Study On Leakage Current Characteristics and Electrical Equivalent
Study On Leakage Current Characteristics and Electrical Equivalent
Study On Leakage Current Characteristics and Electrical Equivalent
ICPERE 2018
Abstract—The most common kind of insulators that is power cables, insulator has 35% portion in contributing to the
currently used as outdoor insulators is ceramic insulator, for their power system failures where 90% of the failures caused by the
advantageous characteristics such as high resistance against insulators come from insulation problems [1]-[3]. The failure of
thermal and corrosion as well as good mechanical strength. insulator can originate from the thermal stress such as leakage
However, especially in areas with high humidity and high current that continuously increase along the aging, UV radiation
pollutant level, the replacement frequency of ceramic or glass and environmental effects, or mechanical stress from the
insulators are quite often due to the pollutant that easily stick on conductors. Field insulators that are constantly exposed to these
the insulators surface can decrease the insulator performance, stresses in a long period of time would eventually experience
causing flashover to occur sooner than it is supposed to. Polymer breakdown, whether in a flashover form or mechanical
insulator is then introduced to solve this problem since it has better breakdown.
hydrophobicity which allows it to repel pollutants and light in
weight. There have been many research conducted regarding Indonesia as a tropical country has rather high UV radiation
polymer insulator, but until now the field implementation is still intensity with temperature that reaches 39.5°C, humidity level
limited, especially in Indonesia. The effect of the tropical climate that reaches 87% and relatively high yearly rainfall that reaches
and high pollution level still has to be continuously studied on the 3,548 mm [4]-[6]. Besides, Indonesia has the second longest
polymer insulator performance. One of the parameters that coastline in the world which is more than 81,000 km in total
determine the performance quality of an insulator is leakage that also makes insulator usage in coastal area become
current (LC). This paper discusses the leakage current extremely crucial due to the high sea salt pollution level [7].
characteristics of a polymer insulator when it is artificially aged Currently the most commonly used kinds of insulator in
and affected by different environmental condition. Additionally, Indonesia are ceramic insulator and glass insulator. Especially
electrical equivalent circuit parameters of polymer insulator in in the coastal area, both kinds of insulators are regularly
each environmental conditions are also studied through simulation replaced with the new ones due to the effect of constant
of outdoor insulator using ATPDraw software. There are eight
exposure in a severe environmental condition. Consequently, a
different LC waveforms consisting of new and aged polymer
insulator from each experimental conditions (4 different
mitigation against this problem is required to minimize the
conditions) that are compared and taken into simulation to impact to the power system.
analyze the electrical equivalent circuit parameters such as Some improvements that have been performed in this area
capacitance, nonlinear resistance, and number of arc models of include choosing the suitable insulator material, determining a
each polymer insulator condition. The key parameters that suitable insulator design, determining the number of insulator
determine the similarity between the measured and simulated LC string (suspension type), surface treatment of insulators, or any
waveforms include the LC magnitude, Total Harmonic Distortion
other improvement on the diagnosis and maintenance method
(THD) and dominant harmonic number.
[8]. In this paper, the improvement method that is discussed is
the use of polymer insulator. The polymer insulator has some
Keywords—electrical equivalent circuit; outdoor insulator;
advantages which are high hydrophobicity that allows it to repel
polymer insulator; leakage current waveform; computer simulation pollutant effectively, light in weight, safer in products delivery,
I. INTRODUCTION and cheaper installation cost [9]-[11]. The polymer insulator
has better dielectric strength due to its design and housing
Insulator as one of the high voltage equipment that has an material that is made from hydrophobic transfer materials
important role in a power system turned out to have the most (HTMs). The hydrophobic characteristic of a polymer insulator
impact to power delivery interruption when it experiences surface can prevent the formation of a layer consisting of water
failures during operation. Compared to the other HV equipment and other contaminants on the insulator surface, which can
such as generators, transformers, GIS and switchgears, or
1C31-2 The 4th IEEE Conference on Power Engineering and Renewable Energy
ICPERE 2018
further reduce the leakage current flow that if not controlled, The output of this LC measurement test is LC waveforms
could initiate a flashover occurrence. Similarly to ceramic that are recorded through an oscilloscope. Beside the LC
insulator, polymer insulator that are constantly charged for a magnitude, FFT is also performed on these waveforms to get
period of time would undeniably experience aging and can be other output data such as THD and dominant harmonic number.
affected by environmental condition. THD is obtained through equation (1) below.
