HV INSULATION

 The rapidly increasing transmission voltage level in recent decades is a

result of the growing demand for electric power, and distant power plants.
 High voltages permit greater power transfer with minimum losses
 It is imperative to gain understanding in areas such as high voltage
insulation, high voltage tests and test equipment.
 Electrical materials are described as insulating (dielectric), conducting
(conductor) or magnetic materials.
 Conductor and magnetic materials are frequently called active materials.

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 PURPOSE OF HV INSULATION
 The main purpose of electrical insulating materials, as their name implies, is to reliably
insulate the live parts of electrical installations from one another and from earthed
structural components.
 Insulation level affects equipment quality and cost
 Forms of insulation(dielectrics): gaseous, liquid or solid

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 ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES OF DIELECTRICS
Conductivity
In contrast to conducting materials, electrical insulating materials must poses very low
conductivity. The ability of dielectrics to conduct current is characterised by their volume
and surface resistivities (or specific resistances).
Insulation resistance depends: temperature, humidity, surface contamination
Dielectric Loss
A dielectric (insulation) subjected to a varying electric field produced by an alternating
voltage applied to it absorbs some of the electric energy which is transformed into heat in
the dielectric. This loss of energy is called dielectric loss.

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 ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES OF DIELECTRICS
Permittivity of the Dielectric
 If a voltage is applied to a dielectric, there develops an electric field, under the
influence of which the bound electric charges of the atoms and the molecules of the
dielectric will be displaced.
 This phenomenon of the elastic displacement of electric charges under the influence of
electric field forces is called dielectric polarisation .
 The dielectric polarisation is quantitatively evaluated in terms of the relative
permittivity.
 The permittivity of a dielectric depends on temperature and frequency of the applied
voltage. A

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 ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES OF DIELECTRICS
Electric Field Strength
 If a voltage is applied to an insulating material and is increased gradually, an instant
will be reached when the quality of the insulation will sharply deteriorate and its
electrical failure or breakdown will ensue.
 As a result of the breakdown, the insulation resistance drops sharply, which causes a
short-circuit between current-carrying parts.
 The voltage at which breakdown of insulation occurs is called breakdown voltage.
 The breakdown stress of a dielectric is referred to as the electric field strength (or
dielectric strength) of the material. It is one of the main insulation characteristics.

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 ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES OF DIELECTRICS
Electric Field Strength

Example
A dielectric of thickness 5mm is subject to a breakdown voltage of 100kV. Determine the
breakdown stress on it

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 NON-ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES OF DIELECTRICS
Thermal Stability
For long and reliable operation, insulating materials must possess high thermal stability.
Physical properties of materials generally drop off to lower values with the rise in
temperature
Cooling is employed to improve thermal stability
Chemical behaviour
Chemical behaviour relates to the effect of the environment on the insulating material. The
most common environment is air containing moisture. The oxygen in the air can oxidise
the insulation at a temperature until it loses its necessary physical properties detrimentally.
The oxygen can also hydrolyse and degrade some insulation
Mechanical Strength
In general, toughness is the main requirement here. Stiffness modulus should be high for a
rigid structure or low for wire insulation
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 INSULATION BREAKDOWN
Definition:
The loss of insulating properties
How it happens:
Introduction of conductive substances, ionisation or both
Causes:
Heat, impurities, High voltages, high frequencies, exposure to radiation
Effects:
Short-circuits, electric shocks, equipment damage
Types
Breakdown in Gases, Liquids, Solids

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 INSULATION BREAKDOWN IN GASES
TOWNSEND BREAKDOWN PROCESS
The Townsend breakdown mechanism is based on the generation of successive secondary avalanches to
produce breakdown. Suppose a free electron exists (caused by some external effect such as radio-activity or
cosmic radiation) in a gas where an electric field exists. If the field strength is sufficiently high, then it is
likely to ionize a gas molecule by simple collision resulting in 2 free electrons and a positive ion. These 2
electrons will be able to cause further ionization by collision leading in general to 4 electrons and 3 positive
ions.

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 INSULATION BREAKDOWN IN GASES

STREAMER MECHANISM
This type of breakdown mainly arises due to the added effect of the space-charge field of an avalanche and
photo-electric ionization in the gas volume. While the Townsend mechanism predicts a diffused form of
discharge, in actual practice many discharges are found to be filamentary and irregular. The Streamer theory
predicts the development of a spark discharge directly from a single avalanche. The space charge produced
in the avalanche causes sufficient distortion of the electric field that those free electrons move towards the
avalanche head, and in so doing generate further avalanches in a process that rapidly becomes cumulative.
As the electrons advance rapidly, the positive ions are left behind in a relatively slow-moving tail.

