IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 25, NO.
1, JANUARY 2010
Contamination Level Prediction of Insulators Based
on the Characteristics of Leakage Current
Jingyan Li, Caixin Sun, Wenxia Sima, Qing Yang, and Jianlin Hu
Abstract—In order to assess how severe the contamination level
of the surface of power line insulators and to prevent unpredictable
contamination flashovers, it is important to seek optimal prediction
characteristics. That leads to the increase of the warning time and
to the improvement of the reliability of the pre-warning system.
Nearly 30 insulator strings at five pollution levels were tested in an
artificial fog chamber, where their leakage currents were continu-
ously recorded at the same operation conditions. The three charac-
teristics of the leakage current, namely the mean value, maximum
value, and the standard deviation of the root-mean-square (RMS)
value of the leakage current, have been extracted. They describe
jointly the current contamination levels of an insulator surface.
In addition, regression equations between the three characteris-
tics and various contamination levels have been established. The
same three characteristics have been selected and used as the inputs
of a neural network model together with two more parameters,
the relative humidity and operating voltage. Also, the influence
of each characteristic on the contamination prediction results has
been investigated. The model is appropriate to predict the equiv-
alent salt deposit densities (ESDD) with a difference of less than
0.035 mg/cm2 if the training data and the testing data are selected
at the security stage. This research results in the optimal prediction
input parameters and sufficient pre-warning time before a contam-
ination flashover.
Index Terms—Contamination flashover, contamination predic-
tion, insulator, leakage current, neural network model, prediction
characteristics.
I. INTRODUCTION
ONTAMINATION flashovers along power-line insulator
C strings have been a long-standing problem for the secu-
rity and reliability of power transmission systems. With the con-
struction of high-voltage, especially ultrahigh voltage power
grids in China, and with the higher level of automation of power
systems, it is imperative to predict the contamination level of
insulator surfaces before contamination flashovers occur and to
provide an early warning for the operators. At the present time,
processing the signals lags behind the prediction demands due to
the lack of a definite relationship between contamination levels
and other parameters [1]–[3]. The operators are still not able
to make effective decisions related to the actual contamination
Manuscript received March 24, 2009. First published December 04, 2009;
current version published December 23, 2009. This work was supported in part
by the National Key Basic Research Development Program–973 under Grant
2009CB724503 and the Chongqing University Postgraduates Science and Inno-
vation Fund under Grant 200707C1C0070244. Paper No TPWRD-00504-2008.
The authors are with State Key Laboratory of Power Transmission
Equipment and System Safety and New Technology, College of Electrical
Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China (e-mail:
ljy.cyxi@yahoo.com.cn).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPWRD.2009.2035426
0885-8977/$26.00 © 2009 IEEE
417
level of insulator surfaces. In addition, the influence of each pa-
rameter on the contamination prediction process is indetermi-
nate.
Quantities recommended to express contamination levels are
the equivalent salt deposit density (ESDD), the surface conduc-
tance, the leakage current, the air pollution measurements, and
the non-soluble deposit density (NSSD) [4]–[6]. It has been ver-
ified that the leakage current affected by the operating voltage,
temperature and humidity can provide a more comprehensive
description about the state of the contaminated insulators than
the other methods. Therefore, the leakage current is called as
one of the most effective dynamic parameters. Usually, the
magnitudes of the 50, 150, and 250 Hz harmonic components
of the leakage current are quite large. There is a prediction
threshold value related to the magnitude of these odd order har-
monic components, but only for a single suspension insulator
[7], [8]. The growth rates of the low-frequency components
such as 50, 150, and 250 Hz are different during the contamina-
tion flashover process [9]. In terms of warning prior to arcing,
it appears that the low frequency harmonic components are
better than the fundamental (50 Hz) component of the leakage
currents. Since the leakage current magnitudes are stochastic
at any time, the leakage current has been studied by linear,
stochastic and statistical analyses for the flashover prediction
[10], [11]. The theory is applicable only to predict the risk
of a forthcoming flashover, but it cannot provide a sufficient
pre-warning time margin before flashover for the operators.
Recently, many new studies have been developed on the char-
acteristics of the leakage current in the frequency domain [12].
However, for an on-line monitoring and pre-warning system
the prediction characteristics must be very convenient in terms
of acquisition and processing. It is still a problem to determine
which method of analysis is the most suitable in practice.
Most leakage current measurement methods in the time
domain include the maximum value of the leakage current
pulses, the pulse count, the highest peak value of the leakage
current before approaching the contamination flashover, and the
leakage current root-mean-square (RMS) value [13]. It is gen-
erally recognized that the leakage current RMS value is most
accessible among all of the characteristics. The characteristics
of the leakage current RMS value in the entire contamination
flashover process have been studied in detail. The leakage
currents can be classified into three stages on the basis of test
results: security stage ( mA), forecast stage ( mA)
and dangerous stage ( mA) [14]. That particular study
shows that the leakage currents during the forecast stage and the
dangerous stage are quite large and easy to monitor. Their du-
rations, however, are too short to obtain sufficient pre-warning
418 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 25, NO. 1, JANUARY 2010

