490 J. Li et al.

: Use of Leakage Currents of Insulators to Determine the Stage Characteristics of the Flashover Process

Use of Leakage Currents of Insulators to Determine

the Stage Characteristics of the Flashover Process
and Contamination Level Prediction
Jingyan Li, Wenxia Sima, Caixin Sun,
State Key Laboratory of Power Transmission Equipment and System Safety and New Technology
College of Electrical Engineering, Chongqing University
Shapingba District, Chongqing 400044, China

and Stephen A. Sebo

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA

ABSTRACT
In order to improve the reliability of power transmission lines, one of the key issues is
to reduce the hazard of contamination flashovers. Presently, the most efficient way is to
clean (or replace) the heavily polluted insulators. The leakage current is the critical on-
line quantity that can be detected. A number of laboratory experiments on 35 kV
voltage class ceramic and glass insulators show that the leakage current fully reflects
the entire process of contamination flashover development. The test results reveal that
the process can be classified into three stages, i.e., security stage, forecast stage and
danger stage. The results, that were duplicated several times, are based on three
characteristics of the leakage current, i.e., the root-mean-square value, waveforms, and
power spectrum estimation. In addition, the boundaries of the three stages in both time
domain and power spectrum domain are also determined. All these can be used for the
stage pre-warning of contamination flashovers. The security stage is most important
since it precedes the contamination flashover sufficiently. The three characteristics of
the leakage current in the security stage are proposed as the inputs of a neural network
model together with the operating voltage, and the relative humidity in order to
determine the equivalent salt deposit density (ESDD) of the insulators. The comparison
of the simulated and actual (measured) results demonstrates that the ESDD prediction
model has a very low relative error if the training data and the testing data both come
from the security stage. The application of this research results in (1) optimal ESDD
prediction inputs and (2) sufficient pre-warning time before the ultimate contamination
flashover.
Index Terms —Insulators, contamination flashover, leakage current, three stages,
power spectrum estimation, contamination level prediction, neural network model.

1 INTRODUCTION distribution systems. There is a large body of literature

WITH the deterioration of atmospheric pollution year-
by-year, especially in developing countries, the
contamination flashover of high voltage insulators has been
a serious issue for the safe and reliable operation of power
transmission lines [1]. Perhaps no single topic of insulator
behavior has engaged researchers more so than predicting
flashovers under contaminated conditions. Therefore, how
to prevent the contamination flashover in advance has
become the focus for the safe operation of transmission and
Manuscript received on 18 July 2009, in final form 8 September 2009.
published to explore the features of the contamination
flashover [2, 3]. Yet there are still some critical gaps in the
solution of this complex problem.
During long-term operation, the pollution deposited on
the surface of porcelain and glass insulators can result in a
reduction of their dielectric strength. The equivalent salt
deposit density (ESDD), the surface conductance, the
leakage current, the air pollution measurements, and the
non-soluble deposit density (NSSD) are commonly
recommended to express the contamination levels [4-6].
Pollutants in combination with moisture (which may be
added by dew deposition, fog or rain) cause the formation

1070-9878/10/$25.00 © 2010 IEEE

Authorized licensed use limited to: NUST School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (SEECS). Downloaded on April 07,2023 at 16:31:50 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation
of wet conducting films and the flow of leakage currents.
The appearance of dry bands (which are due to the partially
localized drying of the pollution layer) on the insulator
surface causes arcs. Such arcs may elongate until they
bridge the electrodes and total flashover occurs.
Based on the Obenaus model [7], the flashover process is
seen as a discharge in series with a resistance. The
discharge represents the arc bridging the dry band, and the
pollution resistance represents the un-bridged portion of the
insulator. The voltage drop across the resistance is
expressed as a function of the current. The contamination
flashover model proposed [7, 8] is the theoretical basis for
understanding the flashover mechanism. The dry band is
one of the prerequisites for the arc occurrence until the
ultimate flashover. Since then the classical Obenaus model
has been continuously explored and improved. A more
complete description of the arc propagation is given in [9],
for the case when the contamination on the insulator surface
is not uniform, and the boundaries of the dry bands are not
parallel. The changing waveform of the leakage current
during the entire flashover process can reflect the arc
extinction and re-ignition for the ac system because the dry
band could be wet again due to the humid environment. The
leakage current waveform detection is of prime importance
for the flashover pre-warning of insulator strings.
The leakage current measurement methods used for the
contamination flashover prediction generally include the
maximum value of the leakage current pulses, the
amplitude of the leakage currents before approaching
flashover, and the leakage current RMS (root-mean-square)
values [10]. Besides, the number of pulses and the highest
peak currents are also methods used often for pollution
monitoring [4, 11].
These traditional methods focus only on the prediction of
flashover voltage and the leakage current characteristics in
the time domain. The intensification of the odd order of
harmonic components, e.g., 50, 150 and 250 Hz for 50-Hz
power systems, is high and a prediction threshold exists, but
these results have been obtained only from a single
suspension insulator [12, 13]. The growth rates of low-
frequency components, such as 50, 150 and 250 Hz, are
different in the contamination flashover process, so the low
frequency harmonic components are seen as a better
indication of arcing than the fundamental component of the
leakage currents [14].
As a matter of fact, the process of the contamination
flashover is predominantly stochastic in nature and the
varieties in the leakage currents are basically random and do
not comply with any definite regulation. Power spectrum
estimation can be used to analyze the random signals and
reveal their energy distribution state in the frequency domain.
Only a few researchers have performed statistical
analysis on the leakage currents during the entire
contamination flashover process. An even smaller number
of investigators have analyzed the problem from the point
Authorized licensed use limited to: NUST School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (SEECS). Downloaded on April 07,2023 at 16:31:50 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
Vol. 17, No. 2; April 2010 491
of view of the combination of time domain and frequency
domain. The phase angles between the leakage current and
the applied voltage of an insulator change during the
contamination process at different relative humidity and
pollution conditions. That shows that the contamination
process may indeed include several different states.
Recently, insulator leakage currents have also been
analyzed using the discrete wavelet transform in order to
identify the surface condition of the insulation structure
[15]. However, the calculation method described is
complicated for practical engineering application.
In order to build a comprehensive concept for the
contamination process and flashover prediction, authors
classified the leakage currents in the course of the entire
flashover process into three stages. They are the security
stage, forecast stage and danger stage. They are described
originally in [16] based on the results of numerous
experiments.
According to the test results, the pre-warning of the
contamination levels as soon as possible before flashover is
more imperative than the traditional prediction of flashover
voltage. Therefore, the security stage is the best pre-
warning period. However, it is critical how to verify the
current flashover stage.
The goal is to prevent contamination flashovers – or at
least, to reduce the number of flashovers. To determine
when and where to clean or replace heavily polluted
insulators is a very effective way to do that. This decision is
very important for the engineering practice.
After reviewing several methods to express the
contamination levels, it has been verified that the leakage
current (affected by the operating voltage, contamination,
temperature and humidity) can provide a more
comprehensive description about the state of the
contaminated surface of the insulator. Therefore, the
leakage current especially in the security stage should be
the focus of attention. For an on-line monitoring and pre-
warning system, the prediction quantity must be rapid and
timely in terms of acquisition and processing. It is still a
problem which method of analysis is the most suitable in
engineering practice among so many methods.
Original features of this paper are in the following two
aspects: 1) the overall characteristics and the stage
boundaries of the leakage currents during the entire
contamination flashover process were analyzed and
established jointly through the waveform, the RMS value in
the time domain, and the frequency features in the power
spectrum domain; 2) the setup of a new prediction model is
recommended in order to predict the ESDD level mainly
based on three relevant characteristics of the leakage
current in the security stage.
The new approach proposed in the paper cannot be
applied to non-ceramic insulators.
“Leakage current values” always mean their RMS values
in the paper, unless otherwise stated.
 492 J. Li et al.: Use of Leakage Currents of Insulators to Determine the Stage Characteristics of the Flashover Process

