21, rue d'Artois, F-75008 Paris

http://www.cigre.org 15-101 Session 2002

© CIGRÉ

DATA BASE FOR 330 - 750 kV TRANSMISSION LINE INSULATION:

STRUCTURE, DATA MINING, USE FOR THE PURPOSE OF IMPROVEMENT
OF LINE OPERATION

A. A. Smirnov, P. I. Romanov∗
North–western Intersystem Power Grid of Russia

(Russia)

SUMMARY System of collection and processing data on these

An implementation of modern information technologies
to data collecting and processing at all the Intersystem
Power Grid (IPG) management levels is illustrated by
taking 330 - 750 kV overhead transmission line (OHL)
insulation as an example. To quantify the OHL
operation and maintenance comprehensive statistical
data are collected and arranged in a common database
(DB).
The DB contains joint description of electrical and
mechanical stresses imposed on the cap insulators. It
grounds construction of an empirical distribution
function of insulator failures for long service life period.
Comprehensive information monitoring of the OHL
permits to develop quantitative criteria of the OHL
survival, durability, and maintainability absent in
practice. Using pessimistic, as well as optimistic
predictions based on these criteria creates a foundation
for strategic planning at the federal level. Information
system of OHL maintenance support makes it possible
to make management decisions taking into account risk
level, to plan scheduled maintenance, effectively
allocate investments, and as a result to optimise OHL
maintenance expenditures.
KEYWORDS
Insulator - Overhead Transmission Line - Maintenance
management - Failure - Data Collection - Database
1. INTRODUCTION
A suspended cap line insulator is the most numerous
and the most open to injury OHL element exposed to
extreme mechanical loads and electrical stresses.
elements has been worked out and accepted about 30-50
years ago and has become obsolete.
As a result of changing economic environment for
electric utilities, one of the management’s new goals is
to improve informational support of the IPG
maintenance. Implementation of modern information
technologies to data collecting and processing at all the
IPG management levels is illustrated by taking 330 -
750 kV OHL insulation as an example. To quantify the
OHL operational capacity indicators comprehensive
statistical data are collected and arranged in a common
DB. This way DB becomes a management system
element.
Directing OHL maintenance activity is always based on
a management decision. At the level of a single power
company a transmission line is regularly inspected to
collect updated information about insulator failures or
OHL breakdown situation occurrence. Management’s
aim at the local level is to plan and organise
replacement of failed or damaged insulators on the
specific OHL, the specific tower, and the specific string
in specific terms. There is no scheduled maintenance on
insulators and their expected life span exceeds 25 years
[1]. Regular in-service inspections and just in time
replacement of failed or damaged insulators is required
to ensure failure-free operation of insulator suspensions.
At the regional level more general management
decisions are based on quantitative and qualitative
criteria of the OHL element condition assessment,
criteria of maintenance expenditures, and combined
technical and economic criteria. At this management
level the information received from all power

