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50 Years in Icing Performance of Outdoor Insulators

Article  in  IEEE Electrical Insulation Magazine · January 2014

DOI: 10.1109/MEI.2014.6701103

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 F E A T U R
50 Years in Icing Performance
of Outdoor Insulators
Key words: history, insulator, bushing, icing, fog, outdoor
Introduction
Outdoor insulators are exposed to a wide range of conditions,
leading to build-up of pollution from the air by dry deposition.
Following rain, most insulator surfaces are cleared of preexisting
deposit, but the electrical conductivity of the rain itself may lead
to wet flashover problems. Insulator standards and application
guides suggest appropriate metal-to-metal dry-arc and leakage
distances along the insulator profile to ensure that the normal
ac line voltage does not follow a conductive path, across the
surfaces or through a heavy cascade of water drops, from line
to ground.
Ice and snow accretion are special cases of exposure to
pollution. There is usually no significant difference between the
electrical conductivity of various forms of precipitation so that
the same issues of wet flashover occur when icicles bridge the
sheds of an insulator. Freezing will reduce the conductivity of
a water jet by a factor of 100 or more, but the process will also
reject all the impurities to the ice surface. A thin ice layer can
also stabilize preexisting surface pollution, acting as an effective
and thick nonsoluble deposit, and thus depressing flashover
strength across insulator leakage distances.
Origin of Icing Electrical-Flashover
Problems at Extra-High Voltage
The technical literature in IEEE Xplore contains much
discussion of the effects of ice on overhead transmission lines.
In the AIEE transactions, such discussion is almost exclusively
related to the static mechanical-loading aspects. There is
additional focus on dynamic mechanical problems, such as
conductor galloping, in the IEEE Transactions on Power
Apparatus and Systems. Figure 1 shows that a few papers on
electrical effects of icing were published in the 1960s, presenting
test results for ice-covered, ultra-high-voltage (UHV) insulators.
There was increasing interest in the 1980s, and following
The eleventh of a series of invited reviews
marking the 50th anniversary of DEIS.
14 0883-7554/12/$31/©2014/IEEE
E A R T I C L E
Masoud Farzaneh
and William A. Chisholm
Université du Québec à Chicoutimi
Solving the switching-surge issues
for extra-high-voltage systems led to
levels of insulator stress that caused
operational problems with line-
voltage flashover, under ice and
snow conditions.
recurrence of problems in several countries [1], [2], a sustained
level of publication in IEEE PES and DEIS started in 2003.
One of the reasons for the lack of early interest in icing
performance of extra-high-voltage (EHV) and UHV insulators
can also be inferred from Figure 1. Although identified as a
problem by Bewley in 1939 [3], it was not until the early 1960s
[4]–[8] that new EHV laboratories in Japan, USA, Canada,
Italy, and other countries evaluated switching-surge overvoltage
flashover at insulator dimensions exceeding 3 m. Figure 2