time. On the contrary, the leakage currents during the security

stage are smaller and far away from the ultimate contamination
flashover. Therefore, the adequate pre-warning time can be
available if the contamination prediction could be completed at
this stage. Therefore, the characteristics of the leakage current
during the security stage should be investigated further.
The focus of this work is mostly on the leakage current RMS
value during the security stage ( mA) in the course of with-
stand voltage experiments in the fog chamber. The characteris-
tics of interest were extracted from the measured leakage cur-
rents. First, the relationship between each characteristic and the
contamination levels is established. In order to predict the con- Fig. 1. Connection diagram of the measurement system.
tamination level accurately, the neural network technique is ap-
plied as a classical tool to set up the contamination prediction
model based on the three characteristics mentioned above. Fi-
nally, the comparison of the simulation and test results verifies
the validity of the prediction model. The new characteristics pro-
posed in this paper are the most appropriate inputs for the pre-
diction model. Also, they can fully determine the current con-
tamination levels on the insulator surface and supply the engi-
neering guides for the operators such as the cleaning or replace-
ment of insulators if the contamination level is severe. Fig. 2. Sketch of the two test insulator units.
For more concise language, “leakage current values” in the
following text always mean their RMS values, unless otherwise
TABLE I
stated. INSULATOR DESIGN PARAMETERS AND ESDD