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 INSULATION BREAKDOWN IN LIQUID
 liquid dielectrics, breakdown is controlled by a phenomenon similar to those for gasses.
 Liquids have higher dielectric field strength than gases Unfortunately, liquids are easily
contaminated, and may contain solids, other liquids in suspension and dissolved gasses.
 These impurities have breakdown strength lower than that of the liquid itself.
 If voltage is applied continuously to a liquid , the solid impurities line up at right angles
to equipotential, and distort the field so that breakdown occurs at relatively low voltage.
 Also under the action of the electric field, dissolved gasses may come out of solution,
forming a bubble. The gas in the bubble has a lower strength than the liquid, so that
more gas is produced and the bubble grows, ultimately causing breakdown.
 Because, of the tendency to become contaminated, liquids are usual used in conjunction
with solids which act as barriers, preventing the line-up of solid impurities and
localizing of any bubbles which may form. The main function of the liquid in such
arrangements is to fill up the voids
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 INSULATION BREAKDOWN IN SOLIDS
Electro-mechanical breakdown
When an electric field is applied to a dielectric between two electrodes, a mechanical
force will be exerted on the dielectric due to the force of attraction between the surface
charges. This compression decreases the dielectric thickness with time thus increasing the
effective stress.

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 INSULATION BREAKDOWN IN SOLIDS
Breakdown due to internal discharges
 Solid insulating materials sometimes contain voids or cavities in the medium or
boundaries between the dielectric and the electrodes.
 These voids have a dielectric constant of unity and a lower dielectric strength. Hence
the electric field strength in the voids is higher than that across the dielectric.
 Thus even under normal working voltages, the field in the voids may exceed their
breakdown value and breakdown may occur which eventually cause the breakdown of
the entire dielectric

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 INSULATION BREAKDOWN IN SOLIDS
Surface Breakdown (tracking and erosion)
(i) Surface flashover: Surface flashover is a breakdown of the medium in which the solid
is immersed. The role of the solid dielectric is only to distort the field so that the electric
strength of the gas is exceeded.
The three essential components of the surface flashover phenomena are: o
 the presence of a conducting film across the surface of the insulation o

 a mechanism whereby the leakage current through the conducting film is interrupted
with the production of sparks,
 o degradation of the insulation must be caused by the sparks.

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 High Voltage Test Equipment

 Power systems engineers are interested in high voltages primarily for

power transmission, and for testing of equipment used in power
transmission.
 With regards to testing of equipment, the high voltages must be generated
at the laboratory.
 In many testing laboratories, the primary source of power is at low voltage
(415V three-phase or 240V single phase, at 50 Hz).
 Thus a number of techniques are employed to obtain the high voltages
from the low voltages.
 Thus special methods may be used which are not applicable when
generating high voltage in high power applications
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 High Voltage Test Equipment
 Power frequency high voltage generators
Cascade arrangement of transformers
Resonant transformers

 High frequency high alternating voltage generators

High frequency (few kHz to MHz) high voltages are required in testing apparatus for
behavior with switching surges, insulation flashover etc. The importance of testing with high
frequency is that high frequency oscillations cause failure of insulator at comparatively low
voltage due to high dielectric loss and consequent heating.

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 High Voltage Test Equipment
 High direct voltage generators
Generation of high direct voltages are required in the testing of high voltage direct
current apparatus as well as in testing the insulation of cables and capacitors where the
use of alternating voltage test sets becomes impractical due to the steady high charging
currents. Impulse generator charging units also require high direct voltages as their input.

 Generation of impulse voltage

In order that equipment designed to be used on high voltage lines, and others, be able to
withstand surges caused in them during operation, it is necessary to test these equipment
with voltages of the form likely to be met in service. Lightning surge voltages are
represented artificially by impulse waveforms.

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 High Voltage Testing
Introduction
 Electrical equipment must be capable of withstanding over voltages during operation

 High voltage testing can be broadly classified into testing of insulating materials
(samples of dielectrics) and tests on completed equipment

 The tests carried out on samples of dielectric consist generally of the measurement of
permittivity, dielectric loss per unit volume, and the dielectric strength of the material

 The tests carried out on completed equipment are the measurement of capacitance, the
power factor or the total dielectric loss, the ultimate breakdown voltage and the flash-
over voltage
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 High Voltage Testing
Sustained Low Frequency Test
 Sustained low frequency tests are done at power frequency (50Hz), and are the
commonest of all tests. These tests are performed on specimens of insulation materials
for the determination of dielectric strength and dielectric loss, for routine testing of
supply mains, and for work tests on high voltage transformers, porcelain insulators and
other apparatus.
High voltage direct current tests
 These tests are done on apparatus expected to operate under direct voltage conditions,
and also where, due to the inconvenience of the use of high capacity transformers
required for extra high tension alternating voltage tests and due to transport difficulties,
alternating voltage tests cannot be performed after installation.