shows how a switching surge with a critical 250-μs rise time
may exhibit meandering streamer formation, contrasting with
the direct path from rod to ground for a long-tail, lightning-type
surge (Figure 3).
Switching-surge testing in the early 1960s demonstrated
clearly to utilities that increased clearance and insulator dry-arc
distance would not be effective in ensuring reliable performance
of new EHV and UHV systems. At 540 kV/m, lightning-surge
impulse strength scales linearly with gap distance in the range 1
to 6 m, with similar flashover stress of 500 kVpk/m value for crest
flashover of 60 Hz sine waves. Similar strength was postulated
for switching overvoltages of any waveshape. However, testing
in 1963 [5] showed that the long-tail 5/4,700 impulse (Figure
3) had a rod–plane flashover stress of 330 kV/m, whereas the
IEEE Electrical Insulation Magazine
Figure 1. Number of IEEE publications on electrical flashover
under switching-surge and icing conditions.
slower-front and shorter-tail 250/2,500 wave flashed over at
250 kV/m. These results, and the observation that flashover
stress decreased with increasing gap distance (Figure 4), were
important.
It was more effective to modify the power system by reducing
the magnitude of likely surge magnitudes than to increase
clearances. In this way, improved switching-surge performance
of power systems to match the relatively low switching-surge
strength of insulators became the main preoccupation of any
utility adopting EHV technology.
Switching-surge magnitudes are expressed using the per-unit
system (pu), in which 1 pu is the peak line-to-ground voltage, or
the system voltage multiplied by √2 /√3. Switching at the peak
of an ac voltage wave, and reflection of the voltage transient at
an open point, can lead to a 2-pu surge at the open terminal.
Figure 2. Full-wave streamer (A) and flashover (B) for
+1,540-kV 250/2,500 switching surge in 6.1-m rod-to-plane
gap [5].
January/February — Vol. 30, No. 1 15
Figure 3. Full-wave flashover for +1,610-kV 5/4,700 surge in
4.9-m rod-to-plane gap [5].
The 50 years from 1963 to 2013 have shown an impressive
improvement in our understanding and control of power-
system switching-surge overvoltages, as demonstrated in IEEE
literature. This improvement was fundamental to successful
design and operation of overhead transmission lines and stations
at EHV voltages, reaching 500 kV in the early 1960s and 735 kV
in 1965. The technical achievement of switching-surge control
started with measurement campaigns [13]. Digital computer
tools were developed, including the Electro Magnetic Transients
Program (EMTP/ATP) [14], [15]. After cross-calibration these
eventually replaced analog computers and transient network
analyzers in modeling the statistical distributions of switching-
overvoltage waveshapes and amplitudes. The overall result
was that switching surges could be effectively predicted and
controlled to levels below 2 pu by combining closing resistors in
circuit breakers and carefully selected surge arresters.
Interest in icing flashover was limited to the IEEE technical
group on electrical insulation, chaired by Perkins starting in
Figure 4. Switching-surge flashover stress versus gap distance
(m) [8]–[12].

