Investigating insulator UV signal frequency components as potential tools for condition monitoring of ceramic insulators

Contaminated and ageing transmission line insulators often suffer from temporary or permanent loss of their insulating properties due to flashover resulting in power system failure. Surface discharges are precursors to flashover. To pre-empt any occurrence of flashovers, utility companies monitor the conditions of their insulators. There are numerous insulator surface monitoring techniques such as Leakage Current, Acoustics, and Infrared. However, these techniques may not be suitable for in-situ condition monitoring of the insulators as they are prone to noise, affected by environmental conditions or contact methods. Monitoring of the UV signals emitted by the surface discharges of these insulators has been reported to be a promising technique. However, comprehensive studies on this technique is lacking, especially on aged insulators. This paper investigated the UV signals of contaminated and aged insulators detected during surface discharge activities using UV pulse method. The time and frequency domain of the UV signals were analysed for a group of insulator samples having varying levels of contamination and phases of ageing. Results show that there is a strong correlation between the contamination level and ageing of the insulators with the amplitude and harmonic components of the UV signals. This correlation can useful to monitor in-service insulator surface conditions