2020 2nd International Conference on Smart Power & Internet Energy Systems

Severity Level of An Insulator in Polluted and Dry

Conditions Based on Ultraviolet Emission
Tumiran Mochammad Wahyudi Noor Akhmad Setiawan
Department of Electrical and Department of Electrical and Department of Electrical and
Information Engineering Information Engineering Information Engineering
Universitas Gadjah Mada Universitas Gadjah Mada Universitas Gadjah Mada
Yogyakarta, Indonesia Yogyakarta, Indonesia Yogyakarta, Indonesia
tumiran@ugm.ac.id mochammadwahyudi@ugm.ac.id noorwewe@ugm.ac.id

Kukuh Pambudi Dharma Saputra

PLTU Jawa Tengah 2 Adipala PLTU Jawa Tengah 2 Adipala
Indonesia Power Company Indonesia Power Company
Cilacap, Indonesia Cilacap, Indonesia
kukuh.pambudi@indonesiapower.co.id dharma.saputra@indonesiapower.co.id

Abstract—In this study, the ultraviolet (UV) emitted by
partial discharge which occurred on the insulator in polluted
and dry conditions was investigated. The UV image and
intensity were recorded for 1 minute per voltage variation per
pollutant weight variation. The voltage stress was varied until
the flashover occurred. The results showed that there was no
consistent relationship between pollutant weight and those two
UV emission parameters. In addition, the UV intensity consisted
of maximum, minimum, and average values because it
fluctuated during the recording. There were two UV image
patterns that could be identified, namely the scattered points
and the concentrated light (forming an area). The greatest the
UV intensity, the highest deviation between the maximum and
minimum values, and the largest concentrated light pattern
were found during a critical condition.
Keywords— Dry and polluted insulator, flashover, partial
discharge, UV image, UV intensity, severity level.
I. INTRODUCTION
An insulator is used to separate phase from phase or phase
from the ground. An insulator function in a system must not
fail. The system operation will stop if an insulator malfunction
occurs. These conditions must not occur in power
transmission and distribution systems. In this case, the
reliability of the insulator function must be guaranteed, so that
the power plant can continuously supply the electricity load.
For an outdoor insulator, the main factor that causes the
insulator malfunction is a surface flashover triggered by
external contamination. The contamination factor is always
dominant for insulators working in highly polluted areas. High
polluted areas are areas that produce a lot of contamination
particles, such as industrial areas and locations near the coast.
Therefore, for insulators operating in high polluted areas,
special handling must be given, so that the insulator does not
experience failure that interferes with system operation. The
special handling may be carried out through an insulator
condition monitoring to determine the cleaning schedule.
The process of insulator failure due to pollutants is usually
preceded by the presence of partial discharge [1,2]. The pre-
breakdown phenomena can be monitored through the emitted
signals, such as light [3]-[6], thermal [7], acoustic [8]-[11],
ultra-high frequency [12,13], etc. Nowadays, the use of
ultraviolet (UV) light is very interesting and useful since it is
not only able to show the presence of partial discharge, but
also its location. The UV signal cannot be seen by human eyes
and ordinary cameras, but it can be seen by UV cameras that
are now known as the corona camera.
Several studies have been conducted related to the corona
camera. In [3], the relationship between the number of
photons, gain, and measurement distance was studied. The
data were collected by using DayCor Superb (Ofil Ltd.). The
result showed that the number of photons was significantly
affected by gain and measurement distance. In order to
describe the discharge more accurately, an image processing
method was conducted to the UV image, namely the facular
area counting.
In [4], a porcelain insulator severity level to flashover was
rated according to the photon’s diameter. The porcelain
insulator was in clean condition. A corona camera of DayCor
(Ofil Ltd.) was employed to capture the diameter of the
photon. The larger diameter, the more severe the insulator
condition (close to flashover). However, the diameter changed
at the same test voltage since the UV camera gain was varied.
This finding indicated that the insulator severity depended on
the camera setting.
Another corona camera type, namely CoroCAM504, was
used in [5]. This study performed the correlation among the
facular area, ESDD (mg/cm2), and relative humidity. The
fuzzy logic inference was then utilized to decide the severity
level. In addition, corona discharge and partial arc that were
pre-breakdown phenomena could be identified based on the
facular area.
The photon number and the UV image on an insulator
string were investigated in [6]. The experiment was conducted
in a fog chamber. An Ofil camera was used to capture the
photon number and the UV image for insulators that were on
the hot side. The results confirmed that the average value of
UV photon number and the voltage had no significant positive
correlation. Besides that, in a critical condition, many UV
images covered the insulators and it looked like light
connecting between insulators.
This study aimed to observe the severity level of flashover
on a dirty and dry insulator with different pollutant weights.
This insulator condition represented the operation in a
polluted area with a low humidity level. The quantitative
assessment was based on the UV intensity values. In this case,
the values were not only observed at momentary or average
values, but also their maximum and minimum values, so that
the insulator condition diagnosis was more valid. Since the
UV image had a high resolution, the qualitative assessment
was practically conducted based on the UV pattern that
covered the insulator.

