Fast-tracked aging assessment of polymer insulators in coastal environments exposed to industrial air pollutants

Abstract

ABSTRACT The demand of electrical energy has been increasing worldwide since the start of the 21st century. The focus on energy demand, efficiency increase, and loss control is one of the major concerns. Following the approach to control the power loss specifically in underdeveloped countries in the power distribution network where polymer insulators are installed. This research aims to study the impact of industrial pollutants by adopting accelerated aging techniques on polymer insulators installed in coastal regions. An experimental chamber is designed to model the artificial effects of the environment on polymer insulators. The polymer insulator was kept in an experimental chamber for 45 days to apply the environmental effects on it. Different environmental effects are applied in the experimental chamber including temperature, humidity, pollutants, and ultraviolet light. These environmental effects are controlled through different designated sensors that are managed by a data acquisition setup. After the accelerated aging process of polymer insulators in the experimental chamber the leakage current has been measured between healthy and contaminated polymer insulators. The healthy insulator shows 52e−9 amp leakage current while the contaminated insulator shows 149e−9 amp of leakage current after the aging process. The experimental results also concluded that the environmental impact on polymer insulators in the coastal regions is significant. Therefore, to avoid power loss due to leakage current it is recommended to have periodic cleaning of the polymer insulators specifically in the coastal regions that are installed in the power distribution network. This will help to reduce the power loss due to contamination in environment.