Assessing the type and quality of high voltage composite outdoor insulators by remote laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy analysis: A feasibility study

Abstract

The use of composite polymeric insulators in overhead high voltage (HV) power transmission lines and in substations has been rapidly growing, as a result of their excellent operational performance, even under environmental pollution conditions. However, it has been observed that the insulation capacity of the composites deteriorates gradually for in-service insulators as a result of ageing, caused by several processes arising because of environmental, electrical and mechanical stresses. For these reasons, development of non-destructive diagnostic techniques for real-time, on-site inspection of the insulators' condition is required for ensuring high reliability of power transmission networks. To this end, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is found to offer an effective and reliable method for assessing the state of polymeric insulators, primarily silicone rubber (SIR) ones, that have been in service for up to 20 years on the HV power network of Crete, Greece. Determining the type of composite and furthermore the chemical integrity of the insulator is based on simple spectral indicators, which reflect the extent of chemical modifications induced on the insulator surface, as found in both standard and remote LIBS measurements performed in the laboratory. As a result, a stepwise diagnostic procedure was proposed and tested in an outdoors campaign, demonstrating that LIBS can become a field deployable technique for the efficient and reliable assessment of the performance of HV outdoor insulators in service.