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 High Voltage Testing
High Frequency Tests
High frequency tests at frequencies varying from several kHz are important where there
is a possibility of high frequency in the lines etc., and in insulators which are expected to
carry high frequency such as radio transmitting stations.
Surge Impulse Tests
These tests are carried out in order to investigate the influence of surges in transmission
lines, breakdown of insulators and of the end turns of transformer connections to lines.
Flash Over Tests
The flash-over is due to a breakdown of air at the insulator surface, and is independent of
the material of the insulator. As the flash-over under wet conditions and dry conditions
differ, tests such as the one minute dry flash-over test and the one minute wet flash-over
test are performed
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 SURGES IN TRANSMISSION LINES DUE TO LIGHTNING

Lightning
Lightning is typically an electrostatic discharge ESD; a discharge of stored electricity in
clouds. This discharge may occur between two points in the clouds, or between a cloud
(ionosphere) and the surface of the earth.
Some of the favorable ingredients that aid the striking of lightning in a particular place are
magnetic objects, radioactive substances, high mountains, tall buildings and pointed
church spires, etc.
The location of places which are vulnerable to lightning strikes when a storm develops in
the area is determined by the nature of the soil and subsoil.
At lightning-prone places, these soils may contain elements which are magnetic,
conductive or radioactive, the most vulnerable is when all three element types occur
closely together.

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 SURGES IN TRANSMISSION LINES DUE TO LIGHTNING

How Lightning causes surges on the transmission line

At every point in the atmosphere, there exists a certain potential gradient and a current
density
On account of the concentration of the positive charges on the upper portion of the
atmosphere and the concentration of the negative charges at its bottom, the breakdown of
the gaseous dielectric of the atmosphere takes place and lightning occurs
The additional negative charges would finally result in the overvoltage surge on the
transmission line.

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 SURGES IN TRANSMISSION LINES DUE TO LIGHTNING

Ways in which lightning affect transmission line

There are two main ways in which lightning affects the transmission line:
By direct stroke, when the lightning discharges come in direct contact with the line and

By indirect stroke or electrostatic induction, when the lightning does not strike any part of
the line, but rather strikes near to the line.

The important characteristic of indirect stroke is the length of time taken to produce the
discharge and it is usually directed towards the highest and most sharply pointed objects in
the surrounding.

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 SURGES IN TRANSMISSION LINES DUE TO LIGHTNING

Protection of transmission line against lightning surges

Overhead ground wires are provided on transmission lines to intercept direct strokes of
lightning and thus keep it off the phase conductor, and to reduce the surge current and
hence the overvoltage .

The earth wires are placed over the overhead lines in such a way that they interrupt the
lightning strokes and drain them to earth.

But such a shield is inadequate to provide protection against travelling waves or surges
caused by lightning and which reach the terminals of the electrical equipment.

The protective devices against travelling surges are the Surge Modifiers and Surge
Diverters (Lightning Arresters).
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 SURGES IN TRANSMISSION LINES DUE TO LIGHTNING

Protection of transmission line against lightning surges(contd.)

Surge modifiers
Surge modifiers are connected in series with the line at the substation terminals.

Surge modifiers do absorb some of the surge energy and flattens the wavefront of the
incoming wave.

The surge modifiers often used in power system practice are surge absorbers, arcing
ground suppressers, earthing coils (Peterson coils) and water-jet resistances. Cables also
act as surge modifiers

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 SURGES IN TRANSMISSION LINES DUE TO LIGHTNING

Protection of transmission line against lightning surges(contd.)

Surge diverters
Surge diverters are connected between the line terminal and earth at the substation, and
always act in parallel with the equipment which they are expected to protect.
They simply divert the surge to earth. The principal forms of surge diverters used in
practice are lightning arresters such as horn-gap arresters, sphere-gap arresters, rod-gap
arresters, etc.
The electrical characteristics of an ideal surge diverter or lightning arrester can thus be
• The discharge current during breakdown should not be excessive so as to damage the
surge diverter.
• The normal frequency current after the breakdown should be interrupted as soon as the
transient voltage has fallen below the breakdown value
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