Figure 5. Seasonal use of road salt on the Swedish national
road network [17].
September 1963, and the Electrical Insulation Society formed
under Bartnikas in 1978. However, since 1986, when Tanaka
chaired the reformation of DEIS, there has been a sustained
level of publication concerned with icing effects, especially
following a special issue on the topic in 2007 [16]. After a series
of line-voltage flashover problems in 2008 and again in 2012,
the topic has been of particular interest in China and has been
well supported by specialized laboratories.
Operational Experience With EHV
Insulators in Winter Conditions
Increased Line-Voltage Stress
One consequence of the innovations to reduce switching-
surge magnitude was that, in the late 1970s and early 1980s,
electrical designers began to increase normal operating
electrical stress on EHV-system bushings, post insulators, and
insulator strings, deriving cost advantage from reduced dry-arc
distance. The typical stress of about 70 kV ac line to ground
per meter of dry-arc distance, which had given reliable winter
operation for 230-kV systems for 80 years, was increased to
levels exceeding 100 kV/mdry arc. For example, in the Canadian
province of Ontario, the first 500-kV lines went into service
with an insulation level of 1,800 kV BIL (basic impulse level);
this was lowered to 1,550 kV BIL for urban stations that took
advantage of switching-surge control measures.
Figure 6. Splash, spray, and background deposition of road salt
(adapted from [17]).
16 IEEE Electrical Insulation Magazine
Increased Exposure to Road Salting
Another factor in many EHV-insulator flashovers in winter
conditions was the increasing use of road salt to maintain safe
road conditions. Figure 5 shows that the use of salt doubled in
Sweden over the period 1976 to 1999.
While the main focus of road-salt research was the damage
to the environment, as shown in Figure 6, the effects on EHV-
line flashovers were also studied. In particular, measurements
of the background, spray, and splash content showed that
elevated expressways and substations made poor neighbors.
This problem was compounded by land-use practices that often
placed substations on land of minimum value, near expressways,
or routed expressways over land of depressed value adjacent to
substations.
AC Operating Experience at EHV
In-service experience was generally good, with few line-
voltage flashovers at higher EHV electrical-stress levels.
However, some utilities began to report degraded reliability and
unexplained flashovers under some ice and snow conditions. In
the period 1984 to 1996 a total of 17 severe insulator-flashover
events were recorded in the National Electric Reliability Council
database. These occurred in the winter season, between mid-
October and mid-April. The most serious problems involved
substation insulators and bushings rather than overhead lines.
Consequences included the triggering of a blackout of the west
coast of the USA on December 14, 1994, after flashover of a
345-kV substation insulator.
EHV line and station insulators proved vulnerable to specific
winter weather conditions that did not affect electrical reliability
of adjacent HV systems. For example, in southern Ontario,
Canada, a modest amount of freezing rain, less than 1 cm, led
to partial ice bridging and flashovers only on 500-kV insulators
operating at line-voltage stresses of about 90 kV/m of dry-arc
distance. Figure 7 shows that the ice was present on the insulators
for approximately eight hours (00:00 to 08:00), but flashovers
indicated by the shaded rectangles occurred only when the dew-
point temperature approached 0°C.
Widespread 500-kV flashover problems (Figure 7) led to a
program of field studies that confirmed the important role of
dew-point temperature and corresponding relative humidity
above 92% in the transition from freezing to melting. As shown
in Figure 8, fog dissipated as the ambient temperature rose
above 0°C, and dew-point temperature stayed below the freezing
point. There were no flashover problems under these ice-melting
conditions in relatively dry air with 86% relative humidity.
In another case in 1992, 500-kV flashovers occurred during
ice accretion, stopped when the weather turned colder, even
though ice remained on the insulator, and resumed four days
later when the ambient temperature and dew point rose above
the freezing point.
EHV DC Lines
An EPRI report [19] summarized the performance of
five EHV DC transmission lines using horizontal bipolar
configuration. Insulator flashovers from the combined effects of
pollution and icing were reported on a Hydro-Québec ±450-kV
line with 29 insulators in a V-string (4.2 m dry arc) but not on the
Figure 7. Weather during 1986 ice storm with fifty-seven 500- Figure 8. Weather during 1988 ice storm with no flashovers: 86
kV flashovers in a 10-hour period: 390 hours without rain fol- hours without rain followed by partial ice bridging [18].
lowed by partial ice bridging [18].

