UNIVERSIDAD INDUSTRIAL DE

SANTANDER

Corona Effect

Edison Andrés Soto Ríos

Adaptado de presentación Sistemas de Potencia.

1 Jorge Fernando Gutiérrez Universidad Nacional Ü
SISTEMAS DE POTENCIA I
 l  Class Outline
l  Corona Discharges

l  Factors affecting corona

l  Corona effect pictures

l  Main Effects of Corona Discharges on
Overhead Lines

l  Corona Detection

l  Disruptive critical voltage

l  Corona losses

2

LÍNEAS DE TRANSMISIÓN Ü
 l  Class Outline
l  Corona Discharges

l  Factors affecting corona

l  Corona effect pictures

l  Main Effects of Corona Discharges on
Overhead Lines

l  Corona Detection

l  Disruptive critical voltage

l  Corona losses

3

LÍNEAS DE TRANSMISIÓN Ü
 l  Corona Discharges

l  Corona Discharges:

n  In a uniform electric field, a gradual increase
in voltage across a gap produces a breakdown
of the gap in the form of a spark without any
preliminary discharges.

n  If the field is non-uniform, an increase in

voltage will first cause a localized discharge in
the gas to appear at points with the highest
electric field intensity, namely at sharp points
or where the electrodes are curved or on
transmission line conductors.

LÍNEAS DE TRANSMISIÓN
 l  Corona Discharges
l  Corona Discharges (cont.)
  This form of discharge is called a corona
discharge and can be observed as a bluish
luminance.

  This phenomena is always accompanied by a

hissing noise, and the air surrounding the
corona region becomes converted to ozone.

  The Corona effect is responsible for

considerable power loss in transmission lines
and also gives rise to radio interference.

LÍNEAS DE TRANSMISIÓN
 l  Corona Discharges
l  Mechanism of corona:

LÍNEAS DE TRANSMISIÓN
 l  Corona Discharges
l  Mechanism of Corona formation on a 2
conductor line:

  When a gradually increasing voltage is applied

across two conductors, initially nothing will be
seen or heard.

  As the voltage is increased, there will be a

level when the air surrounding the conductors
gets ionized, and a hissing noise is heard
caused by the formation of corona.

  This voltage is known as the disruptive critical

voltage (dcv or Vc).
7

LÍNEAS DE TRANSMISIÓN
 l  Corona Discharges
l  Mechanism of Corona formation on a 2
conductor line (cont.):

  A further increase in the voltage would

cause a visible glow around the conductors.
This voltage is the visual corona inception
voltage (Vv).

  If the voltage is further increased, the

corona increases and finally spark over
would occur between the two conductors.
  If the conductors are placed quite close

together, corona formation may not occur

before the spark over occurs.
8

LÍNEAS DE TRANSMISIÓN
 l  Corona Discharges
l  Mechanism of Corona formation on a 2 conductor
line (cont.):

  The formation of corona causes the current

waveform in the line, and hence the voltage
drop to be nonsinusoidal.

Vc

-Vc
9

LÍNEAS DE TRANSMISIÓN
 l  Class Outline
l  Corona Discharges

l  Factors affecting corona

l  Corona effect pictures

l  Main Effects of Corona Discharges on
Overhead Lines

l  Corona Detection

l  Disruptive critical voltage

l  Corona losses

10

LÍNEAS DE TRANSMISIÓN Ü
 l  Factors affecting corona
l  Factors affecting corona:

n  Line configuration (example: in horizontal

configuration there are larger losses in the
middle conductor)

n  Radius of the conductor (the higher the

radius the lower the corona losses)

n  Conductor surface (scratches, strands, dirt)

n  The breakdown strength of air is

proportional to the density of air (δ = δ0 δr)
11

LÍNEAS DE TRANSMISIÓN
 l  Factors affecting corona
l  Factors affecting corona:
  Frequency of the voltage (the higher the
frequency the higher the corona losses)

  Foul weather conditions increase corona

losses

  Contamination

12

LÍNEAS DE TRANSMISIÓN
 l  Class Outline
l  Corona Discharges

l  Factors affecting corona

l  Corona effect pictures

l  Main Effects of Corona Discharges on
Overhead Lines

l  Corona Detection

l  Disruptive critical voltage

l  Corona losses

13

LÍNEAS DE TRANSMISIÓN Ü
 l  Corona effect pictures

14

LÍNEAS DE TRANSMISIÓN
 l  Corona effect pictures

15 Fuente: Institut Montefiore, Université de Liège

LÍNEAS DE TRANSMISIÓN
 l  Class Outline
l  Corona Discharges

l  Factors affecting corona

l  Corona effect pictures

l  Main Effects of Corona Discharges on
Overhead Lines

l  Corona Detection

l  Disruptive critical voltage

l  Corona losses

16

LÍNEAS DE TRANSMISIÓN Ü
 l  Effects of Corona on Overhead Lines
l  Effects of Corona on Overhead Lines:
n  Radio noise – (radio interference and
television interference)
n  Energy losses

n  Insulator and conductor damage

n  Audible noise

n  Contamination: when corona occurs, it

creates ozone (detrimental to the human
lungs, eyes, etc.), ultraviolet light, nitric
acid, electromagnetic emissions and
noise.