2 TEST SETUP during the entire contamination flashover process and

A large number of simulation tests were performed
using an artificial fog chamber (volume 4.0 m×3.7 m×4.0 m)
in the High Voltage Laboratory of Chongqing University.
The test system is shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Fog chamber test circuit diagram, including the measurement
and recording system.
The power supply includes a shifting coil voltage
regulator (TDJY-1000/10) and a test transformer (YDJ-
900kVA/150kV) with the rated current of 6 A and the
maximum short-circuit current of over 30 A, which meet
the requirements for power sources of artificial pollution
tests of high voltage insulators in [17]. The high voltage
(HV) supply is connected to the fog chamber through a 110
kV wall bushing. The HV end is connected to an AC
capacitance voltage divider (SGB-200A) with the divider
ratio of 1:1000 which records the applied voltage in real
time. A glass door (1.2 m × 2.5 m), that is a part of the fog
chamber, is used for visual observation purposes. The
current sensor was specially designed for monitoring the
small broad-band signals like the leakage currents with their
range from ȝA to A, and their frequency bandwidth from
Hz to MHz [18]. The leakage currents can be monitored by
the current sensor that is at the grounded end of the
insulator strings without any direct electrical contact with
the HV supply, and then amplified by an AC amplifier and
recorded by a computer continuously.
2.1 LEAKAGE CURRENTS IN THE ENTIRE
PROCESS OF CONTAMINATION FLASHOVER
The main purpose was to record the leakage currents of
porcelain insulators at various contamination severities
explore the advance information of the leakage currents for
flashover pre-warning. Usually the flashover takes place
easily at higher atmospheric humidity. On the other hand, it
is difficult to detect the leakage currents if the humidity is
too low, so it is more appropriate to maintain the relative
humidity between 70% and 85% to facilitate the detection
of the leakage currents.
The experiments were performed for a total of 55 cases;
27 cases flashed over. Table 1 shows that all flashovers
occurred at contamination levels between 0.1 and 0.3
mg/cm2 ESDD, namely, at moderate and heavy
contamination. It appears that the flashover probability of
anti-pollution insulators is lower than that of the ordinary
insulators at the same contamination level because the anti-
pollution insulators have longer leakage distance. For this
paper, Sample No. 5 is the one that has been observed and
analyzed, and used as an example.
2.2 LEAKAGE CURRENTS IN THE SECURITY
STAGE
The main purpose of the test was to record and compare
the leakage currents under five different contamination
levels (characterized by five ESDD values between 0.03
and 0.3 mg/cm2), and finally supply the effective prediction
of ESDD far ahead of the flashover. For this experiment,
Samples No. 1 and No. 8 (see Figure 2 and Table 1) have
been selected as the test samples. One is a general cap-and-
pin porcelain insulator (Type A), the other one is an anti-
pollution porcelain insulator (Type B). The leakage distance
of Type B is almost 100 mm longer than that of Type A
(see Table 1).
The purpose of the use of the two types of insulators was
to compare the leakage currents under the same test
conditions and to extract the appropriate characteristics for
the contamination prediction and for the cleaning (washing)
of the insulators.
According to the test process described in Section 2.1,
the recording was continuous during the entire test process.
In order to compare the leakage currents more conveniently
under the five contamination levels, the relative humidity
was kept saturated (100%) all the time, measured by
a thermo-hygrograph. It was suitable to record the leakage

Table 1. Shape parameters and ESDD of porcelain insulator samples.

No. of Sample (Insulator) 1* 2 3 4 5* 6 7 8* 9 10 11
Dm, mm 255 255 280 360 255 246 280 255 255 280 255
H, mm 146 140 155 205 146 146 170 146 160 160 146
L, mm 295 320 360 550 320 320 400 400 400 450 400
W, kg 4.6 3.77 6.5 14 3.9 5.5 7.8 5.25 5.4 7.5 5.6
0.03 NF NF NF NF NF NF NF NF NF NF NF
ESDD 0.05 NF NF NF NF NF NF NF NF NF NF NF
2
mg/cm 0.1 F F F NF F** F F NF NF NF NF
0.2 F F F F F F F F F NF F
0.3 F F F F F F F F F F F

Notes: Dm: diameter; H: height; L: leakage distance; W: weight; ESDD: equivalent salt deposit density; F: flashover occurrence; NF: no flashover occurrence;
mm, kg and mg/cm2 are related units. The relative humidity was between 70% and 85% when the flashover occurred. F** in Sample 5* is the observed example
in Section 2.1. Samples No. 1* and No. 8* were used as the examples in Section 2.2.