Manitoba Hydro ±500-kV lines with 21 insulators (3.07 m dry Development of Specialized Indoor
arc). In both cases, insulator length was selected on the basis of
Laboratories
well-controlled switching-surge levels of 1.7 pu.

Diagnostic Field Work During Flashover Events Outdoor-Testing-Program Results

Field studies in the 1980s and 1990s,which included
collection and chemical analysis of drip water after natural ice
accretion (Figure 9), showed clearly that road salt could be a
dominant contributor to flashover problems, even at stress levels
of 70 kV/m of dry arc.
Most of the early icing testing was conducted outdoors. Udo
[7] was the first to report switching-surge test results for iced
insulators in 1966, and most of the EPRI Project EHV and Project
UHV work [20] in the early years of DEIS was conducted in an
outdoor test yard. This restricted testing to typically two months

Figure 9. Collection of drip water from iced insulators naturally precontaminated with road salt
(December 1989) [18].

January/February — Vol. 30, No. 1 17

 Figure 10. Insulator profiles in outdoor icing tests [21].

of the year and in addition did not allow precise control of suggests that the desired temperature transition from below to
temperature or relative humidity. As shown in Figures 7 and 8, above freezing, with high relative humidity, occurs infrequently
high relative humidity from a close match of ambient and dew- outdoors, and led to the development of a number of specialized
point temperature, both rising slowly to melting at 0°C, proved indoor icing-test laboratories and standard procedures [23].
to be critical conditions leading to flashovers under normal ac
operating voltage. Indoor Testing With Dry-Arc Distance of 0.5 to 2 m
Icing flashovers under dc conditions were studied by EPRI as In 1967 Khalifa and Morris [29] used a 4.5 m × 7.6 m ×
part of Project UHV in January and February 1982 [21]. Three 3.7 m refrigerated chamber to apply rime ice with density of about
types of insulators, P3, G1, and NC1, were dc-energized outdoors 0.4 g/cm3 to insulators with up to 1.3 m of dry-arc distance.
and coated with ice on one side using a fire hose (Figure 10). With a 200-kV source, they found that long rod insulators were
An accretion period of up to five hours at temperatures below inferior to equivalent strings of porcelain discs. This observation
−4°C was used, similar to the ice progressive stress approach was confirmed later when field experience showed that station
described in [22] and [23], so that flashover was achieved post insulators and bushings were inferior to overhead line
in most tests. Ice thicknesses were up to 10 cm. In order to insulation under the same icing conditions.
compare results with different insulator profiles, a so-called A HV and icing research laboratory was constructed
icing stress product (ISP) is defined as the product of the ice, at Tempere University, in Finland, consisting of a 3.3 m ×
snow, or frost layer mass per centimeter of length, multiplied by 2.8 m × 5 m climate room with minimum temperature of
the electrical conductivity of the layer when removed, melted −65°C, 300 kVac, 100 and 130 kVdc test-voltage sources, and a
and measured at a reference temperature of 20°C. The ISP
values for outdoor test results [21] were estimated using the ice
thickness, insulator diameter, and 0.9 g/cm3 density for glaze-
ice weight per centimenter of dry-arc distance. The ice weights
were multiplied by the specified applied water conductivity of
41.5 μS/cm corrected to 20°C.
Figure 11 shows the dispersion in the 1982 outdoor test
results [21], plotted as dc voltage stress (kV per m of dry-arc
distance) against ISP, with green diamonds for withstand results
and brown squares for flashovers. More recent test results
for HVDC, using a well-controlled laboratory method with
no melting phase [24], which achieves typically 4% relative
standard deviation in the critical flashover stress E50, are also
shown. The circles relate to five different water conductivities,
and the dashed curve represents consolidated ac and dc+ results
from a standard icing-test method that incorporates a melting
phase [18], [25]–[28]. This curve indicates lower stresses than
all the other test results, since melting yields the minimum
flashover level. Only 1 of the 44 outdoor flashover results Figure 11. Outdoor and indoor icing-test results for HVDC
from [21] coincides with this minimum level. This observation [18], [21], [24].