II. LEAKAGE CURRENT MEASUREMENTS UNDER 100% HUMID

CONDITIONS

A. Test Setup and Samples

Tests were performed in an artificial fog chamber (volume
4.0 m 3.7 m 4.0 m) in the High Voltage Laboratory of
Chongqing University. The test system is shown in Fig. 1. The
source components are a voltage regulator (TDJY-1000/10) and
a test transformer (YDJ-900 KVA/150 KV). The rated current
is 6 A, and the maximum short-circuit current is over 30 A.
The equipment meets the requirements for the power source
of artificial pollution tests on high voltage insulators [15]. The
high voltage source is connected to the fog chamber through a
110 kV wall bushing. The high voltage end is connected to an
AC capacitive voltage divider (SGB-200 A) with the divider
ratio of 1:1000 which records the applied voltage in real time.
A glass door (1.2 m 2.5 m) of the fog chamber is used for
visual observation purposes. The current sensors have been
designed for monitoring the broadband weak signals such as
the leakage currents during the security stage with the detection
range from A to A and their frequency bandwidth from Hz
to MHz [16]. The current sensor is at the grounded end of the
insulator strings without any direct electrical contact with the
high voltage source. The sensor outputs then amplified by a dc
amplifier and recorded continuously by a computer.
Two types of suspension insulator strings with different indi-
vidual porcelain insulators were selected (see Fig. 2 and Table I).
One is a general cap-pin porcelain insulator (Insulator A), the
other one is an antipollution porcelain insulator (Insulator B).
The leakage distance of Insulator B is almost 100 mm longer
than that of Insulator A (see Table I).
Based on the IEC-60507 standard [15], five kinds of ESDD
levels were applied to simulate five contamination levels,
respectively, also shown in Table I. The ESDD level of
0.3 mg/cm is the most severe contamination level for the test
series. Three insulators were used for each sample suspension
insulator string. For the same pollution level, at least three
strings were tested. The ultimate test results are their average
values. The energizing voltage was kV RMS
(phase to ground voltage), applied to simulate the 35 kV power
line voltage.
B. Test Procedure
The main purpose of the test series was to record the leakage
currents of Insulator A and Insulator B after the ambient air is
fully (100%) humid in the fog chamber. The purpose of the use
of the two types of insulators was to explore the influence of the
leakage distances on the leakage current during the entire con-
tamination flashover process under the same test conditions. The
objectives were (1) to provide information for the antipollution
design of suspension insulators and (2) to extract the appropriate
characteristics for the contamination prediction.
The test procedure has been designed as follows: The solid
layer method, based on the IEC-60507 standard, was used to
produce uniform pollution layers on the surface of the insula-
tors. Distilled water, kieselguhr and silicone dioxide were used.
The amounts of the kieselguhr and silicone dioxide were of a
LI et al.: CONTAMINATION LEVEL PREDICTION OF INSULATORS 419

fixed ratio of 10:1. The pre-contaminated samples were com-

pletely dried for 24 hours before entering the fog room. Then
they were suspended vertically and wetted by clean steam fog
in the fog chamber. As soon as the surface pollution layers were
completely wetted for 5–10 minutes, the operating voltage was
applied. At the same time the recording of the leakage cur-
rents flowing through the polluted layer began. Recording was
at that continuous during the entire test process. The relative
humidity was kept saturated (100%) all the time, measured by
a thermo-hygrograph.

III. LEAKAGE CURRENT RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

A. Leakage Current of Two Kinds of Insulators at Five ESDD

Levels
The leakage current values are the sampling current flowing
through the contaminated surface of the insulators. The leakage
current can be calculated for a sampling period, such as 160 ms,
i.e., eight periods of the 50 Hz power frequency. The leakage
current value is expressed as in (1)

Fig. 3. Leakage current of Insulator A during a withstand voltage test. Note:

(1) the unit of ESDD is mg/cm .

where is the instantaneous value of the leakage current in

the time domain; is the sampling period; is the sampling
moment; is the sampling value of the leakage current in a
sampling period; is the transposition of the sampling currents,
namely is the number of sampling points in the sampling
period.
For a comprehensive evaluation, a twenty-minute long test
record time is selected under saturated humid conditions. The
features of the leakage current at five ESDD levels (i.e., at five
contamination levels) are important for the pre-warning process
before a contamination flashover. The test has recorded the
leakage current values of Insulator A and Insulator B at each
contamination level during the same test period for about 20
minutes under constant applied voltage, shown in Figs. 3 and
4.
The leakage current values of Insulator A increase with the
increase of ESDD. The increase is gradual under the condition
of the same operating voltage shown as Fig. 3. The more severe
the contamination is, the more peaks the graphs of the leakage
current contain. The reason for that is that the surface discharges
produces more pulses when there is heavy contamination. The
more severe the contamination is, the more frequent the fluc-
tuation of the leakage current values is. The more frequent the
occurrence of the pulses is, the quicker the dry bands develop.
Take mg/cm as an example: the hissing sound of Fig. 4. Leakage current of Insulator B during a withstand voltage test. Note:
discharges can be heard with air ionization when the operating the unit of ESDD is mg/cm .
voltage is applied, and then corona and sparks appear continu-
ously during the entire measurement process.
The performance of Insulator B shown in Fig. 4 is similar to reason for that is the leakage distance of Insulator B is longer
that of Insulator A (see Fig. 3). Comparing Figs. 3 and 4, the than that of Insulator A. This shows that as a design factor, the
difference between them is that for the same ESDD level, in leakage distance has a great impact on the leakage currents.
most cases the leakage current values of Insulator A are larger The two figures show the results during a withstand voltage
than that of Insulator B. The leakage current fluctuations of Insu- test. In practice, the leakage currents are very similar to these re-
lator A are also more obvious than that of Insulator B. The main sults. Some more features of the leakage currents in the course
420 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 25, NO. 1, JANUARY 2010