Authorized licensed use limited to: NUST School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (SEECS). Downloaded on April 07,2023 at 16:31:50 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation
currents during the first 20 minutes, namely during the
security stage, for the prediction of ESDD in advance.
2.3 INSULATORS USED
The solid layer method, based on the IEC 60507 standard,
was used to produce uniform pollution layers on the surface of
the ceramic and glass insulators. Distilled water, kieselguhr
and silicone dioxide were used. The amounts of the kieselguhr
and silicone dioxide were of a fixed ratio of 10:1. The pre-
contaminated samples were completely dried for 24 h before
entering the fog chamber. Then they were suspended vertically
and wetted by clean steam fog in the fog chamber. As soon as
the surface pollution layers were completely wetted for about
10 minutes, the operating voltage was applied. At the same
time the continuous recording of the leakage currents flowing
through the polluted layer on the surface started.
A total of eleven insulator strings with different structural
parameters (see Table 1) were selected, including toughened
glass insulators and porcelain insulators. Samples 1-6 are
ordinary cap-and-pin insulators (Type A); Samples 7-11 are
anti-pollution insulators (Type B); both are shown in Figure 2.
The most important difference is the leakage distance of Type
B is greater than that of Type A. So, under the same operating
conditions including contamination severity and level of
humidity, the probability of flashover is much lower for Type
B insulator than for Type A insulator. The main objective is to
compare the influence of leakage distance on the leakage
current.
Figure 2. Sketches of the two types of test insulator units Type A: cap-and-pin
insulator, Type B: anti-pollution insulator.
Based on the IEC 60507 standard [17], five levels of ESDD
were applied to simulate five contamination states,
respectively, shown in Table 1. Three insulator units were
used for each sample string. The energizing voltage was
35 y 3 20.2 kV RMS (phase to ground voltage), applied
to simulate the 35 kV transmission line voltage.
3 THE THREE-STAGE CHARACTERISTICS
OF LEAKAGE CURRENT
Obenaus was the first to propose a model for the
contamination flashover of ceramic insulators [7]. During wet
atmospheric conditions the contamination layer on the
insulator surface becomes wet and the leakage current can
flow along the surface. The heat dissipated due to the flow of
the leakage current evaporates the moisture on the surface of
Authorized licensed use limited to: NUST School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (SEECS). Downloaded on April 07,2023 at 16:31:50 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
Vol. 17, No. 2; April 2010 493
the insulator. This evaporation leads to the formation of areas
termed as “dry bands.” Dry bands tend to form near the
surface of those insulator sections where the diameter is the
smallest, because of the high current density at those areas. A
concentration of voltage stress is formed around the dry bands
as the surface resistance of the dry bands is much higher than
that of the conductive contaminated surface film.
Subsequently, the dry band will break down causing an initial
partial arc over the surface. After the formation of the partial
arc, the propagation of the arc further depends on if Ep > Earc,
where Earc is the voltage gradient ahead of the arc and Ep is the
voltage gradient of the pollution layer. That is due to the fact
that ionization of the path ahead of the arc by the increasing
current at every instant enables the arc to proceed. When the
arc propagation across the contaminated layer bridges the
entire insulator, a flashover will occur [19]. The surface
discharges and the behavior of water drops in the AC field are
also of interest in order to understand the phenomena
occurring on insulator surfaces [20-21].
Based on the Obenaus model, the contamination flashover
can be divided into four distinct steps as follows: (1)
deposition of conducting salts and moisture; (2) dry band
formation; (3) electric breakdown of dry bands; (4)
propagation of the discharge across the moist film, bridging
the insulator. Each one of these events is a necessary step in
the development of a full flashover. The four steps are useful
to understand the contamination flashover process better. The
four steps above are put forward from the point of view of
understanding the flashover process, yet it is difficult for
monitoring the discharge development and flashover pre-
warning.
(a) Current plot -- overview
(b) Current plot -- magnified
Figure 3. Overview and magnified leakage current (RMS values) plots for
Sample No. 5 for the entire contamination flashover process
During the tests, the leakage currents were recorded by the
measurement system (see Figure 1). Take a typical case, the
case of Sample No. 5 with ESDD = 0.1 mg/cm2, as an
example. The progress of the leakage current, which was
 494 J. Li et al.: Use of Leakage Currents of Insulators to Determine the Stage Characteristics of the Flashover Process
computed for each minute during nearly 60 minutes, until the
occurrence of the flashover, is shown in Figure 3a.
The leakage current is expressed as Ie in equation (1):
T
Ie ( 1 ³ i (t ) 2 d t )1 / 2 2 ( I * I
) N (1) all of samples, the security stage was the longest among the
T 0
where i(t) is the instantaneous value of the leakage current in
the time domain; I is the sample value of the leakage current
in a sampling period; I’ is the transpose of the vector of
measured currents, namely I; N is the number of sampling
points in the sampling period; T is the sampling period; t is the
sample time.
The magnified current plot of the leakage current in Figure
3b implies that the change process of the leakage current
showed the characteristics of stages. They can be classified
into the following stages: 0-50 mA (0-24 min), 50-200 mA
(24-48 min), and >200 mA (after 48 min). They are called
specifically as security stage, forecast stage and danger stage,
respectively. According to the leakage current plots shown in
Figure 3, the full flashover process from the beginning to the
end can be classified into these three stages. It is very
convenient to analyze the characteristics of the contamination
discharge development using these three stages.
For the first approximately 24 minutes the polluted film just
became wet and low leakage currents flew through it without
discharge. Flashover did not happen during the security stage.
Then some kind of faint corona sound occurred, accompanied
by filament-like partial arcs, before the upcoming forecast
stage, which indicated that dry bands did indeed form.
The leakage current fluctuated up and down above 50 mA
in the forecast stage because some partial arcs reignited time
and again. With the passage of time, the corona sound became
louder and louder, accompanied by some arc-flashes which
could often be observed before the danger stage.
After nearly 15 minutes in the forecast stage, the leakage
current showed a sudden leap and both the density and length
of the arcs were increasing. After that, the discharge sound
grew louder and louder. When the arc propagated and
ultimately bridged both ends of the insulator, flashover
occurred and the entire fog chamber was illuminated instantly
and completely. Then the leakage current began to reduce
dramatically.
For the 27 sample insulator strings having flashover, all
their leakage current plots showed the three stages during the
entire discharge process. With the increase of contamination
severity, the duration of the forecast stage would reduce to less
than 20 minutes for Sample No. 5, and the security stage
would continue for a relatively long period, for about more
than 20 minutes. That means that the more severe the
contamination was, the faster the discharge development
became. The durations of the forecast stage and the danger
stage were both shorter, but the security stage was relatively
longer.
The leakage currents show the three development stages:
security stage, forecast stage and danger stage for the entire
Authorized licensed use limited to: NUST School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (SEECS). Downloaded on April 07,2023 at 16:31:50 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
discharge process. After a large number of repeated tests, 50
mA and 150 mA are proposed in this paper as the three-stage
boundary values under typical laboratory conditions. Every
stage of the discharge process had its own characteristics. For
three stages, and also was the normal operation state for the
insulators. Therefore, the contamination flashover should be
prevented as soon as possible, in advance, during the security
stage.
4 LEAKAGE CURRENT WAVEFORMS
AND STAGE ANALYSIS
The current waveforms are different at each stage. Some
typical three-stage leakage current waveform segments of
Sample No. 5 are shown in Figure 4, where ESDD = 0.1
mg/cm2.
Figure 4 shows that the leakage current waveforms at the
beginning of the security stage were somewhat close to
sinusoidal shapes when the polluted film was just wet. The
waveforms then gradually developed into approximately
triangular waves, especially in Security Stage 3. The
waveforms changed from the uniform to the uneven in
Security Stages 4, 5 and 6. That shows that there were a
number of superimposed pulses because many small arcs
occurred. At the security stage the leakage current waveforms
were almost smooth sine waves, then triangular waves and
then distorted triangular waves with discontinuous faint
discharges. Their values were less than 50 mA, and flashover
did not happen at that time.
After entering the forecast stage, the leakage currenst were
significantly more than 50 mA, and the waveforms became
like seriously distorted sine or triangular waves including
sharper peaks. Also, a large number of high-frequency pulses
appeared, with uneven periodicity and zero-crossing during
that stage.
Then the waveforms increased significantly and returned to
the clear sine wave in the danger stage but were no longer
uniform. The changes of this stage can be observed easily
from the waveforms. The waveforms in the danger stage were
similar to the beginning of the security stage. If the arc
propagates and ultimately bridges the insulator, the leakage
current will increase quickly and will result in a flashover. Yet
the intact waveforms could not be seen for the protection
circuit shown as “Flashover” in Figure 4. After the full
flashover the waveforms decreased gradually.
For all test cases having flashover, the features of most of
the leakage current waveforms were similar to Sample No. 5
in Figure 4. In other words, the leakage current waveforms
were basically sine or triangular waves at the security stage.
At the forecast stage, they had a large number of high-
frequency pulses and spikes especially in the wave crest, often
accompanied by zero-crossing phenomena. Yet during the
danger stage, the waveforms showed again similar sinusoidal
shapes and the leakage current increased again.
 IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Vol. 17, No. 2; April 2010
Security stage-1: Sine waves with faint and no visible discharges
Security stage-2: Sine waves, slightly increased magnitudes
Security stage-3: Approximately triangular waves with slight and subtle
audible discharges
Security stage-4: Sharp triangular waves with some visible point pulses
Security stage-5: Sharper triangular waves with discontinue discharge sounds
Security stage-6: Distorted triangular waves with few weak arcs
(a) Security stage waveforms
Forecast stage-1: Distorted waves with sharp peaks
Forecast stage-2: Distorted waves accompanied by intermittent local arcs
Forecast stage-3: Serious distortion with stronger local arcs
(b) Forecast stage waveforms
Authorized licensed use limited to: NUST School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (SEECS). Downloaded on April 07,2023 at 16:31:50 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
495
Danger stage: Non-uniform sine waves with stronger and longer arcs and
larger peaks
Flashover: Arcs increase explosively until the main arc bridges the insulator.
After flashover: Current gradually resumes smaller values.
(c) Before and after flashover.
Figure 4. Stage waveform segments during the entire contamination flashover
process for Sample No. 5 with ESDD = 0.1 mg/cm2.
The three-stage characteristics of the waveforms were very
obvious in the time domain. The leakage current waveforms
can offer useful reference for the direct evaluation of the
contamination discharge stage.
5 POWER SPECTRUM ANALYSIS
5.1 ALGORITHM OF THE LEAKAGE CURRENT
POWER SPECTRUM ESTIMATION
The leakage current is a random signal in nature, which
follows the statistical laws in the time domain and presents the
power feature in the frequency domain. The power spectrum
estimation of the leakage currents not only reflects the power
spectral density in the frequency domain, but also shows the
power distribution of the signal as a function of the frequency
[14, 22]. The present paper attempts to use this new approach
to estimate the leakage currents on the polluted insulator
surface, and, finally, find its stage characteristics in the
frequency domain.
The modern power spectrum estimation methods mainly
include a parametric model and a non-parametric model [23].
The parametric model can simplify a complex process with a
number of variables into a process with only a small number
of parameters. According to the characteristics of the leakage
currents, the auto-regressive (AR) model is selected to make
the spectrum estimation. In the AR model, all signals
researched are regarded as the output when a white noise
sequence w(n) energizes a reversible cause-and-effect linear
system. The output sequence, x(n), can be expressed as:
p
x(n) ¦ ak x(n  k )  w(n) (2)
k 1
where a1, a2, a3…… ap are the AR model parameters.
 496 J. Li et al.: Use of Leakage Currents of Insulators to Determine the Stage Characteristics of the Flashover Process