II. EXPERIMENT AND SIMULATION ∑
(1)
A. Samples
The sample that is used in this experiment is 24 kV where In is the nth harmonic number with n = 2,3,4, and so on,
suspension (dead-end) silicon rubber (SiR) polymer insulator, and I1 is called as fundamental harmonic [15].
as shown in Fig 1. Some samples of this type are provided with
two kinds of treatment, which are non-aging process (fairly C. Simulation
new) and aging process (aged sample). The aging process is The LC waveforms that are obtained from each experiments
conducted artificially through fluorescent UV exposure test and are taken into simulation afterward. The method is to recreate
water penetration test according to ANSI C.29 13-2000 [12]. as similar as possible LC waveforms (with the measured LC
waveforms) by performing simulation on an electrical
equivalent circuit of outdoor insulators, so that each electrical
equivalent circuit properties such as capacitance, nonlinear
resistance and number of arc models can be identified to
represent the condition of the insulator itself. The parameters
that determine the similarity between measured and simulated
LC waveforms are the LC magnitude, THD and dominant
Fig 1. 24 kV suspension SiR polymer insulator samples harmonic number.
In order to obtain the similar LC waveforms from the
B. Experimental Condition
measurement test, there are two types of electrical equivalent
The main purpose of this experiment is to investigate the LC circuit that are used in the simulation of outdoor insulator,
characteristics of new and aged polymer insulators under which are the electrical equivalent circuit of outdoor insulator
various environmental conditions. There are four for symmetrical waveform and unsymmetrical waveform as
environmental conditions that are set up in the laboratory during shown in Fig 2 below [15]-[16].
the experiments that consist of the presence and absence of
water content as well as pollutant on the insulator surface. In
brief, variation on environmental condition in this experiment
is shown in Table I.
TABLE I. VARIOUS EXPERIMENTAL CONDITIONS OF THE LC MEASUREMENT
TEST
III. EXPERIMENT AND SIMULATION RESULTS at this level, the difference among LC waveforms from each
From the whole LC measurement tests that are performed environmental condition can be clearly seen where at the most
with supply voltage from 11.6 kV to 50 kV, the samples of LC severe environmental condition (salt fog, polluted surface), the
waveforms that are taken into simulation are only eight LC waveform represent the condition prior to flashover.
waveforms consisting of new and aged samples each from four The LC waveforms comparison between the experiment and
different environmental conditions, with 30 kV supply voltage. simulation are shown in Table II.
The reason this voltage level is chosen for simulation is because
TABLE II. THE LC WAVEFORM COMPARISON BETWEEN EXPERIMENT AND SIMULATION OF A POLYMER INSULATOR AT 30 KV SUPPLY VOLTAGE
Environmental New Insulator Aged Insulator
Condition Experiment Simulation Experiment Simulation
① ⑤
4.30
15 15
4 [uA] [uA]
10
2.58 10
2
5
5
Clean Fog, 0.86
I(μA)
I(μA)
Clean Surface 0 0
0
-0.86
-5
-2
-5
-2.58 -10
-4 -10
(New)CF+No Pollutant (Aged)CF+No Pollutant -15
-4.30 17 27 37 47 57 67 77 87 [ms] 97
17 27 37 47 57 67 77 87 [ms] 97 Time(80ms)
Time(80ms) (f ile Wakhid_Aged_CF95_NoPoll(12).pl4; x-var t) c:OUT2 -
10 10 100
0.06
Clean Fog, 5 5 50
Polluted 0.02
I(μΑ)
I (μΑ)
0 0 0
Surface -5
-5 -50
-0.02
-0.06
-10 -100
-10
-0.10
-15 -150
-15
(Aged)CF+Pollutant
(New) CF+Pollutant -20 -200 -0.14
-20 17 27 37 47 57 67 77 87 [ms] 97 16 26 36 46 56 66 76 86 [ms] 96
Time (80 ms) (f ile Sim-Wakhid-New-CF(95)-WithPoll(14).pl4; x-var t) c:OUT2 - Time (80 ms) (f ile Wakhid_Aged_CF95_WithPoll(10).pl4; x-v ar t) c:OUT2 -
2 2 4 4
Surface
I(μA)
0 0 1
0
-2 -2 -2 -2
-4
-4 -5
-4
-6
(New)SF+No Pollutant (Aged)SF+No Pollutant
-6 -8 -8
-6 17 27 37 47 57 67 77 87 [ms] 97 17 27 37 47 57 67 77 87 [ms] 97
Time(80ms) (f ile Wakhid_New_SF4ms_NoPoll(13).pl4; x-v ar t) c:OUT2 -
Time(20ms) (f ile Wakhid_Aged_SF4ms_NoPoll(6).pl4; x-v ar t) c:OUT2 -
Polluted 0.05
I(μA)
I(μA)
0 0
Surface -0.026
-0.05
-50 -200
-0.15
-0.078
-100 -400 -0.25
(New)SF+Pollutant (Aged)SF+Pollutant
-0.130 -600 -0.35
-150 13 23 33 43 53 63 73 83 [ms] 93 16 26 36 46 56 66 76 86 [ms] 96
Time(80ms) (f ile Sim-Wakhid-New-SF(4ms)-WithPoll(7).pl4; x-v ar t) c:OUT2 - Time(80ms) (f ile Sim-Wakhid-Aged-SF4ms-WithPoll(4).pl4; x-v ar t) c:OUT2 -
In this table, the measured LC waveforms have been kinds of insulators [8]. When given increased supply voltage
