Accurate decision-making for timely washing of substation insulators, based on a pollution model

Abstract

Substation insulators near coastal areas rapidly become polluted due to the salty wind blowing in from the sea. Hazardous levels of pollution deposit cause higher leakage currents under damp conditions, resulting in system blackouts and damage to substations due to flash-overs. This research is aimed at developing a method of reliable decision-making to determine the time at which to wash polluted insulators to avert detrimental conditions. The proposed method consists of modelling the pollution deposits, and deciding on the best time to wash the insulators by using the actual data related to pollution deposits and weather information. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated by applying it to actual data taken at the Karatsu substation in Japan.