The Z-transform of equation (3) is: The result of equation (8) is as follows:
N 1
p
 ¦ f m 1(n) g m1 (n  1)
H ( z ) 1 / A( z ) 1 /(1  ¦ ak z ) k
(3) n m
k 1 km N 1 N 1
(9)
2 2
where A(z) is the Z-transform of the sequence x(n); H(z) is the ¦ f m 1(n)  ¦ g m 1(n  1)
n m n m
transfer function of the full-pole system.
where km is the reflection coefficient.
Based on the theory of stationary random signals through
linear systems, the power spectrum of the output sequence x(n) Finally, the reflection coefficient km is introduced into the
is: following recursion algorithm in equations (10) to (12):
m 1
2
PX ( w) V 2 / H ( w) V 2 / 1  ¦ ak e jwk (4) [¦ am 1(k )rx (m  k )  rx (m)]
k 1
km am (m) (10)
2 U m 1
where V is the variance of the white noise sequence. So
when V 2 and the parameters a1, a2, a3…… ap are obtained, the am (k ) am 1(k )  kmam 1(m  k ), k 1, 2! m  1 (11)
power spectrum of output sequence x(n) can be derived by 2
equation (4). Umfb [1  km ]Um 1 (12)
The AR model and linear prediction model are described
All the parameters of the AR model including V 2 and a1, a2,
in [23]. The AR model parameter and the linear prediction
a3…… ap can be obtained.
model coefficient must be one-to-one. That is to say that the
p+1 parameters (a1, a2, ... ap, ı2) of a p-order AR model can
compose a p-order linear prediction model, and the minimum 5.2 POWER SPECTRUM ESTIMATION OF THE
prediction error of the linear predictor is equal to the LEAKAGE CURRENTS
variance of the white noise sequence of an AR model, The power spectral density curves of Sample No. 5 change
namely Umin = ı2. together with time and frequency in the entire contamination
There are many algorithms for solving the AR model flashover process as shown in Figure 5, where the power
parameters. Because of the simplicity and better performance spectrum reference quantity is 1 mW.
of the Burg algorithm [23], the Burg algorithm is applied to In the graph, the density curves of the power spectrum rise
solve the AR model in this paper. The basic idea for the Burg with time that implies that the current energy is increasing
algorithm is to minimize the average power of the forward and gradually like the leakage current growth in the time domain.
backward prediction errors of a linear prediction model. In the The spectrum curves are basically below -100 dB at the
M-th order, the average power of the forward and backward security stage, and break through the level of -100 dB at the
prediction errors can be expressed as: forecast stage. In the moment of an upcoming flashover the
low-frequency part of the spectrum curves is close to 0 dB and
N 1
1 2 significantly higher than 0 dB when the flashover occurs. The
U mf ¦ f (n) (5)
N M nm
three stages of the contamination flashover process in the
power spectrum estimation are marked in Figure 5.
N 1
U mb 1 2 Considering all 27 cases that ended with flashover, their
N M ¦ g (n) (6)
power spectrum curves have their own individual three-stage
nm