successfully recreated through computer simulation with from 11 to 40 kV, the ceramic insulator have LC range of 200
approximately the same amplitude, THD value, and dominant – 1300 µA, RTV silicone rubber coated ceramic insulator have
harmonic number for each waveform. It also shows that the LC range of 21 – 800 µA, semiconducting glazed insulator
lowest LC magnitude is obtained from insulator with clean (SGI) have LC range of 1800 – 7000 µA, while polymer
surface under clean fog condition, while the largest LC insulator have LC range of 1.5 – 500 µA [17]–[19]. This shows
magnitude is obtained from insulator under the most severe that the polymer insulator succeeds in keeping its leakage
condition which is insulator with polluted surface under salt fog current flow lower because its hydrophobic surface prevents
condition. However, it turned out that the LC of clean sample more water layer to be formed on its surface, hence less
under salt fog condition is still smaller than LC of polluted pollutant is likely to adhere on the insulator surface. The less
sample under clean fog condition. This shows that the effect of pollutant present on the insulator surface, the more difficult it
pollutants that stick on the insulator surface is greater than the takes for a polymer insulator to have a dry band arcing
pollutant in the atmosphere or humid atmosphere. Between new developed on its surface. It can result prolonged process toward
sample and aged sample, it is also clear that the aged insulators aging as well as failures. Due to this advantage, polymer
always have greater LC magnitude compared to the new one in insulators are more likely to be used in polluted environments.
each environmental condition. This is caused by the degraded
insulator surface due to UV radiation which is also applicable The electrical equivalent circuit parameters that formed the
to the field-aged insulators. LC waveforms in simulation are shown in Table III. From the
table, it is known that there are two different types of electrical
Both pollutant effect and UV radiation effect to the insulator equivalent circuit used to recreate these various LC waveforms,
have caused the hydrophobicity of an insulator surface decrease, which are electrical equivalent circuit for symmetrical LC
hence the pollutant and water from the atmosphere more easily waveform (Waveform No. 2, 3, 4, 6, and 8) and unsymmetrical
formed on the insulator surface. This condition increases the LC waveform (Waveform No. 1, 5, and 7). The electrical
conductivity of an insulator surface that allows greater LC flow equivalent circuit for unsymmetrical LC waveform is needed to
on it. When the supply voltage is increased, the pressure to the run due to the different arc condition on the positive half and
insulator also increases causing the resistivity of the insulator negative half cycle. Based on the obtained result from LC
surface decrease. Greater and greater LC flows on the insulator measurement, the environmental condition does not necessarily
surface and eventually it leads to dry band arcing until flashover affect whether one waveform is symmetrical or unsymmetrical.
occurs. However, unsymmetrical LC waveforms have quite different
The THD trend here shows that THD of clean samples are insulator capacitance (C1) from the symmetrical ones. The
relatively lower than THD of polluted samples. THD value is range of C1 for unsymmetrical waveform is 0.00001 – 0.0001
greatly affected by the pollutant distribution on the insulator pF, meanwhile the C2 range (insulator surface capacitance) has
surface, hence polluted surface would have higher THD which wide range that determines the arc location against the LC
is also shown by how often the arc appears on the LC waveform. The insulator capacitance (C1) of symmetrical LC
waveforms. For clean samples, the aged samples have lower waveform has range of 0.1 – 3 pF, while the insulator surface
THD value than the new ones, but for polluted samples, the capacitance (C2) has value of either 0.01 pF or 0.1 pF. The arc
THD of aged samples have almost twice of the THD value of on symmetrical LC waveforms is quite determined by the C1
new samples. It shows that under severe environmental value.
condition, aged samples tend to reach its condition prior to As previously mentioned, that the range of LC magnitude
flashover sooner than the new samples, indicated by their high for polymer insulator is 1.5 – 500 µA. Hence, for LC waveforms
THD value.