value is. The standard deviation of the leakage current can

be visualized as the number of pulses. A larger pulse number
corresponds to a greater standard deviation. When the condi-
tions are appropriate, partial arcs develop continuously until
the ultimate flashover. The three characteristics of the leakage
current reveal jointly how severe the actual contamination
level of the insulator surface is. This is a new viewpoint at
the security stage of the flashover development process. The
leakage currents in Figs. 3 and 4 can be analyzed quantitatively,
i.e., numerically, based on the three characteristics.
The three characteristics, i.e., the mean value, maximum
value and standard deviation of the leakage current, are pro-
posed as follows:
Fig. 5. Relationship between the mean value of the leakage current, I and
ESDD.
(2)

(3)

(4)

where is the total number of sampling points in the test time;

is the leakage current value in one sampling period;
is the mean value of leakage current in the test time; is
the maximum value of leakage current in the test time; is the
standard deviation of leakage current in the test time.
The standard deviation, , represents the degree of deviation
between each sampling value and the mean value and also
means the discrete distribution degree among all sampling
Fig. 6. Relationship between the maximum value of the leakage current, I points during the test time.
and ESDD.
The three characteristics of the leakage current are related
to the physical phenomena of the contamination flashover de-
scribed above. They build a quantitative relationship between
of a contamination discharge should be explored, especially the
the leakage current and the level of contamination of the insu-
relationship between the leakage current and the level of con-
lator.
tamination of an insulator.
C. Relationship Between the Three Characteristics and ESDD
B. Mean Value, Maximum Value and Standard Deviation of
the Leakage Current The next task is to reveal the relationship between ESDD and
the three characteristics proposed above, and to explore the re-
The flashover caused by contamination needs to go through
lationship between ESDD and the type of the insulator (mainly
the four required processes based on the Obenaus model [17],
the leakage distance). The three characteristics of both types of
[18]: 1) deposition of conducting salts and moisture; 2) dry band
insulators tested at various levels of contamination are repre-
formation; 3) electric breakdown of dry bands; 4) propagation
sented in Figs. 5–7.
of the discharges across the moist film, bridging the insulator.
Fig. 5 shows that the mean value of leakage current, ,
Each one of these events is a necessary step in the development
increases with increasing ESDD for both insulators. Also,
of a full flashover and can be reflected in the changes of the
of Insulator A is larger than that of Insulator B at the same ESDD
leakage current during the entire flashover process.
level. The main reason for that is that the leakage distance of
The leakage current must flow on the insulator surface when
Insulator A is shorter than that of Insulator B. Based on the basic
the contamination layer is moist. The mean value of the leakage
principle of the electric circuit model of contaminated insulators
current reflects the level of contamination of different insu-
in [17], the wet polluted film on the insulator surface represents
lator strings under the same operating condition. As is shown
the resistance between the line end and the ground end. The
in Figs. 3–5, if the contamination is more severe, the mean
current that flows through that resistance is called the leakage
value of the leakage current is larger. With the test duration,
current. The leakage current at the security stage can be shown
the dry bands develop gradually on the polluted surface. The
as follows:
thickness and width of the dry bands can be reflected through
the magnitude and number of current pulses. The magnitude of
the largest pulse is the maximum value of the leakage current.
The more severe the contamination is, the larger that maximum (5)
LI et al.: CONTAMINATION LEVEL PREDICTION OF INSULATORS
Fig. 7. Relationship between the standard deviation,  and ESDD.
(6)
where is the applied voltage; is the surface resistance of
the insulator; is the leakage distance of the insulator; is
the diameter of the insulator; is the surface conductance of
the contamination layer and it is determined by ESDD; is the
shape factor of the insulator.
The diameters of Insulator A and Insulator B are the same.
However, they have different leakage distances, 295 mm and
400 mm, respectively. The parameter is equal to 0.752 and
1.012 for Insulator A and Insulator B, calculating their values
applying (6). When and are the same for the two insulators,
of Insulator A is larger than that of Insulator B based on
(5). So the measurement results shown in Fig. 5 are reasonable
indeed.
According to the experimental results, the regression relation-
ships between and ESDD are shown as follows:
mA (7)
mA (8)
where represents ESDD. The R-squared values, i.e., goodness
of fit, are above 0.95 for both (7) and (8).
Fig. 6 shows that the maximum value of the leakage current
during the entire test time increases with the increase of
ESDD. of Insulator A is greater than that of Insulator B,
similar to . The fitting regression equations between
and ESDD are as follows:
(9)
(10)
where also represents ESDD. The R-squared values of both
(9) and (10) are over 0.97.
The standard deviation of the leakage current, , during
the entire test time reflects the deviation degree of the leakage
current between each sampling point and the mean value. It
also means the real-time changes of the leakage current graph.
This characteristic is related to the magnitude and frequency of
leakage current pulses. Fig. 7 shows that increases gradually
with the increase of ESDD. Also, of Insulator A is greater
421
than that of Insulator B. The regression equations between
and ESDD are shown in (11) and (12)
% (11)
% (12)
Here the R-squared values are more than 0.96. Therefore,
characteristic can also display the current contamination con-
dition of the insulator surface at the security stage from another
aspect.
Among all the prediction methods related to the insulator
contamination level (i.e., how severe the contamination is), the