f b
boundaries similar to the one shown in Figure 5. The statistics
where U and U are the average power of the forward and
m m shows that it would be more appropriate to classify the three-
backward prediction errors, respectively; f(n) and g(n) are the stage boundaries of the power spectrum based on a moderate
forward and backward prediction errors, respectively; N and M ESDD level, such as Sample No. 5.
are orders. The classification result is as follows: values below -100 dB
f b
The arithmetical mean of U and U is defined as, U :
fb belong to the security stage, values above -100 dB belong to
m m m
the forecast stage, and in the danger stage the low-frequency
1 (U f  U b ) portions of the power spectrum are close to 0 dB.
U mfb (7)
2 m m
It has been confirmed that the three-stage boundary of the
fb
The equation for calculating the minimum value of Um to power spectrum does exist after repeated tests, which indicates
that the stage classification idea that originated from the
the reflection coefficient k m is given by:
leakage current is reasonable and it can be used as another
wU mfb stage pre-warning way in addition to the leakage current and
0 (8) the waveforms.
wkm

Authorized licensed use limited to: NUST School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (SEECS). Downloaded on April 07,2023 at 16:31:50 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Vol. 17, No. 2; April 2010 497

The leakage current values of Sample No. 1 increased

Figure 5. Power spectrum estimation for Sample No. 5 during the entire
contamination flashover process.
In short, the power spectrum density curve will increase
together with the increase of the leakage current. Its entire
process can be classified into three stages like that of the
leakage current: the security stage, forecast stage and danger
stage. Also, the -100 dB level is an important reference value
for the contamination flashover stage pre-warning as the
boundary between security stage and forecast stage.
Both the security stage and the forecast stage are much
longer than the danger stage during the entire discharge
process that can be seen in the figures of the leakage current
and its waveforms. So, it is very important to distinguish
clearly the first two stages for the contamination flashover
stage research. Meanwhile, the security stage is the best choice
to monitor the leakage currents and supply the pre-warning
information.
gradually with the increase of ESDD as shown in Figure 6.
The surface discharge produced more pulses when the
contamination was heavy. The more severe the contamination,
the more frequent the fluctuation of the leakage current values
was, and the quicker the dry bands developed. Take ESDD =
0.3 mg/cm2 as an example: the hissing sound of discharges
could be heard with air ionization when the operating voltage
was applied, and then corona and sparks appeared
continuously during the entire measurement process.
The performance of Sample No. 8 shown in Figure 7 was
similar to that of Sample No. 1 (see Figure 6). Comparing
Figures 6 and 7, the difference between them is that for the
same ESDD level, in most cases the leakage current values of
Sample No. 1 were larger than that of Sample No. 8. The
leakage current fluctuation of Sample No. 1 was also more
obvious than that of Sample No. 8. The main reason for that is
that the leakage distance of Sample No. 8 (anti-pollution
insulator, Type B) is longer than that of Sample No. 1 (cap-and-
pin insulator, Type A). This shows that as a design factor, the
leakage distance has a significant impact on the leakage currents.
The two figures show the test results during a withstand
voltage test that is very similar to the practical leakage
currents. More features of the leakage currents at this stage
should be explored, especially the relationship between the
leakage current and the contamination level.

6 ESDD PREDICTION USING LEAKAGE

CURRENTS IN THE SECURITY STAGE
6.1 LEAKAGE CURRENTS OF INSULATOR
STRING AT FIVE ESDD LEVELS
Contamination on the insulator surface is one of the main
reasons that results in a flashover. Based on the three stages of
the leakage current proposed in previous sections, it is
significant if the contamination levels of the insulator strings
can be estimated ahead of the flashover, and it would be best
to advance into the security stage. Therefore, the relationship
between the leakage current and ESDD during the security
stage will be examined in this section.
For a comprehensive evaluation, a twenty-minute long test
record time was selected under saturated humid conditions. Figure 6. Leakage current of Sample No. 1 during a withstand voltage test.
During the test, the leakage current values of Samples No. 1 Note: the unit of ESDD is mg/cm2.
(Type A insulator) and No. 8 (Type B insulator) were recorded
during the same test period for about 20 minutes under 6.2 THREE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LEAKAGE
constant applied voltage, shown in Figures 6 and 7, CURRENTS
respectively. The features of the leakage current at five ESDD The flashover caused by contamination needs to go through
levels were compared at the security stage before the the four required processes based on the Obenaus model [7-8]
contamination flashover. – see Sections 1 and 3. The leakage current must flow on the