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 II. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
This experiment aimed to observe the characteristics of
UV image and intensity of an insulator from safe to critical
condition. The experiment configuration is shown in Fig. 1(a).
The 400 kV AC High Voltage Generator - Passoni Villa, a step
up transformer, was employed to generate the ac high voltage.
The tested object was a standard type porcelain insulator in
new condition. The UV image and corona intensity data were
obtained by using the corona camera of UViRCO CoroCAM
6D, as shown in Fig. 1(b). This camera is a full high definition
visible camera which is installed with a high sensitivity solar
blind UV camera [14]. It is able to calculate partial discharge
events and reflect the intensity of the discharge in count units.
The steps of the experiment are generally shown in Fig 2.
The variables were pollutant weight and voltage stress. The
pollutant solution was made from a mixture of fly ash and
distilled water. This solution was sprayed relatively uniformly
to the entire surface of the insulator. The fly ash weight
variations given to insulators, in units of Non-Soluble Deposit
(a)
Density (NSDD), were shown in Table I. The insulator in
clean condition was represented by the first pollutant level. In
contrast, the fourth pollutant level reflected the most severe
dirty condition insulator.
The data recording scheme is shown in Fig. 3. The high
voltage test was carried out under a dry insulator surface
condition. The voltage was increased from 30 kV until
flashover with 10 kV per step so that the voltage variations
were 30 kV, 40 kV, 50 kV, 60 kV, and so on. At each value of
the voltage variations, the UV image and the corona intensity
were recorded for about 1 minute.
In this experiment, the voltage giving scheme was (b)
intended to generate the flashover phenomenon and to observe
the characteristics of UV image and intensity from safe to a Fig. 1. Experiment configuration: (a) Illustration (the image scale is
critical insulator condition. It was not intended to determine ignored). (b) Realization.
the flashover voltage due to fly ash pollutant. The greatest
voltage was the critical voltage. In this case, if the voltage was
added by 10 kV, a flashover would occur and the circuit
breaker would be active. Spraying the pollutant
solution on the insulator
The constant parameters were camera settings (default), with various pollutant
Drying the insulator
camera angle, the distance between camera and insulator, and weights
data recording durations. The default UV gain was 85%. The
distance between the camera and the insulator was about 8 m.
The recording duration was about 1 minute per voltage
variation per pollutant weight variation. The tripod was used Flashover test for the
Flashover test for the
during the recording process, so that the camera was in stable insulator with pollutant
clean insulator with
condition. The camera also did not need to be moved because level I with voltage
voltage variations
all insulator parts were captured by the camera (in the variations
measurement window).

TABLE I. VARIATIONS OF POLLUTANT LEVEL IN NSDD

Flashover test for Flashover test for
Pollutant Level NSDD insulator with pollutant insulator with pollutant
I 0.25 level II with voltage level III with voltage
variations variations
II 0.5

III 1

IV 4 Flashover test for

UV emission analysis of
insulator with pollutant
each voltage and
level IV with voltage
pollutant variation
variations

Fig. 2. Flowchart of experiments in general.