leakage current is the most dynamic parameter, and it can be
measured with ease. The three characteristics reveal the existing
contamination level of the insulator surface from different view-
points. The regression equations between the three characteris-
tics and ESDD have been developed based on the large number
of test results. The comparison of Insulator A and Insulator B
shows that the leakage distance is a very important factor for the
leakage current. Also, a reasonable insulator design can prevent
the flashover effectively.
IV. NEURAL NETWORK MODEL FOR PREDICTING ESDD
BASED ON THE THREE CHARACTERISTICS
It is desired to estimate how severe the contamination is on
the insulator surface. The emphasis of this problem is to find
the appropriate information based on the leakage current of var-
ious insulator strings. The information should be made avail-
able from different tower locations at the same test period and
for the same conditions, such as operating voltage, ambient rel-
ative humidity and temperature. The evaluation results can pro-
vide a guide for the operators about the possible cleaning of
the insulators. That is basically the ultimate aim of the detec-
tion of the leakage current. The prediction model should meet
the engineering requirements with sufficient reliability and con-
venience, especially for the neural network model construction
and data processing. Based on the results above, the three char-
acteristics of the leakage current can be used as inputs for the
prediction model in combination with the applied voltage and
the relative humidity.
A. Building of the Neural Network Model for Contamination
Prediction
Artificial neural network (ANN), which has a high degree
of self-learning, self-organization and adaptive capacity, can be
used in many problems requiring function approximation, mod-
eling, pattern recognition and classification, estimation and pre-
diction, etc. [19]–[21]. In order to predict how severe the con-
tamination of the insulators is, the most widely used back prop-
agation (BP) neural network model (NNM) has been selected to
construct the model for the two insulators.
First, the prediction model is established according to the cor-
relation of Insulator A and Insulator B. The neurons of input
layer include the three characteristics, , and , the
relative humidity RH, and the applied voltage . The hidden
layer has twelve neural units. The output is ESDD, namely the
contamination level. The simulator of BP NNM uses the back
propagation algorithm with supervised learning.
422
TABLE II
COMPARISON OF TEST AND SIMULATION RESULTS
The convergence property and accuracy of the learning
process for the ANN is significantly dependent on the scaling
of the input-output data. Hence, before training BP ANN, the
normalization of input-output data should be carried out. RH is
almost 100% and is fixed at 35 kV in the entire test process,
so their input values are normalized to be 1. is in the range of
originally, and there is no need to transform it any more.
Finally, and are normalized into the range of
based on (13)
(13)
where and are the minimum and maximum values of
, respectively. Based on the experiments, is generally
less than 250 mA, and is below 50 mA at the security stage
for the insulators at saturated humid conditions of 35 kV trans-
mission line.
B. Training and Analysis of Results
According to the regression equations of the three character-
istics and ESDD in Part C of Section III, 50 points are chosen
as training data for Insulator A. Insulator B has also 50 points.
Ten sets of measured data in the range of training array for each
insulator type are used to verify the network performance. Then
the final optimal ANN used to predict the ESDD is obtained.
Based on (14), the comparison between test and simulation
results is presented in Table II
(14)
where is the difference (i.e., absolute error), is the simu-
lation result and is the test result. The simulation data come
from (7)–(12).
Table II shows that all the differences between the test and
the simulation are less than 0.0350 mg/cm . The relative errors
(i.e., error %) can also be calculated. Most of them are small,
but in a couple of cases their values are larger. However, the
use of the prediction model demonstrates that the calculation
of the simulated ESDD (i.e., S) has a reasonable reliability for
engineering practice.
Based on the inputs of the three characteristics, , is .
and the prediction model built by BP ANN can estimate the
ESDD of different insulators quite accurately. The model can
provide an early decision-making help for the operation staff,
such as the cleaning or replacement of heavily contaminated
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 25, NO. 1, JANUARY 2010
Fig. 8. Relationship between I ;I and ESDD.
Fig. 9. Relationship between I ; and ESDD.
insulators. Once the prediction model has been set up, it needs
only a short time to process the entire set of data. This point is
most important for practical applications.
C. Influence of the Three Characteristics on ESDD
Each one of the three characteristics can explain the existing
surface discharge stage from a particular viewpoint of the test
process. It is difficult though to identify and evaluate the influ-
ence of the three characteristics on the output ESDD. In order to
further explore this problem, any one of the three characteristics
can be kept constant and the other two can change simultane-
ously. A detailed analysis has been carried out by varying the
input parameters in a wider range than the practical conditions.
Taking the prediction model of Insulator A as an example, the
influence of the three characteristics on ESDD is shown as fol-
lows:
Fig. 8 presents that between and , the increase of
has a much greater impact on ESDD than that of , and
ESDD increases significantly with . As shown in Fig. 9,
the increase of has a much greater impact on the prediction
results than that of . Fig. 10 shows that has more impact
on ESDD than and ESDD increases obviously with .
The impact of on ESDD is the most significant among
the three characteristics, then followed by and the last one
This conclusion about the impact order of the final prediction
results leads to the sensitivity analysis of the ESDD evaluations,
using only the appropriate sampling values of the leakage cur-
rent.
LI et al.: CONTAMINATION LEVEL PREDICTION OF INSULATORS 423