Authorized licensed use limited to: NUST School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (SEECS). Downloaded on April 07,2023 at 16:31:50 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 498 J. Li et al.: Use of Leakage Currents of Insulators to Determine the Stage Characteristics of the Flashover Process
insulator surface when the polluted layer is moist. The mean
value of the leakage current reflects the level of contamination
of different insulator strings under the same operating
condition. As is shown in Figures 6 and 7, if the contamination
is more severe, the mean value of the leakage current is larger.
With the test duration, the dry bands develop gradually on the
polluted surface. The thickness and width of the dry bands can
be reflected through the magnitude and number of current
pulses. The magnitude of the largest pulse is the maximum
value of the leakage current. The more severe the
contamination is, the larger the maximum value is. The
standard deviation of the leakage current can be visualized as
the number of pulses. A larger pulse number corresponds to a
greater standard deviation. When the conditions are
appropriate, partial arcs develop continuously until the
ultimate flashover.
Figure 7. Leakage current of Sample No. 8 during a withstand voltage test.
Note: the unit of ESDD is mg/cm2.
The three characteristics of the leakage current reveal
jointly how severe the actual contamination level of the
insulator surface is. This is a new viewpoint at the security
stage of the flashover process. The leakage currents in Figures
6 and 7 can be analyzed quantitatively, i.e., numerically, based
on the three characteristics.
The three characteristics, i.e., the mean value, maximum
value and standard deviation of the leakage current, are
proposed as follows:
N
I em (¦i 1 I e (i )) N (13)
I e max max( I e (i )) (14)
Authorized licensed use limited to: NUST School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (SEECS). Downloaded on April 07,2023 at 16:31:50 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
N
V ¦ i 1
( I e (i )  I em ) 2 N (15)
where N is the total number of sampling points in the test time;
I e (i ) is the leakage current value in one sampling period;
I em is the mean value of leakage current during the test time;
I e max is the maximum value of leakage current during the test
time; V is the standard deviation of leakage current during
the test time.
The standard deviation, V , represents the degree of
deviation between each sampling value and the mean value
and also means the discrete distribution degree among all
sampling points during the test time.
The three characteristics of the leakage current are related to
the physical phenomena of the contamination discharge
described above. They build a quantitative relationship
between the leakage current and the contamination level of the
insulator.
7 NEURAL NETWORK MODEL FOR
PREDICTING ESDD
It is desired to estimate how severe the contamination is on
the insulator surface. The emphasis of this problem is to find
the appropriate information based on the leakage currents of
various insulator strings. The information should be made
available from different tower locations at the same test period
under the same conditions, such as operating voltage, ambient
relative humidity and current temperature. The evaluation
results can provide a guide for the operators about the possible
cleaning of the insulators. That is basically the ultimate aim of
the detection of the leakage current.
The prediction model should meet the engineering
requirements with sufficient reliability and convenience,
especially for the model construction and data processing.
Based on the results above, the three characteristics of the
leakage current can be used as inputs for the prediction model
in combination with the applied voltage and the relative
humidity.
7.1. BUILDING OF THE NEURAL NETWORK MODEL
FOR CONTAMINATION PREDICTION
Artificial neural network (ANN), which has a high degree
of self-learning, self-organization and adaptive capacity, can
be used in many problems requiring function approximation,
modeling, pattern recognition and classification, estimation
and prediction, etc. [24-26]. In order to predict the
contamination level of the insulators, the most widely used
back propagation (BP) neural network model (NNM) has been
selected to construct the model for the two insulators.
First, the prediction model is established according to the
correlation of Sample No. 1. The neurons of the input layer
include the three characteristics, I em , I e max and V , the
 IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Vol. 17, No. 2; April 2010 499

relative humidity RH, and the applied voltage U. The hidden between the simulation results (S) and actual results (A) are
layer has twelve neural units. The output is ESDD, namely the less than 7.5 %. In Case 2, the relative error is the largest, 7.24
contamination level. The simulator of BP NNM uses the back %. The average of the absolute values of the ten relative errors
propagation algorithm with supervised learning. is 3.6 %. Therefore, the precision of the new ESDD prediction
The convergence property and accuracy of the learning model proposed in this paper is reliable for practical
process for the ANN is significantly dependent on the scaling engineering applications, in order to prevent contamination
of the input-output data. Hence before training BP ANN, the flashovers, or at least to reduce the number of flashovers.
normalization of input-output data should be carried out. RH is
Table 2. Comparison of the results at various ESDD levels.
almost 100 % and U is fixed at 20.2 kV RMS (phase to ground
Nominal Actual Simulation
voltage), in the entire test process, so their input values are Ins. ESDD ESDD ESDD D
normalized to be 1. V is located in the range of [0, 1] No. (mg/cm2) (mg/cm2) (mg/cm2) (%)
originally, and there is no need to transform it any more. 0.03 0.035 0.0364 4.00
Sample 0.05 0.029 0.0269 7.24
Finally, I em and I e max are normalized into the range [0, 1] No. 1 0.10 0.129 0.1343 4.11
based on equation (16): 0.20 0.190 0.1897 0.16
0.30 0.310 0.3210 3.55
xi ( x i  x min ) /( x max  x min ) (16) 0.03 0.030 0.0299 0.33
Sample 0.05 0.046 0.0480 4.35
where x min and x max are the minimum and maximum values No. 8 0.10 0.096 0.0924 3.75
0.20 0.221 0.2330 5.43
of x i , respectively. Based on the experiments, I e max is 0.30 0.281 0.2720 3.20