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 For insulator with a higher pollutant level, as seen in Fig.
6-8 and Table IV-VI, the relationship among voltage stress
Start
The insulator was given and all UV intensity values was consistent. The UV intensity
a voltage of 30 kV in maximum, minimum, and average values got higher along
with the insulator’s increasingly critical condition. In addition,
like the previous tests, the UV intensity increase rate was
much greater when approaching flashover.
For insulator with pollutant level II, at critical voltage, the
Recording of UV image
and intensity of about 1
The voltage was maximum, average, and minimum values were about 89000
increased by 10 kV counts, 74000 counts, and 60000 counts, respectively. If these
minute
UV intensities were compared with other tests, the values in
this test were the greatest.
For insulator with pollutant level III, at critical voltage, the
maximum, average, and minimum UV intensity values were
Yes
Was it a flashover? End about 20000 counts, 16000 counts, and 14000 counts,
respectively. Furthermore, for insulator with pollutant level
IV, at critical voltage, the average and maximum values were
higher than the insulator with pollutant level III, namely about
No
17000 counts and 55000 counts, respectively. In contrast,
otherwise, the minimum value was lower, namely about 8000
Record the UV
image and intensity
counts.
for 1 minute Based on the characteristics of UV intensity as described
above, in the same dry condition, at a critical condition, the
clean isolator did not mean to have the smallest or greatest UV
Fig. 3. Data collection scheme for each isolator intensity value compared to the polluted insulators. The lowest
UV intensity values were presented by the insulator with the
III. RESULTS AND ANALYSIS lowest pollutant, while the greatest values were exhibited by
A. UV Intensity the insulator with pollutant level II. Thus, the UV intensity
The UV intensity for the clean insulator is shown in Fig. 4 was directly not determined by the weight of dry pollutant.
and Table II, for the polluted insulator is shown in Fig. 5-8 and
Table III-VI. Each recording did not provide count in a single 25000
value, but it consisted of maximum, minimum, and average
values. It was caused by UV emission that always changed 20000
during the recording process, as the corona’s appearance was
indeed sporadic. 15000
Count

For the clean insulator, as seen in Fig. 4 and Table II, the
greater the voltage stress, the greater the UV intensity. 10000
However, there was an inconsistency in the average value
when the voltage stress was 50 kV. In this case, the average 5000
value at 50 kV was slightly lower than at 40 kV. The rate of
increase in UV intensity was much greater when approaching
0
flashover, namely at 60 kV and 70 kV. At 70 kV, as a 30 40 50 60 70
representation of a critical insulator condition, the UV
kV
intensity was very high as it reached about 24000 counts for
maximum value, 16000 counts for minimum value, and 19000
counts for average. In addition, the deviation between Average Min Max
maximum and minimum values was the greatest during the
critical condition. Fig. 4. The UV intensity trend of a critical condition (70 kV) for dry and
clean insulator.
For insulator with the lowest pollutant level, as shown on
Fig. 5 and Table III, the average value of UV intensity TABLE II. UV INTENSITY FOR FIG. 4
increased consistently with the voltage stress. However,
inconsistencies were found at the minimum and maximum Voltage Stress (kV)
Count
values at 50 kV. Like the clean insulator test, the UV intensity 30 40 50 60 70
increase rate was much higher at critical voltage. If the UV Average 555 1551 1414 9014 19737
intensity at the critical voltage was compared with other tests Min 185 614 685 5942 16128
so the value in this test was the lowest, which was only in the Max 928 2342 3128 11042 24714
several thousands, namely about 4700 counts, 2500 counts,
and 1500 counts for the maximum, average, and minimum
values, respectively. However, the highest deviation between
maximum and minimum values was also found in the critical
condition as the other tests.

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 5000 22500
4500 20000
4000 17500
3500 15000
3000
12500

Count
Count

2500
10000
2000
7500
1500
1000 5000

500 2500
0 0
30 40 50 60 70 30 40 50 60 70
kV kV

Average Min Max Average Min Max

Fig. 5. The UV intensity trend of a critical condition (70 kV) for the Fig. 7. The UV intensity trend of a critical condition (70 kV) for the
insulator with pollutant level I. insulator with pollutant level III.

TABLE III. UV INTENSITY FOR FIG. 5. TABLE V. UV INTENSITY FOR FIG. 7.

