission and Distribution Committee of the IEEE Power the largest percentage Of Inspection done from the
Engineering Society for publication in the IEEE Transactions on Power ground using binoculars is not sufficient because it does not
Delivery. Manuscript submitted December 31, 1996; made available for allow examination of the insulators from all sides. Therefore
printing May 23. 1007
the towers must be climbed anyway in order to m a k e the
visual inspection and it is then convenient to also perform the
electric field testing allowing detection of non-visible de-
fects which are the most dangerous. These defects usually
-I"-' I : 1 . . , I F X
Fig. 1. Computer simulation of the relative electric field distribution around Fig. 2. Electric field distribution along a composite insulator model to
a string of 15 porcelain insulators containing one defective unit. illustrate the working principle of the electric field method. A defect ap-
pears as a relative minimum on the curve.
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111. LABORATORY EXPERIMENTATION
In order to prove the feasibility and the practicality of the
700
method, a series of experiments were conducted in a high
voltage laboratory. Conditions similar to those in service
were simulated by suspending two insulators from a hori- - 600 o w i r e 26 cm+
L!
manually by a technician located in a metallic cage that was
300
attached to the crossbeam and kept electrically grounded.
P
Although all insulators tested were designed for a 735 kV ii
200
line voltage, tests were done at a voltage level of 300 kV
phase to ground, due to the laboratory safety rules. Two 100
Fig. 4 Graph of the relative electric field values measured along a modified
new generation EPDM composite insulator at 300 kV, in a high voltage
laboratory using the new device. In two of the three tests, a 26 cm long
piece of copper wire was fitted into a groove made along the HV end of the
insulator. The curve marked with squares shows the results when an electri-
cal connection of this wire to the insulator HV electrode was made.
be seen that the effect of the wire is to displace the point of Fig. 5. Graph showing the effect of three types of simulated defects placed
maximum electric field value from shed 43 to 41, and to in the groove made in the new generation EPDM insulator center. Note that
decrease the field at the extremity by 38 YOfor the connected here, values on the vertical scale are given directly in kV/meter.
664
defects in the other two insulators at the first test and we
I A wondered why ? After some thoughts, we came to the con-
35 -+I6 cm
-32 cm clusion that since the insulators had been in dry storage for
-none nearly a year, the humidity in the defects had all dried up.
-&antistatic 32 cm This hypothesis was verified by wetting the defects slightly
25 with water mist from a spray can and then repeating the test
iz
._
0 about 30 minutes later. This time, the 16 cm defect was
5 20 clearly visible on the graph but the 8 cm defect on the third
J
insulator could not be detected. It could be that the limit in
15 I I I I I I I ~I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15
~
17 19 21 23 25
~
27 29
the resolution of the device, which is better than 8 cm in the
Shed No.
middle of the insulator, could be slightly more at the HV
extremity due the shielding effect of the corona electrode.
Fig. 6 . Graph showing an expanded portion of the curves of Fig. 5 to
compare the relative effects of the simulated defects.