17

LÍNEAS DE TRANSMISIÓN
 l  Effects of Corona on Overhead Lines
l  Practical case of insulator damage [Seeing corona
– Veiki] :
n  On this power line, outages occurred during
wet foggy weather due to flashovers caused
by a damaged composite insulator.
n  The insulator was located at the middle line of
a three-part chain.
n  This damaged insulator was removed from the
line and sent to Veiki laboratory where it was
tried to reproduce the mechanism of failure in
dry and wet conditions.

18

LÍNEAS DE TRANSMISIÓN
 l  Effects of Corona on Overhead Lines

19

LÍNEAS DE TRANSMISIÓN
 l  Effects of Corona on Overhead Lines
l  Insulator damage:
t  The puncture of the polymer: as

humidity started penetrating the rod

the boiling water pressure and the
prolonged corona and arcing cracked
the insulator.

20

LÍNEAS DE TRANSMISIÓN
 l  Effects of Corona on Overhead Lines
l  Insulator damage: note the carbonization
signs

21

LÍNEAS DE TRANSMISIÓN
 l  Effects of Corona on Overhead Lines
l  It was found that in dry conditions, flashover
does not occur and corona cannot be seen.
l  In wet conditions, however, corona effect was
observed with UV camera before flashover
occurred at the rated voltage.

22

LÍNEAS DE TRANSMISIÓN
 l  Effects of Corona on Overhead Lines
l  If moisture or high humidity conditions exist,
nitric acids can also be formed that attack
copper and other metals.

23

LÍNEAS DE TRANSMISIÓN
 l  Class Outline
l  Corona Discharges

l  Factors affecting corona

l  Corona effect pictures

l  Main Effects of Corona Discharges on
Overhead Lines

l  Corona Detection

l  Disruptive critical voltage

l  Corona losses

24

LÍNEAS DE TRANSMISIÓN Ü
 l  Corona Detection

l  Detection by ultraviolet

radiation cameras

l  Ultrasound corona detection

25

LÍNEAS DE TRANSMISIÓN
 l  Corona Detection
l  Ultraviolet radiation cameras:
n  They have two video channels:

t  One of them presents an ultraviolet

radiation sensible image. The other
one presents a visible radiation
image.
n  Both images are presented
simultaneously in the screen

26

LÍNEAS DE TRANSMISIÓN
 l  Corona Detection
l  Ultrasound corona detection:
  Corona discharge emits ultrasound at
the source of the problem.

  This resulted ultrasound can be located

with an ultrasound detection system.
This system receives ultrasound waves,
which cannot be detected by the human
ear, and modulates them so they can be
heard.

27

LÍNEAS DE TRANSMISIÓN
 l  Corona Detection
l  Detection by ultraviolet radiation cameras

28

LÍNEAS DE TRANSMISIÓN
 l  Corona Detection
l  Detection by ultraviolet radiation cameras

29

LÍNEAS DE TRANSMISIÓN
 l  Class Outline
l  Corona Discharges

l  Factors affecting corona

l  Corona effect pictures

l  Main Effects of Corona Discharges on
Overhead Lines

l  Corona Detection

l  Disruptive critical voltage

l  Corona losses

30

LÍNEAS DE TRANSMISIÓN Ü
 l  Disruptive critical voltage
l  Disruptive critical voltage (Vc):

n  Is the minimum voltage level that exceeds the

air electrical breakdown surrounding a
conductor. The corona effect will start beyond
this level.

n  At Vc there is no visible corona.

n  If the voltage is further increased, a second

point is reached at which a weak luminous of
violet color can be seen surrounding each
conductor. This level is called “visual critical
voltage” (Vv)
31

LÍNEAS DE TRANSMISIÓN
   Disruptive critical voltage
l  Electric field around a cylindrical, long conductor
(review):
  Consider a conductor with radius r, in a free space
with permittivity ε0, and with a charge of q+ [C]
per meter uniformly distributed on the surface.