generally less than 250 mA, and I em is below 50 mA at the

Based on the inputs of the three characteristics, I em , I e max
security stage for the insulators at saturated humid conditions
and V , the prediction model built by BP ANN can estimate
of 35 kV transmission line.
the ESDD of different insulators quite accurately. The model
can provide an early decision-making help for the operation
7.2 TRAINING DATA, ANALYSIS OF RESULTS staff, such as the cleaning or replacement of heavily
contaminated insulators. Once the prediction model has been
According to the regression equations of the three
set up, it needs only a short time to process the entire set of
characteristics and ESDD tested in the laboratory, 50 points
data. This point is most important for field applications.
were chosen as training data for Sample No. 1. In order to
increase the reliability, Sample No. 8 was tested and recorded
just like Sample No. 1. Ten sets of measured data in the range
of training array for each insulator type were used to verify the
network performance. Then the final optimal ANN used to
predict the ESDD was obtained.
Before the preparation of the contamination level, the
nominal (i.e., objective, target) ESDD value should be
established. There are many interrelated features in the entire
experiment, especially in the preparation of the pollution
layers, such as weight, ratio of the material components,
uniformity of dissolution, etc. Therefore, the actual ESDD
values used in the tests are almost always deviate somewhat
from the nominal ESDD and errors are practically inevitable.
The actual ESDD must be determined by the measurement
before placing the prepared samples into the fog chamber. The
final ESDD simulation result should be closer to the actual
ESDD value than to the nominal ESDD value. Based on
equation (17), the nominal, actual, and simulated ESDD
values are all listed in Table 2. The relative errors (in fact,
their absolute values) are calculated and also shown in Table 2.
D S  A A * 100% (17)
Figure 8. Flow chart of the entire prediction process.
where D is the relative error, S is the simulation result and A is
the actual result (the reference quantity); their units are The flow chart in Figure 8 shows the entire prediction
mg/cm2. process. It can help to understand the applied method of the
Table 2 shows that the absolute values of all relative errors field conditions.