18 IEEE Electrical Insulation Magazine

950 kV impulse-voltage source. A 3.6 m × 2.7 m × 2.6 m icing
laboratory is available at the Kitami Institute of Technology
in Japan, equipped with a 120 kVac, 120 kVA transformer; its
minimum operating temperature is −30°C.
Icing research at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi
(UQAC) dates from the 1970s, when a 4.8 m × 2.8 m ×
2.6 m cold room with a minimum temperature of −35°C and a
100 kVac, 120 kVA source was commissioned. Since then
research in this field expanded steadily with the support of
Hydro-Québec, the governments of Quebec and Canada, and
industrial partners throughout the world. With the establishment
of the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council/
Hydro-Québec/UQAC Industrial Research Chair CIGELE in
1997, and the advent of the Great Ice Storm of 1998 in North
America, which hit Quebec particularly hard, icing research
has assumed considerable importance. Extra-high-voltage test
capability at UQAC was established in 2000, as described in the
next section.
A small icing-test laboratory was constructed at the Shenzen
Graduate School, Tsinghua University, in 2005. Its height is
2.8 m, and a central bushing allows testing of insulator strings
with seven standard discs at temperatures as low as −20°C. As
in Quebec, severe problems in 2008 and 2012 with electrical
flashovers in winter conditions led to increased importance
of icing research in China. Additional test chambers were
constructed, as described below.
Under outdoor and artificial indoor conditions, the ice-
temperature range lies between ambient and dew-point
temperatures. Thus, in Figure 7, the ice was warmer than −0.5°C
when most flashovers occurred. Small icing chambers using
Freon-based chillers depress the dew-point temperature, and this
changes the ambient temperature at which the dew point reaches
the melting point. Direct measurement on the ice surface can
resolve this temperature offset. The flashover strength of icicles
falls dramatically in the narrow ice surface temperature range
from −1 to 0°C [30]. Consequently it was recognized [22], [23]
that maintaining high relative humidity, including visible fog,
during the melting phase of an icing test is an effective way of
controlling the icicle, ice, or frost layer temperature in a large
test chamber.
Indoor Testing With Dry-Arc Distance of 2 to 5 m
At Ontario Hydro a fog chamber was equipped with Freon-
based chillers in the late 1970s in order to facilitate icing tests
on polymer insulators [31]. The chamber was modified during
the period 1988 to 1991; the Freon-based chillers were replaced
by a glycol-loop system that limited the temperature drop across
the heat exchangers, and thereby reduced the spread between
ambient and dew-point temperature. This was the first electrical
icing-test chamber to integrate the heat exchanger function
with realistic wind-speed turbulence across the energized
insulators. The resulting high and well-controlled relative
humidity gave the precise control of ice temperature needed to
reproduce line-voltage flashovers. Test results obtained using a
370-kVac, 1,666-kVA power supply feeding a chamber with central
800-kV BIL bushing, and clearances of 5 m to the ceiling and
January/February — Vol. 30, No. 1 19
Figure 12. Electrical sources in the Université du Québec à
Chicoutimi icing pavilion.
floor and 3 m to the heat exchangers, were reported in 1996
[30].
Important improvements were made to HV and icing
research facilities at UQAC in 2000, including construction of
a dedicated building. In 2005 this infrastructure was recognized
by the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council
of Canada as the most important of its kind worldwide. The
building includes an icing wind tunnel and three climate rooms
capable of reaching temperatures as low as −62°C, which can
accurately simulate rime, glaze, and wet snow. One of these
rooms, measuring 5.7 m × 5.7 m × 9 m, is also equipped with
a sliding roof, which allows capture of icing precipitation. The
HV equipment supplying the icing facilities consists of an
800-kV impulse generator, two transformers (350 kVac,
700 kVA and 120 kVac, 240 kVA), a 300 kVdc, 600 kVA source
operating with both voltage polarities, and a modular 240 kVac,
dc and impulse voltage system (Figure 12).
The UQAC laboratory is also equipped with specialized
equipment to monitor icing and discharge activities on insulators
using enhanced UV and high-speed cameras. Other laboratories
are equipped to test mechanical behavior of ice and its effects,
icing and deicing of conductors and other structures, and to
develop superhydrophobic and icephobic coatings.
The State Key Laboratory of Power Transmission Equipment
and System Security at Chongqing University incorporates a
multifunctional artificial climate chamber with a diameter of
7.8 m and a height of 11.6 m, as shown in Figure 13. The climate
controls include a refrigeration system, air pressure from 30 to
100 kPa, wind-speed regulation from 0 to 12 m/s, and a water-
spraying system with 14 nozzles at a distance of 3.65 m from
the insulator under test. The wall bushing is rated at 330 kV. A
power supply (500 kV, 2,000 kVA, 75 A short-circuit current)
minimizes problems with voltage regulation during heavy arcing
activity under icing conditions.
An artificial climate chamber with a diameter of 8 m and a
height of 7 m (Figure 14) is used (with an outdoor HV source)
for icing tests at the China Electric Power Research Institute
[34].
 can be achieved, and air pressure can be reduced to simulate
elevations up to 6,000 m.