32

LÍNEAS DE TRANSMISIÓN
 l  Disruptive critical voltage
l  According to Gauss’s law, the total electric flux
leaving a closed surface is equal to the total charge
inside the volume enclosed by the surface:

→ →
ψ E = ∫ D ⋅ d s = Qenc solving
S

Qenc
D=
2π xl
  The electric field intensity is:

D Qenc q×l q
E= = = =
33
ε 0 2πε 0 xl 2πε 0 xl 2πε 0 x
LÍNEAS DE TRANSMISIÓN
 l  Disruptive critical voltage
l  Potential difference: between two outside points
with corresponding distances D1 and D2 from the
conductor center .
  It is the work done in moving a unit charge from
D1 to D2 through the electric field produced by
the charge on the conductor

34

LÍNEAS DE TRANSMISIÓN
 l  Disruptive critical voltage
l  The potential difference is:

D2 D2
→ → q
V12 = ∫ E ⋅d x = ∫ 2πε dx
D1 D1 0 x
q D2
V12 = ln
2πε 0 D1

35

LÍNEAS DE TRANSMISIÓN
 l  Disruptive critical voltage
l  The electric field at the conductor surface can
be calculated as:
 
q
E=
2πε 0 r
l  The potential difference between the conductor
surface and some point:
 
q D
V= ln
2πε 0 r
36

LÍNEAS DE TRANSMISIÓN
 l  Disruptive critical voltage
l  Disruptive critical voltage - Vc can be determined
from F. Peek’s work (1929) as:
n  Direct current with EC= 29,8 kV/cm:

D
VC = E C × r × ln
r
n  For a.c. three phase systems ([VLLrms]):

3 D
VC LL rms = E C × r × ln
r
37

LÍNEAS DE TRANSMISIÓN
 l  Disruptive critical voltage
l  This expression should be corrected to consider:
n  Changes in air density (temperature and pressure)

n  Weather conditions

n  Conductor surface condition

3 DMG
VC = E C × r × δr × mt × ms × ln
r
t  mt= is the weather factor
= 1 for fair weather
= 0,8 for wet weather
t  m = is the conductor surface irregularity factor
s
= 1 for smooth polished solid, cylindrical
conductors
= 0,93 a 0,98 for weathered, solid cylindrical
conductors
38 = 0,83 a 0,87 for weathered stranded conductors

LÍNEAS DE TRANSMISIÓN
 l  Visual Critical Voltage

39

LÍNEAS DE TRANSMISIÓN
 l  Disruptive critical voltage
  Changes in air density: they can be corrected by
the relative air density factor δr:
  3, 9211 × p
δr =
273º +t
  t: is the site temperature [0]

  p: is the atmosphere pressure [cm Hg]

y
log p = log 76 −
18336
–  y: is the site altitude above sea level [m]

40

LÍNEAS DE TRANSMISIÓN
 l  Disruptive critical voltage
l  For bundled conductors:

3 r DMG
VC = E C × × δr × mt × ms × ln
β r
n  Where: r (n − 1)
1+
RH
β=
n
Where :
d
RH =
⎛ π ⎞
2sen ⎜ ⎟
⎝ n ⎠
d= is the bundle spacing
41 n= is the number of conductors in a bundle

LÍNEAS DE TRANSMISIÓN
 l  Class Outline
l  Corona Discharges

l  Factors affecting corona

l  Corona effect pictures

l  Main Effects of Corona Discharges on
Overhead Lines

l  Corona Detection

l  Disruptive critical voltage

l  Corona losses

42

LÍNEAS DE TRANSMISIÓN Ü
 l  Corona losses
l  The movement of ions of both polarities
generated by corona discharges, and
subjected to the applied field around the line
conductors, is the main source of energy
loss.
l  Corona losses are generally described in
terms of the energy losses per kilometer of
the line.
l  They are generally negligible under fair-
weather conditions but can reach values of
several hundreds of kilowatts per kilometer of
line during foul weather.
43

LÍNEAS DE TRANSMISIÓN
 l  Corona losses
l  According to Peek the fair-weather corona loss per
phase or conductor can be calculated from:
1
2
241 ⎛ r ⎞ ⎛Vmax VC ⎞
2
−5 ⎡ kW ⎤
PCorona fase = (f + 25 ) ⎜ ⎟ ⎜ − ⎟ × 10 ⎢ ⎥
δr ⎝ DMG ⎠ ⎝ 3 3 ⎠ ⎣ km ⎦

n  Notice the proportionality between frequency

and power losses
n  The wet-weather corona can be calculated from
these equations by multiplying V by
44

LÍNEAS DE TRANSMISIÓN
 l  Corona losses
l  For the corona losses calculation, ISA uses a
different approach that it is explained in the guide
and must be used in the homework.

l  Remember that it is necessary to divide the line in

different zones using an altitude criteria

45

LÍNEAS DE TRANSMISIÓN
 l  Questions

46

LÍNEAS DE TRANSMISIÓN