Voltage distribution analysis and grading ring design for porcelain insulators on 750‐kV compact transmission lines

Abstract

AbstractOn a compact transmission line, there are three phases arranged in one tower window. They form an inverted triangle with a small air gap, having no shielding between each other. This characteristic results in mutual effects among the three phases, which cause higher voltages and electric field intensities on the porcelain insulators and fittings than the ordinary lines. In this paper, a three‐dimensional finite element method (FEM) is presented to calculate the potential and electric field distributions of the porcelain insulators on a 750‐kV compact double‐circuit transmission line. Considering the mutual effects among the three phases, the structural parameters of the grading ring are optimized to reduce the voltages and electric field intensities on the insulators. The results show that the significant mutual effects among the three phases need to be taken into account in the design and testing of the insulators and fittings. In addition, structural parameters of the optimized grading ring are proposed on the basis of the above‐mentioned analysis. The comparison between the numerical calculations and the test results shows the accuracy of the FEM. Thus, in the approval test, it might be more reasonable and efficient to determine the correction factors through analyzing the calculations of the actual line and test arrangement. © 2012 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.