with amplitude only a few µA (less than 20 µA), the insulator
The 3rd parameter that can be analyzed from the LC resistance value is changed from 4.421 GΩ to 44.21 GΩ, so that
waveform is the dominant harmonic number. From the table, the desired range of LC waveform amplitude can be obtained.
the clean samples show the 5th harmonic as the dominant
harmonic number while the polluted samples show the 3rd The nonlinear resistance of polymer insulators in this
harmonic as the dominant harmonic number. The LC waveform research mostly have range of 0.01 – 16 GΩ, whereas usually
of polluted samples also have few even numbers starting to for ceramic insulators the range of nonlinear resistance several
appear. This usually happens when the waveform is to hundreds MΩ. This value of insulator resistance that as well
unsymmetrical. The polluted surface of an insulator combined as the surface resistance that allows the LC flow on the insulator
with humid polluted atmosphere shows the waveform is more surface has lower magnitude with only several to dozens µA. A
unsymmetrical prior to flashover, showing the magnitude of the several hundreds of µA is reached when the insulator condition
dominant harmonic number is also the largest among all LC is close to flashover.
waveforms.
The nonlinear resistance combined with number of arc
In overall experiments, if compared to the result of previous
models also has quite an effect on the THD value. The larger
research which is the LC measurement of ceramic insulator,
THD value 10-40% can be obtained by a great nonlinearity of
RTV silicone rubber coated ceramic insulators, and
semiconducting glazed insulator, indeed the polymer insulators resistance with only 1-2 arc models (such as in LC waveform
show LC magnitude whose range is much lower than the other No. 4, 6, and 8) or with less nonlinearity resistance with 3-6 arc
1C31-2 The 4th IEEE Conference on Power Engineering and Renewable Energy
ICPERE 2018
TABLE III. ELECTRICAL EQUIVALENT CIRCUIT PROPERTIES OF NEW AND AGED POLYMER INSULATOR UNDER VARIOUS ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS
New Insulator
Nonlinear Resistance
No. ⑤ ⑥ ⑦ ⑧
Type Unsymmetrical Symmetrical Unsymmetrical Symmetrical
R1 44.21 GΩ 4.421 GΩ 44.21 GΩ 4.421 GΩ
C1 & C2 0.0001 PF & 0.00085 PF 1.5 PF & 0.01 PF 0.00001 PF & 0.1 PF 3 PF & 0.01 PF
Aged Insulator
Nonlinear Resistance
models (such as in LC waveform No. 1-3). So, this simulation other types of insulator. However, further field experiments for
shows that when the LC waveform conditions are getting closer a longer period of time is required to prove this hypothesis.
to flashover, the number of arc models does not necessarily The LC magnitude of polluted samples are rather larger than
have to increase. What is more important is the combination of the clean samples despite the clean or salt fog environmental
the resistance nonlinearity with the number of arc models that condition. It shows the pollutant that are formed on the insulator
can result in such larger THD values. surface have greater effect in increasing LC magnitude, hence
As for the different between electrical properties of new and decreasing surface resistivity compared to the atmosphere
aged polymer insulator is shown on the nonlinear piecewise condition.
resistance, where aged insulator has lower piecewise resistance Simulation on measured LC waveforms on polymer
than the new ones, allowing greater LC magnitude flows on the insulators under various environmental condition have been
aged insulator surface. successfully conducted with similar waveform parameters such
as LC amplitude, THD value, and dominant harmonic number.
IV. CONCLUSIONS The simulation result shows that the insulator resistance of
polymer insulator along with the nonlinear piecewise resistance
The LC characteristics of polymer insulator under various of insulator surface are larger than the normal ceramic
environmental condition have relatively low range of LC
insulators, hence the LC magnitude flow on the insulator
magnitude (1.5 – 500 µA) compared to the other kinds of surface are lower than the ceramic ones. Both symmetrical and
insulators such as ceramic insulator (200 – 1300 µA), RTV unsymmetrical LC waveforms are obtained from the
silicone rubber coated insulator (21 – 800 µA), and experiment. The THD value increased along with the changed
semiconducting glazed insulator (1800 – 7000 µA). This low from clean to severe environmental condition toward, where in
leakage current of polymer insulator is a result of its good simulation it is resulted from the combination of nonlinear
hydrophobicity characteristic. Thus, polymer insulator can be resistance with the number of arc models.
expected to withstand the exposure in both forms of electrical
stress or thermal stress as effect of UV radiation longer than the
1C31-2 The 4th IEEE Conference on Power Engineering and Renewable Energy
ICPERE 2018