Authorized licensed use limited to: NUST School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (SEECS). Downloaded on April 07,2023 at 16:31:50 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 500 J. Li et al.: Use of Leakage Currents of Insulators to Determine the Stage Characteristics of the Flashover Process
There are many insulator strings along a specific three-
phase power line. The first step is to select a few insulator
strings before beginning the test. These insulator strings are at
those observation points that should be representative and
convenient for detection.
8 CONCLUSIONS
The contamination flashover is still a major problem for the
reliability of power system operation. The traditional
contamination flashover research focuses on the prediction of
the flashover voltage. In general, that is used to improve the
insulator design and insulation coordination. However, as of
now there is still no acceptable method to predict the
contamination flashover that can be applied to engineering
practice due to various reasons.
It is critical to analyze the characteristics of the leakage
currents during the entire contamination flashover process.
After a large number of experiments with 35 kV transmission
line porcelain insulators in the salt fog chamber, several
results can be summarized as follows:
1) Three stages of the development of the leakage current
during the entire process of contamination flashover are
classified: the security stage, forecast stage and danger
stage.
2) The combined (joint) characteristics in the time domain
and frequency domain lead to a very comprehensive
description of the leakage current and the entire
contamination flashover process.
3) The three-stage boundary values of the leakage currents
are 50 mA and 150 mA in the time domain, and -100 dB
and 0 dB in the spectrum domain.
4) Of the three stages, the security stage appears to be the
optimal one for contamination flashover pre-warning.
5) The three new characteristics of the leakage current in
the security stage, I em , I e max and V , and the
contamination levels on the surface of porcelain
insulator strings are inter-related.
6) The new prediction model proposed in this paper can
provide a reliable guide about the surface contamination
levels during the security stage. It is accurate and can
satisfy the engineering practice with its less than 3.6 %
average relative error (absolute values).
7) It has been also verified that the flashover probability of
porcelain insulators with longer leakage distance is
lower than that of the ordinary insulators at the same
contamination severity.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by the National Key Basic
Research Development Program--973 (2009CB724503) and
the Postgraduates’ Science and Innovation Fund of Chongqing
University (200707C1C0070244).
Authorized licensed use limited to: NUST School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (SEECS). Downloaded on April 07,2023 at 16:31:50 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
REFERENCES
[1] Z. Y. Xu, “To Intensify the Basic External Insulation Level of Power
System -- Fundamental Way for the Prevention of Large-Scale Pollution
Flashover”, Electric Power, Vol. 36, pp. 57-61, 2003 (in Chinese).
[2] N. G. Ramos and R. M. T. Campillo, “A Study on the Characteristics of
Various Conductive Contaminants Accumulated on High Voltage
Insulators”, IEEE Trans. Power Delivery, Vol. 8, pp. 1842-1850, 1993.
[3] Y. Mizuno, H. Kusada and K. Naito, “Effect of Climatic Conditions on
Contamination Flashover Voltage of Insulators”, IEEE Trans. Dielectr.
Electr. Insul., Vol. 4, pp. 286-289, 1997.
[4] CIGRE TF 33.04.03, “Insulation Pollution Monitoring”, Electra, Paris,
France, no. 152, pp. 79-89, Feb. 1994.
[5] B. Marungsri, H. Shinokubo, R. Matsuoka and S. Kumagai, "Effect of
Specimen Configuration on Deterioration of Silicone Rubber for
Polymer Insulators in Salt Fog Ageing Test", IEEE Trans. Dielectr.
Electr. Insul., Vol. 13, pp. 129-138, 2006.
[6] S. Kumagai and N. Yoshimura, "Leakage Current Characterization for
Estimating the Conditions of Ceramic and Polymeric Insulating
Surfaces", IEEE Trans. Dielectr. Electr. Insul., Vol. 11, pp. 681-690,
2004.
[7] F. Obenaus, “Contamination Flashover and Creepage Path Length”,
Deutsche Elektrotechnik, Vol. 12, pp. 135-136, 1958.
[8] R. Sundararajan, R. S. Gorur, “Dynamic Arc Modeling of Pollution
Flashover of Insulators under DC Voltage”, IEEE Trans. Electr. Insul.,
Vol. 28, pp. 209-218, 1993.
[9] M. G. Danikas, “Simulation of the Dry Band Problem on Outdoor
Insulators”, J. Electrical Engineering, Vol. 51, pp. 203-206, 2000.
[10] G. K. Amaldo and F. B. Geraldo, “Leakage Current Monitoring of
Insulators Exposed to Marine and Industrial Pollution”, IEEE Intern
Symp. Electr. Insul. (ISEI), Montreal, Canada, pp. 271-274, 1996.
[11] I. Ramirez-Vazquez and J. L. Fierro-Chavez, “Criteria for the Diagnostic
of Polluted Ceramic Insulators Based on the Leakage Current
Monitoring Technique”, IEEE Conf. Electr. Insul. Dielectr. Phenomena
(CEIDP), Austin, USA, pp. 715-718, 1999.
[12] T. Suda, “Frequency Characteristics of Leakage Current Waveforms of
an Artificially Polluted Suspension Insulator”, IEEE Trans. Dielectr.
Electr. Insul., Vol. 8, pp. 705-710, 2001.
[13] T. Suda and S. Member, “Frequency Characteristics of Leakage Current
Waveforms of a String of Suspension Insulators”, IEEE Trans. Power
Delivery, Vol. 20, pp. 481-488, 2005.
[14] A. H. El-Hag, S. H. Jayaram and E. A. Cherney, “Low Frequency
Harmonic Components of Leakage Current as a Diagnostic Tool to
Study Aging of Silicone Rubber Insulators”, IEEE Conf. Electr. Insul.
Dielectr. Phenomena (CEIDP), pp. 579-600, 2001.
[15] S. Chandrasekar, C. Kalaivanan, A. Cavallini and G. C. Montanari
“Investigations on Leakage Current and Phase Angle Characteristics of
Porcelain and Polymeric Insulator under Contaminated Conditions”,
IEEE Trans. Dielectr. Electr. Insul., Vol. 16, pp. 574-583, 2009.
[16] J. Y. Li, C. X. Sun, W. X. Sima, Q. Yang, “Stage Pre-Warning Based on
Leakage Current Characteristics before Contamination Flashover of
Porcelain and Glass Insulators ”, IET Trans. Gen., Trans. and Distr., Vol.
3, pp. 605-615, 2009.
[17] IEC 60507, Artificial Pollution Tests on High Voltage Insulators (a.c.),
1997.
[18] W. G. Chen, C. G. Yao, C. X. Sun, L. Du and R. J. Liao, “A New
Broadband Micro-Current Transducer for Insulator Leakage Current
Monitoring System”, IEEE Trans. Power Delivery, Vol. 23, pp. 355-361,
2008.
[19] S. Venkataraman and R. S. Gorur, “Prediction of Flashover Voltage of
Non-ceramic Insulators under Contaminated Conditions”, IEEE Trans.
Dielectr. Electr. Insul., Vol. 15, pp. 467-475, 2008.
[20] H.-J. Kloes, D. Koenig and M. G. Danikas, "Electrical Surface
Discharges on Wet Polymer Surfaces", 8th Int. Symp. Gas. Diel.,
Virginia Beach, USA, pp. 489-495, 1998.
[21] S. Keim and D. Koenig, “The Dynamic Behaviour of Water Drops in an
AC Field”, IEEE Conf. Electr. Insul. Dielectr. Phenomena (CEIDP), pp.
613-616, 2001.
[22] F. Amarh, G. G. Karady, R. Sundararajan, “Linear Stochastic Analysis
of Polluted Insulator Leakage Current”, IEEE Trans. Power Delivery,
Vol. 17, pp. 1063-1070, 2002.
[23] X. D. Zhang, Modern Signal Processing, Tsinghua University Press,
Beijing, Ch.3, 1994 (in Chinese).
 IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Vol. 17, No. 2; April 2010
[24] A. N. Jahromi, A. H. El-Hag and S. H. Jayaram, "A Neural Network
Based Method for Leakage Current Prediction of Polymeric Insulators”,
IEEE Trans. Power Delivery, Vol. 21, pp. 506-507, 2006.
[25] M. Ugur, D. W. Auckland and B. R. Varlow, “Neural Networks to
Analyze Surface Tracking on Solid Insulators”, IEEE Trans. Dielectr.
Electr. Insul., Vol. 4, pp. 763-767, 1997.
[26] V. T. Kontargyri, A. A. Gialketsi, G. J. Tsekouras, I. F. Gonos, I. A.
Stathopulos, “Design of an Artificial Neural Network for the Estimation
of the Flashover Voltage of Insulators”, Electric Power System Research,
Vol. 77, pp. 1532-1540, 2007.
Jingyan Li was born in Henan, China. She
received the B.Sc. degree in electrical engineering
from Wuhan University, Wuhan, China, in 2000. She
joined Henan Polytechnic University in 2000 as a
faculty member in the College of Electrical
Engineering, Henan Polytechnic University. Since
2005 she has been a graduate student in the College
of Electrical Engineering, Chongqing University. She
is currently engaged in research on high voltage
device on-line monitoring and fault diagnosis for her
Ph.D. thesis study. In 2008-2009 she was a visiting scholar in the Department
of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The Ohio State University
Columbus, Ohio, USA.
Wenxia Sima was born in Henan, China. She
graduated from Chongqing University in 1988 and
obtained the Ph.D. degree in 1994 from Chongqing
University. Her employment experience includes the
College of Electrical Engineering of Chongqing
University. Her fields of interest include high voltage
outdoor insulation and overvoltage protection.
Authorized licensed use limited to: NUST School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (SEECS). Downloaded on April 07,2023 at 16:31:50 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
501
Caixin Sun was born in Chongqing, China, on 13
December 1944. He graduated with a degree in
electrical engineering from Chongqing University,
Chongqing, China, in 1969. He is a member of the
Chinese Academy of Engineering, professor and a
doctorate advisor in the College of Electrical
Engineering of Chongqing University, as well as the
director of the State Key Laboratory of High Voltage
Engineering and Electrical New Technology,
Ministry of Education. His current research activities
include on-line detection of insulation condition and insulation fault diagnosis
for HV apparatus, discharge mechanism in complex environment, geography
information system, and high voltage technique applied in biomedicine. He is
an author of over 200 publications and inventions. He is a standing Director of
the Chinese Electrotechnical Society and one of the Directors of the Chinese
Society for Electrical Engineering.
Stephen A. Sebo (M’68-SM’74-F’93-LF’02)
received the M.S.E.E. and the Ph.D. degrees in
Hungary. In Hungary, he was a Laboratory Engineer
of the Budapest Electric Company, and later, a
faculty member of the Budapest Polytechnical
University. In 1968 he joined The Ohio State
University in the U.S.A. Since 1974 he has been a
Full Professor there. Professor Sebo was named the
1981 recipient of the Power Educator Award by the
association of electric utility companies of the
U.S.A., and received the 1982 Best Paper Award of the IEEE Power
Engineering Society with Ross Caldecott. In 1995-2003 he was the Neal A.
Smith Professor at OSU. Since 2003 he has been a Professor Emeritus. His
current research focuses on high voltage engineering, electric power systems,
and EMC topics.