Exploration of High-voltage Outdoor Insulations – A Review Based on Field Study

Abstract

In present era, a world without electric current is unimaginable. Transportation of electric current from power source to home appliances entails more equipment like generators, transformers, overhead lines, power cables etc. These equipment generally operate at high-voltage ranging above 22kV and more. Also, these equipment are predominantly responsible for reliable and uninterrupted power supply. Any degradation in their operation will be disastrous to humans and also surrounding environment besides economic losses. Reports proclaim that breakdown or malfunctioning of these equipment are mainly due to insulation failures. In order to alleviate these failure mechanisms, thorough knowledge about the same is essential. This plethora of texts aims in serving this purpose. A field study has been carried out in the nearby utilitarian sub-station to explore the operations and practical difficulties of high-voltage outdoor insulators. Field observations of the same has been inscribed into descriptive information. Hereby, this article surveys different types of outdoor insulation materials exploited in different high-voltage equipment. Besides, proposed article details failure mechanisms prevailing in different insulating material. Conclusively, the article illustrate the methods to prevent the insulation breakdown mechanisms with the objective of providing insightful subject matter to the upcoming researchers of this field. Even though there are countable contributions in this theme, this work stands out of the ordinary owing to the real-time field study that has not been performed so far in the existing literatures for this theme.

Keywords-High-voltage outdoor insulations, Transformers, Over-headlines, Power Cables, Insulation failure mechanisms