Contaminated Insulation Interest Group (CIIG)

Overview

The CIIG is intended to be a forum where utilities can regularly engage with one another and world experts on the topic of contaminated external high voltage insulation.

Scope

• Members share experiences with contaminated insulation and mitigation methods.
• Members and EPRI Team to share experiences from leakage current, ESDD and DDIG monitoring.
• Provide education on fundamental and advanced contamination topics.
• Make members aware of EPRI and other resources that are available.
• Answer members’ technical questions.
• Identify any research areas that need to be addressed.
• Increase awareness of developments of EPRI’s RF Leakage Current Monitoring System.

Approach

The intention is to initially hold meetings virtually and inquire if members whether they would like to hold a face-to-face meeting, either at a member site or a EPRI Test Lab.

Members

Staff from T&D utilities (Internationally) that are experiencing contaminated insulation challenges should consider attending. Attendees should intend to be as interactive as possible when engaging.

There is no cost to be a member enabling attendance of calls and meetings. There is no limit to how many members can be nominated from one utility. To be added to the member list and to obtain an invite to the next meeting, please email Jessica Buchanan at jebuchanan@epri.com.

Description of Different Types of Contamination and T&D Insulation

Substation and overhead line external insulation may become contaminated from several sources including:

• Marine
• Road salt
• Powerplant cooling towers
• Industrial or manufacturing contamination
• Agricultural byproducts
• Desert Sand

T&D Assets that are commonly impacted by contamination include:

1. Substations & Switchyards
   • a. Disconnect switch insulators
   • b. Buswork insulators
   • c. Transformer and Circuit Breaker Bushings
   • d. CTs and PTs
   • e. Arresters
2. Overhead Lines
   • a. Glass or porcelain disc insulators
   • b. Porcelain long rod insulators
   • c. Composite suspension and post insulators

Description of EPRI Resources

EPRI has the following resources available to support work on insulator contamination:

• Reports summarizing the state-of-the-art regarding contamination design, selection of insulators and procedures for monitoring and maintenance.
• Laboratory for contamination testing of insulators up to 145 kV
• Manufacturing and supplying tools for site severity assessment
• Insulator leakage current system for monitoring insulator performance
• Guides on how implement ESDD, NSDD and DDIG Surveys
• Detailed research reports on specific topics generated over decades of research
• Computer based training on the fundamentals of contamination (under development)