IV. FIELD TESTS
in US, was so high that it was impossible to measure it with The fmal version of the new tester was delivered to the line
an ordinary multimeter. It was possible to get a reading of its people of Hydro-QuCbec in September 1993. Since then, it
dissipation factor only at 1000 Hz using an impedance has been tried on 315kV and 735 kV line sections on which
bridge. It was found to be 0.01 1. The smallest defect (curve composite insulators are utilized. On the 735 kV line section
not shown in Fig. 6) that could be detected during these tests near Quebec City, about 100 insulators were tested by this
was an 8 cm piece of copper wire. method in December 1993, and again in September 1996 (see
Fig.8). In both instances, one insulator with a defect not visi-
B. Tests with Real Defects ble from the tower was found. On the one found in 1993, all
The next series of tests was on three defective insulators that was visible externally were three small cracks each about
with visible defects that had been taken down from a 735 kV one cm long. During dissection a carbonized defect extend-
line about a year previously. They were of the same make ing over 45 cm from the metallic end piece was found. This
and model and had split weather sheds beginning at the HV defect was bad enough that if it had not been found, it proba-
end, over total lengths of 8 cm, 16 cm, and 42 cm, respec- bly would have caused a major problem with the line within
tively. The splits were deep and extended down to the fiber a year or two, During the second series of tests on the same
glass core that could be seen. On the one with the 42 cm line section in September 1996, a second badly damaged
defect, some carbonization marks were visible at places along insulator was again found. Again the defect was not visible
the cores. The three were tested and the curves shown in Fig. from the tower even though the insulator covering was later
7 were obtained during the fxst test for the insulator with the found to be open in 16 places where the sheds had become
42 cm defect which can be seen clearly on the graph. It was separated. There were also two large burn holes in two of the
not possible to test the insulators over more than two thirds
of their entire length because they had a total of 90 sheds and
the counting circuit at that time, could only handle a maxi-
mum of about 70 sheds. It has since then been modified to
count up to 150 sheds. It was not possible to detect the
-2 loo0 -
4-Backwnrd Scan
0 : ; i : : : : : : ; : : ; . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ; : : : i ; ; ; ; ; > : :; : : ,
' * C Z " - ' , e a a w z a s s a 4 8 e a
Shed No.
Fig. 7. Graph showing the curves obtained for a defective first generation
EPM alloy insulator removed from service, having a 42 cm long visible Fig. 8. View showing two linemen using the new tester to test a first
defect at the HV end. A healthy insulator curve is given for comparison. generation EPDM composite insulator on a Hydro-Quebec 735 kV line.
665
350
Joo
-E 250
p
I 200
U
150
-
Y
1w
50
0
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 28 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45 47 49 51 53 55
Shed No.
Fig. 11. Graph showing the electric field distribution on a first generation
Fig. 9. View of a portion of a damaged first generation EPDM composite EPDM composite insulator measured,during forward backward
insulator found on a 735 kV line with the new tester, showing a burn hole in ning respectively, with the new tester at three year interval (1993 1996)
one of the sheds. on a Hydro-Quebec 735 kV line
sheds, the largest of these is shown in Fig. 9. An autopsy The approach with using the new tester on 315 kV lines
was performed and the total carbonized length starting at the has been different from the one for the 735 kV line where the
HV end was found to be over 110 cm. A view of the HV end procedure has been to test systematically all composite insu-
after dissection is shown in Fig. 10. It can be seen that the lators on a line section. On the Hydro-Quebec 3 15 kV lines,
burn mark starts at the metallic end piece on the right hand composite insulators are found mainly in the Montreal area.
side (not shown) and then rotates in a spiral around the insu- Therefore maintenance is the responsibility of a different
lator fiber glass core. The electric field curves that were ob- group of employees. Their approach so far has been to use
tained from the tests on this insulator that were done in 1993 the new tester whenever they had doubts about the health of a
and in 1996 are given in Fig. 11. Note that the curves ob- particular group of insulators. For example, in one place on
tained in 1993 (solid black squares) indicate a sound insula- the Montreal South Shore, large post insulators were used.
tor. On the other hand, the curves from the test done in 1996 On one tower supporting two three-phase lines there were six
indicate an insulator with a defect extending from shed No. of them. Visual inspection had revealed that five of these had
45 to No. 57, and this was later confirmed by the autopsy. deep long cracks in them. These insulators were of a discon-
The two minima in the electric field located around sheds tinued type so no replacement was immediately available.
No. 46 and No. 52 corresponds to the location of the two The maintenance people decided to use the new tester on
bum holes mentioned above. These results indicate that a them to measure their electric field distribution. It was found
composite insulator of the type shown, can degrade very that only two out of the five had an abnormal field distribu-
rapidly once a defect starts. Therefore, performing test at tion over about 10 % of their total length, and those two were
least every second year seems to be required. located on the same line. The conclusion was that on one line
the insulation was still completely sound, and it was still
sufficient on the other line. This meant that maintenance
action could still be delayed without unacceptable risks.