Voltage Stress (kV) Voltage Stress (kV)
Count Count
30 40 50 60 70 30 40 50 60 70
Average 127 342 509 551 2594 Average 65 135 182 4195 16693
Min 85 214 157 314 1571 Min 42 57 114 3700 14228
Max 200 514 1414 785 4771 Max 114 257 285 4900 20771

80000 60000
70000
50000
60000
40000
50000
Count
Count

40000 30000

30000
20000
20000
10000
10000
0 0
30 40 50 60 70 80 30 40 50 60 70
kV kV

Average Min Max Average Min Max

Fig. 6. The UV intensity trend of a critical condition (80 kV) for the Fig. 8. The UV intensity trend of a critical condition (70 kV) for the
insulator with pollutant level II. insulator with pollutant level IV.

TABLE IV. UV INTENSITY FOR FIG. 6. TABLE VI. UV INTENSITY FOR FIG. 8.
Voltage Stress (kV) Voltage Stress (kV)
Count Count
30 40 50 60 70 80 30 40 50 60 70
Average 89 120 199 1318 6586 74046 Average 486 931 2151 4953 17264
Min 57 71 142 1157 5800 60065 Min 342 571 1328 4071 8828
Max 214 171 300 1471 9428 89021 Max 657 1414 3285 8942 55571

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 B. UV Image
Samples of UV images are shown in Fig. 9-13. The UV
image emitted by corona was represented by red on the camera
screen. In the safest condition, represented by a 30 kV test
voltage, only a small amount of UV covered the insulator.
Therefore, the UV intensity would be low. However, in the
most dangerous conditions, represented by critical voltage,
many UV images covered the insulator. Hence, the UV
intensity value would be great. (a) (b)
The output video of UViRCO CoroCAM 6D had a frame Fig. 11. The UV image for the insulator with pollutant level II: (a) 30 kV. (b)
rate of 25 frames per second (fps). In this case, the UV image Critical voltage.
changed 25 times per second as corona appeared sporadically.
Thus, the UV image shown in Fig. 9-13 was a sample UV
image taken from one frame of 1500 frames (total frame for 1
minute).
Based on Fig. 9-13, there were two UV image patterns that
could be identified. The first one was the UV image pattern in
the form of light points. The second one was the UV image
concentrated on the insulator and formed an area. At a voltage
stress of 30 kV, only a light dot pattern was found. At critical
(a) (b)
voltage, not only was the light points pattern found, but also
Fig. 12. The UV image for the insulator with pollutant level III: (a) 30 kV.
the pattern concentrated on the insulator was found. It shows (b) Critical voltage.
that the two patterns’ appearance could be used as an indicator
of severe isolator condition. The UV pattern concentrated on
the isolator was generally found in the area between the cap
and the porcelain shell. There was no significant difference in
the UV image between clean and dirty insulators under dry
condition.

(a) (b)
Fig. 13. The UV image for the insulator with pollutant level IV: (a) 30 kV.
(b) Critical voltage.

IV. CONCLUSION
A new standard type porcelain insulator coated by dry
(a) (b)
pollutant (fly ash) with different pollutant weight presented
Fig. 9. The UV image for the dry and clean insulator: (a) 30 kV. (b) Critical variations in UV image and intensity. However, it did not
voltage.
show a consistent relationship between pollutant weight and
those two UV emission parameters. The UV intensity values
were influenced by the UV image. Due to the sporadic corona
phenomenon, the UV intensity changed with time, so that it
was expressed in terms of maximum, minimum, and average
values. In the most dangerous (critical) condition, represented
by the test with critical voltage, the UV intensity results that
varied with the pollutant weight were generalized as follows:
the average, minimum, and maximum values were more than
2000 counts, 1500 counts, and 4000 counts. These values were
(a) (b) obtained from a specific measurement method as regulated in
Fig. 10. The UV image for the insulator with pollutant level I: (a) 30 kV. (b) this experiment. In addition, the great deviation between
Critical voltage. maximum and minimum values indicated a critical isolator
condition. In the severity level qualitatively, many UV images
covered the insulator during the critical condition. Most of the
UV images were concentrated in the area between the cap and
the porcelain shell.

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