State Grid Electric Power Research Institute

A climate chamber, with dimensions very similar to those of
the China Electric Power Research Institute chamber in Beijing,
has been constructed at Wuhan University in cooperation with
the State Grid Electric Power Research Institute (Figure 16).
The minimum temperature is −19°C, and the simulated altitude
range is 0 to 5,500 m.

Typical Icing-Test Results

It seems that at least two different test methods have been
used in each of the laboratories undertaking ice and snow testing.
However, some important conclusions have led to refinement
of test methods [22] and eventual standardization under DEIS
sponsorship [23].

Glaze-Ice Accretion and Melting

Figure 17 shows critical flashover stress in kilovolts per
meter of dry-arc distance, as a function of the ISP, for five types
of winter precipitation conditions.
Accretion of 10 mm of radial ice on a reference cylinder may
generate an ice layer with 40 g/cm of dry-arc distance, and if the
water conductivity after melting has the standard value 100 μS/
cm [11], [23], the ISP will be 4,000 (g/cm)(μS/cm). Figure 17

Figure 13. Artificial climate chamber at the State Key Laborato-

ry, Chongqing University; (a) HV source, (b) potential divider,
(c) climate chamber [32], [33].

Indoor Testing With Dry-Arc Distance

Exceeding 5 m
At present, at least three climate chambers are being used to
conduct icing-flashover tests on insulators with dry-arc distances
exceeding 5 m.

Swedish Transmission Research Institute

Over many years the Swedish Transmission Research
Institute in Ludvika has developed considerable expertise in the
reproduction of natural pollution accumulation. A dust cycle
method for testing outdoor insulators was described in 1994
[35]. This led to the construction of the Swedish Transmission
Research Institute climate hall, with a –10 to 40°C temperature
range, diameter of 18 m, free height of 20 m, and 860-kVac,
1,200-kVdc, and 2,200-kV lightning-impulse power supplies
[36].

China Electric Power Research Institute

Figure 15 shows a cylindrical environmental chamber with
20-m internal radius and 25-m height, and the associated UHV
outdoor power supply, constructed at the China Electric Power Figure 14. Artificial climate chamber used by Shenzhen
Research Institute, Beijing. A minimum temperature of −20°C Graduate School, Tsinghua University [34].