Within a year, a suitable type of replacement insulator had
been found, and the six insulators were replaced during a
scheduled line shut down.
Another example of the usefulness of the new tester for
making decisions about maintenance intervention, was a
report made in winter by a customer who claimed that at
night, he saw flashes on many composite insulators on a very
strategic 315 kV line close to his home. It was impossible to
conclude whether the discharges were due to surface pollu-
tion or to some intemal insulator defects. The new tester was
then used to check the electrical field distribution along about
50 of the insulators in the area. Since there had been rain just
before testing began, and all the measured electric field dis-
Fig. 10. Another view of damaged composite insulator also shown tributions were completely normal, it was concluded that the
in Fig. 9. This time the HV end is shown after the autopsy. observed discharges had probably been due to surface pollu-
666
tion that had been washed off by the rain. So the mainte- studies in the Power System Study Group, and development work to im-
nance personnel were reassured and could forget about the prove the HVDC systems simulator. In 1979, he transferred to the IREQ
High Voltage Laboratory where he is now working as a Senior Researcher.
problem. His main line of work, is the development of new instrumentation for high
V. CONCLUSIONS voltage testing, principally in the domain of partial discharge measurement
in power transformers and shunt reactors. He has been also conducting
0 The method of detection of line insulator defects by studies and research projects on problems associated with insulators on
power lines. He is currently pursuing research on the application of com-
electric field measurement and recording, first developed puter control acquisition systems in high-voltage related problems in the
by Hydro-Quebec for porcelain insulators, has been test laboratory or for in-the-field monitoring of power apparatus.
adapted for use also on composite insulators.
e Tests made in the high voltage laboratory have shown Mr Vaillancourt is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Elec-
tronics Engineers (IEEE) in which he is very active in the Power Engineer-
that a composite insulator electric field distribution can be ing Society (PES). He is currently Vice-chairman of the Standards Sub-
measured easily and conveniently with the new tester and committee of the IEEERES Transformers Committee where he is responsi-
repeatable results can be consistently obtained. ble for assisting the Chairman in the coordination of the development work
0 In the high voltage laboratory, simulated conductive de- on IEEE Standards for transformers. He is also responsible for the IEEE
Transformers Committee WEB Page.
fects as short as 8 cm long, and real conductive defects Since February, 1995, Mr. Vaillancourt is the secretary of Technical Com-
down to 16 cm long have been successfully detected. mittee 42 (TC 42) of the International Electrotechnical Commission on high
0 The new tester has been applied in service on a 735 kV voltage testing techniques.
line and on 3 15 kV lines, hidden composite insulator de-
fects have been found and later confirmed by autopsy.
0 The tester has also proved usekl for making decisions in Simon Carignan was born in 1966 in the
determining the urgency of carrying out needed mainte- province of Quebec in Canada. In 1990, he
received the B. Ing. degree in Electrical
nance interventions on composite insulators used on Engineering from University de Sherbrooke,
transmission lines. Quebec. In 1994, he registered again at the
same university to work towards the Master of
VI. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Engineering degree with specialization in
Engineering Management where he is now
continuing part time on this program In 1991,
The authors gracehlly extent their thanks to Jean-Pierre he joined Hydro-Qutbec to work at the Gen-
Bellerive for his faith in the project and his support. The tilly nuclear power plant. His main line of
work of Daniel Pineau in making the computer simulation for work there has been design improvement of
part the plant auxiliary electrical system. In
Fig. 1 is acknowledged and very appreciated. 1993, he transferred to Institut de Recherche
dHydro-Quebec (IREQ) where he now works as an engineer performing
VII. REFERENCES research on problems associated with insulators used on AC and DC power
transmission lines. He is currently also engaged in the development of new