3) The three characteristics always decrease with the increase

Fig. 10. Relationship between ; I
of the leakage distance. This item is very helpful for the
anticontamination-flashover design of outdoor insulators
in power systems.
4) The regression equations with the R-squared value of more
than 95% are very useful to predict the levels of contami-
nation for different types of insulators.
5) The contamination prediction model based on the input
characteristics (related to the leakage current and other
conditions) has a difference of less than 0.035 mg/cm
between the test and simulation results.
and ESDD. 6) The new prediction model of BP NNM can provide a reli-
able guide for operators. Through the new model a longer
pre-warning time is available before the ultimate contami-
nation flashover.
7) The three characteristics, , and , have a signif-
icant impact on the prediction of ESDD. is the most
influential characteristic for the final prediction results.
It should be noted that the saturated humid condition is an
effective test condition for the leakage current in the laboratory.
The main purpose of this paper is to look for a new and con-
venient way for contamination flashover pre-warning based on
the leakage current values. In fact, the contamination flashover
often occurs during winter when the relative humidity is lower,
but the contamination is heavy, cleaning (washing) the insula-
tors is very difficult, and the leakage currents are also small.
Once there is more rain during early spring, the leakage cur-
rent would increase rapidly after the contamination layer be-
comes moist. Contamination flashovers may likely appear then
in a very short time.
The main goal of the research has been to ensure that the
prediction of a contamination flashover would be available at
the security stage. There is still a lot of work to do for the real
practical application.