20 IEEE Electrical Insulation Magazine


Figure 15. Cylindrical environmental chamber and ultra-high-
voltage outdoor power supply at China Electric Power Re-
search Institute, Beijing [37].
shows that, for this ISP, glaze ice with a melting phase will have
a median flashover stress of about 82 kV/mdry arc, well below
typical line-voltage stress levels on EHV systems.
Compared with the other four materials, glaze ice with a
melting phase gives the lowest flashover stress for a given ISP
and seems to be the only winter condition that results in flashover
at ac line-voltage stress less than 100 kV/m for ISP values below
10,000 (g/cm)(μS/cm).
Glaze-Ice Accretion Without Melting
The role of a melting phase in establishing the minimum ac
or dc flashover level of an insulator has been debated [22]. The
consensus [23] is that results for glaze ice without a melting
phase can play an important role in insulator selection, because
tests without a melting phase are faster and thus more economical
than tests with a melting phase. It is vital to show equivalence
among test methods, say by fitting different scale factors and a
common power-law exponent in order to relate critical flashover
stress E50 to ISP. The scale factor may differ between different
test methods by more than 20% [40].
Figure 16. Artificial climate chamber and outdoor ultra-high-
voltage power supply at State Grid Electric Power Research
Institute, Wuhan, China [38].
January/February — Vol. 30, No. 1 21
Figure 17. Flashover stress for five typical winter precipitation
types [18], [24], [39].
Many careful researchers in the past have included sufficient
experimental detail in their publications to enable calculation
of the ISP and comparison of their results with those published
more recently. Thus Watanabe [41] reported that the ice thickness
varied from 1 to 3 cm on his suspension discs with 146 mm of
connection length, but the ice weight was constant at 2 kg per
disk or 137 g/cm of dry-arc distance. Combining these values
with a water conductivity of 35 μS/cm at 20°C gives an ISP
of 4,800. Watanabe’s observed ac flashover level of 147 kV/m
for single insulator strings compares well with those presented
in Figure 17 for snow, rime, and dc glaze ice tests without a
melting phase.
Rime and Snow Accretion
It has proved difficult to simulate natural snow accretion
in the laboratory. Usually a low-density, opaque, rime ice is
produced. However, tests using natural snow packed around
insulators have been shown to yield more reliable results and
are endorsed in IEEE Standard 1783 [23]. Figure 17 shows that
flashover levels for various types of winter precipitation can be
compared using an ISP model that incorporates a correction for
the rime or snow density (0.2–0.5 g/cm3), compared with 0.9 g/
cm3 for glaze ice.
Cold Fog Accretion
The behavior of frozen insulators, when transferred to a warm
room to promote condensation on precontaminated surfaces,
was well understood even during the development of the
standard clean-fog test [11][42]. Complete and stable wetting of
all surfaces in any fog test gives a high exponent in the power-
law relation between flashover stress and surface contamination
level, expressed using an equivalent salt deposit density (ESDD).
The equation U50 = KESDD−0.25, relating the critical flashover
stress per meter of leakage distance U50 to ESDD, where K is a
constant, was representative among many test laboratories [42].
A method of slow fog generation, reaching maximum density
in 120 minutes, gave the highest (negative) exponent, i.e., U50 =
KESDD−0.32. The clean-fog test method using frozen insulators
[42] gave an exponent of −0.29, and this method was improved
 in a cold-fog test method [30], yielding an exponent of −0.37
[18], [39]. The high exponent indicates effective wetting of all
insulator surfaces, which is normally achieved only with heavy,
inert insoluble deposits.
The cold-fog flashover stress is converted to an ISP by
assuming that there is a uniform coating of pure ice on a
preexisting contaminated layer (ESDD), covering the entire
insulator leakage distance. If the ice thickness is doubled, the
resulting conductivity is reduced by a factor of two, giving
a constant value for any assumed thickness. The cold-fog
flashover strength, normally expressed in kilovolts per meter of
leakage distance, is plotted in Figure 17 using a typical insulator
creepage factor of 2.5 to relate the leakage to dry-arc distance.
Standards
There were three milestones in the movement toward global
standards for testing and evaluating ice and snow performance of
outdoor insulators. The first was the consolidation of worldwide
experience in a pair of Electra papers [1], [2] that established
many of the common features of winter flashovers. The second
was marked by some very valuable work done by three IEEE
task forces; the first task force recommended icing test methods
in 2003 [22], the second suggested methods for selecting
suitable dry-arc and leakage distances for substation insulators
and bushings [25], [26], and the third made corresponding
suggestions for overhead line insulation [27], [28]. The third
milestone was the refinement of the icing test methods presented
in IEEE Standard 1783/2009, cosponsored by DEIS and PES
[23].
Conclusions
During the last 50 years a significant technical advance,
namely in our understanding and control of switching-surge
overvoltages, has had some unintended and adverse consequences
when designers took full advantage of the possibility of reduced
insulator dimensions. Glaze ice accretion can produce harmful
effects, especially on closely spaced or large-diameter station
post insulators and bushings. Partial or full bridging of the
leakage distance occurs for moderate ice-accretion levels
and reduces insulator reliability during melting in saturated
conditions. Colocation of HV or EHV substations with roads
or expressways on which deicing salt is spread has proved
particularly problematic. The DEIS has played an important role
as a forum for exploring icing flashover physics and as a sponsor
of improved test methods and applications guidance.
References
[1] CIGRE Task Force 33.04.09, “Influence of Ice and snow on the flashover
performance of outdoor insulators, Part I: Effects of ice,” Electra, no.
187, pp. 91–111, Dec. 1999.
[2] CIGRE Task Force 33.04.09, “Influence of ice and snow on the flashover
performance of outdoor insulators, Part II: Effects of snow,” Electra, no.
188 pp. 55–69, Jan. 2000.
[3] L. V. Bewley, “Traveling waves initiated by switching,” AIEE Trans., vol.
58, pp. 19–26, Jan. 1939.
[4] H. L. Hill and A. L. Kinyon, “A laboratory study of switching surge
flashover characteristics of EHV line insulation,” IEEE Trans. Power App.
Syst., pp. 476–490, 1963.
[5] J. W. Kalb, “How the switching-surge family affects line insulation,”
AIEE Trans., pp. 1024–1033, Dec. 1963.
22 IEEE Electrical Insulation Magazine
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tion en temps réel du contournement électrique des isolateurs recouverts
de glace,” doctorat en ingénierie, UQAC, Oct. 2007.
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sur une surface de glace,” doctorat en ingénierie, UQAC, Oct.2007.
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side environment—Modelling and field measurements,” Royal Institute of
Technology (KTH), Stockholm, Sweden, Jan. 2008.
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alternatif sur les isolateurs contaminés couverts avec la glace en utilisant
des méthodes d’identification intelligentes,” doctorat en ingénierie,
UQAC, Dec. 2009.
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de glace,” doctorat en génie, UQAC, Dec. 2010.
24 IEEE Electrical Insulation Magazine
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[96] A. K. Andersson, “Winter road conditions and traffic accidents in Sweden
and UK: Present and future climate scenarios,” Doctoral thesis, Univer-
sity of Gothenburg, 2010.
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doctorat en ingénierie, UQAC, Sep. 2011.
[98] N. Ravelomanantsoa, “Effet du vent sur l’accumulation de pollution à la
surface des isolateurs dans les conditions hivernales,” doctorat en ingénie-
rie, UQAC, Dec. 2012.
Masoud Farzaneh is director-founder
of the International Research Center
CENGIVRE, chair holder of the Natural
Science and Engineering Research
Council/Hydro-Quebec/Université du
Québec à Chicoutimi Industrial Research
Chair CIGELE, and chair holder of the
Canada Research Chair INGIVRE related
to power transmission engineering in cold
climate regions, at University of Québec at Chicoutimi. His field
of research encompasses HV and power engineering, including
the impact of cold climate on overhead transmission lines. He has
authored or coauthored more than 500 technical papers and 17
books or book chapters. To date Professor Farzaneh has trained
more than 100 postgraduate students and postdoctoral fellows.
Actively involved with IEEE and CIGRÉ, he is immediate past
president of IEEE DEIS, member of the editorial board of IEEE
Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation, convenor
of CIGRE WG B2.44 on coatings for protection of overhead
lines during winter conditions, and member of the executive
committee of CIGRE Canada. He is Fellow of IEEE, Fellow
of The Institution of Engineering and Technology, and Fellow
of the Engineering Institute of Canada. His contributions and
achievements in research and teaching have been recognized
by several prestigious prizes and awards at national and
international levels.
William A. Chisholm (M ’78, SM ’90, F
’07) was born in Plattsburgh, New York,
in 1955. He received the BASc and MEng
degrees from the University of Toronto in
1977 and 1979, respectively, and the PhD
degree from the University of Waterloo in
1983. He worked at Kinectrics, formerly
the Ontario Hydro Research Division,
from 1977 to 2007 and as a research
professor at the University of Quebec at Chicoutimi. He is chair
of the Transmission and Distribution Committee of the IEEE
Power and Energy Society and has made many contributions to
the Lightning and Insulator Subcommittee and to CIGRE work
in lightning protection and selection of weather parameters
for transmission line thermal rating. With coauthor Masoud
Farzaneh he published the reference book Insulators for Icing
and Polluted Environments in the Wiley/IEEE Press Series on
Power Engineering. He also contributed to recent revisions of
the EPRI Red, Blue, and Grey Books and to the CRC/IEEE
Electric Power Engineering Handbook.