The authors sincerely express their thanks to Dr. S. Sebo of
The Ohio State University for his comments and suggestions.
Fig. 11. Flowchart of the entire prediction process.
The flowchart of Fig. 11 shows the entire prediction process.
It can help to understand the applied method of the field condi-
tions.
There are many insulator strings along a specific three-phase
power line. The first step is to select a few insulator strings be-
fore beginning the test. These insulator strings are at those ob-
servation points that should be representative and convenient for
detection.
V. CONCLUSION
1) In this study, a new method has been proposed to predict
how severe the contamination of insulators is. It is based
on the characteristics of the insulator leakage current.
2) The three characteristics of the leakage current,
, and , can predict the general contamina-
tion level of insulator surfaces during the security stage.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
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Jingyan Li was born in Henan, China. She received
the B.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from
Wuhan University, Wuhan, China, in 2000. Since
2005 she has been a graduate student at the College
of Electrical Engineering, Chongqing University.
She is currently engaged in research on high voltage
device online monitoring and fault diagnosis for her
Ph.D. thesis study.
She joined Henan Polytechnic University in 2000
as a teacher at the College of Electrical Engineering,
Henan Polytechnic University. In 2008–2009, she
was a visiting scholar at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engi-
neering, The Ohio State University, Columbus.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 25, NO. 1, JANUARY 2010
Caixin Sun was born in Chongqing, China, on
December 13, 1944. He graduated with a degree in
electrical engineering from Chongqing University,
Chongqing, China, in 1969.
He is a Fellow of the Chinese Academy of Engi-
neering, Professor and a doctorate advisor of the Col-
lege of Electrical Engineering of Chongqing Univer-
sity, as well as the Director of the State Key Labora-
tory of High Voltage Engineering and New Electrical
Technology, Ministry of Education. His current re-
search topics include online detection of insulation
condition and insulation fault diagnosis for HV apparatus, discharge mecha-
nism in complex environments, geography information system, and high voltage
technique applied in biomedicine. He is the author of over 200 publications and
inventions.
Dr. Sun is a standing Director of China Electrotechnical Society and a Di-
rector of the Chinese Society for Electrical Engineering.
Wenxia Sima was born in Henan, China. She
graduated from and received the Ph.D. degree in
Chongqing University, Chongqing, China, in 1988
in 1994.
Her employment experience includes the College
of Electrical Engineering of Chongqing University.
Her fields of interest include high voltage outdoor in-
sulation and overvoltage protection.
Qing Yang received the B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees
in electrical engineering from North China Electric
Power University, <CITY?>in 2002, and from
Chongqing University, Chongqing, China, in 2006.
He is now a Lecturer in the State Key Laboratory
of Power Transmission Equipment and System Se-
curity and New Technology Chongqing University.
His research interests include outdoor insulation in
complex ambient conditions and electric-field calcu-
lation. He is the author or coauthor of more than 10
journal papers and 10 papers published in the pro-
ceedings of international conferences.
Jianlin Hu received the B.Sc. degree in electrical
engineering from Chongqing University, China,
in 2001, where he is currently pursuing the Ph.D.
degree in the State Key Laboratory of Power Trans-
mission Equipment and System Security and New
Technology.
His major research interests include outdoor insu-
lation in complex ambient conditions.