______________________________________________________________________
∗
1/39, Kurchatova Str., P.O. Box 88, 194223, St.Petersburg, Russia
companies is processed and convoluted. This
information becomes available and appropriate for the
analysis to make strategic decisions at the federal
management level.
A transition to a new OHL maintenance management
system is realised by gradual implementation of new
information technologies. Use of bundled soft- and
hardware will enable a considerable increase in the
amount of initial information and the rate of data
processing. It admits putting statistical methods of data
processing into practice, as well as employing criteria
and estimates based on probability indicators. In long-
term perspective it is possible to use these probability
indicators for assessment of risk of line failures with
regard for monetary losses.
2. PROBLEM STATING AND DB OBJECTIVES
OHL pertaining to the North-western IPG of Russia
have around 2,250,000 line glass cap insulators
comprising suspension (67,000) and tension (27,000)
insulator strings.
More then 5,000 km of 300 - 750 kV OHL and 16
substations are operated by the North-western IPG and
deliver power from nuclear and high-power thermal
stations. Geographically the components of the power
grid are located within the range of latitude from 53Ο N
to 68Ο N. For the region wind speed design values
corresponding to the average return period of 25 years
vary from 25 to 32 m/s, while ice thickness variations
are confined to the interval from 10 to 20 mm. The
major part of OHL run in sparsely populated terrain, up
to 40 % marshy and difficult to access. The rate of
thunderstorms is about 10 - 30 hours per year.
Until now data on insulator conditions have been
collected by in-service inspections regularly once a
year. Surveys of every OHL detect an amount of failed
or damaged insulators and their distribution over
suspension strings, phases and towers. The data are
written into a survey register and then are summarised
in the OHL damage register stored in a transmission line
division.
The OHL maintenance standard rate specifies
replacements of failed or damaged insulators. When
four failed insulators in a one string for 330 kV OHL
are detected, replacement should be performed within a
year. Six failed insulators in a one string are to be
substituted during a month. However, regulations did
not specify an acceptable total amount of failed
insulators on the OHL, and also acceptable terms of
replacement for one or two failed insulators in a string.
The cases considered need the development and
approval of criteria for assessment of risk of failed
insulator operation.
At the intuitive level it is obvious that even a single
failed insulator which is present in a string for a long
time can lead to a string failure. Large share of failed
insulators on an OHL also reduces reliability of a line.
Current standards do not specify engineering or
economical methods of risk assessment with the regard
for running insulator string of reduced reliability, as
well as cost of renovation to reach an acceptable risk
level. The problem looks even more important, for 20 %
of the OHL in IPG are in service for more then 30 years,
age of 50% of the OHL exceeds 20 years.
It is evident, that insulator reliability can be determined
depending on its location within OHL and taking into
account their interconnections with all other line
elements. Therefore, information on insulators should
be integrated with all other data on the OHL design and
condition, mechanical and electric exposures, and air
pollution influence on the insulator condition.
Accordingly, the data bank designing objective consists
in making up an inventory of OHL all components and
their functional indicators. This objective is concerned
with the necessity of a considerable increase in the
amount of information to be processed, its storage in a
classified form for obtaining operation indicators
needed for solving maintenance problems at three levels
of:
• operation;
• research;
• management.
To solve operation problems it is necessary to have
available and detailed information on the OHL design,
elements, and parameters, all their existed
modifications, and to have possibility to retrieve any
selected information in an appropriate form. Paper
medium that is in use at present is not suitable for
proper system analysis.
In the field of research the task is a development of
probabilistic based maintenance parameters, convenient
for use in practice, as well as development, testing, and
approval of such criteria, that will allow comparison of
operation and maintenance quality for the OHL as a
whole, and their elements.
The main management problem is a transition from
employing qualitative estimates and practice of top-
management decision-making to quantitative estimates
based on the probabilistic based assessment of risk of
power system element failure.
3. DB STRUCTURE AND INPUT INFORMATION
COLLECTION
Attempts to copy paper based information on PCs
resulted in understanding the possible way of using
modern information technologies: GIS, databases, the
Airborne Laser Terrain Mapping system (ALTM) [2],
and also problem-tailored software. For 330 - 750 kV OHL with operation term over 30
years techniques for all line elements condition
At present the DB includes: assessment are developed. Technical documentation is
• OHL topographic model, insulators and other OHL presented in two ways: on paper and electronic media. It
element technical performances; was in the process of this work when new specific
• physical composition of the line and the requirements to approach for documentation
components; arrangement and research execution method became
• results of scheduled maintenance; explicit.
• results of emergency maintenance, upgrading and
reconstruction; Implemented technique of laser scanning [2] allows
• expenses of every kind of maintenance, upgrading getting more detailed information about the existing
and reconstruction; OHL condition in the surrounding terrain. The
• OHL operation history (outages, failures, information collected is presented in digital form and
breakdowns with their origin causes analysed, makes it possible to measure the OHL geometrical
electrical and mechanical stresses, etc.) parameters and create a 3D digital line model. Using
this data, the conductor and insulator mechanical loads
• data processing software;
can be calculated. Clearance measurements allows to
• results of data statistical treatment;
estimate transmission line capacity and find power
resources. To reduce risk and possible damages in
With the OHL monitoring informational system
obstructive conditions and in places of OHL intersection
organisation the data received from different power
with engineering constructions checking geodetic
production divisions and specialised organisations in a
mapping is made.
unified presentation form have been put in the DB.
In a separate DB block expenditure of time and assets
At the design and maintenance stages the presentation
related to location of the OHL damage identification is
form of documentation is reviewed. For the long-term
registered. These data analysis will increase validity of
operated OHL technical documentation is updated
management decisions on maintenance co-ordination of
according to current OHL changes or created again on
all power company divisions.
electronic media.
4. OHL INSULATOR MAINTENANCE
When failed insulators are replaced, its type, exact
ANALYSIS, FORECAST, AND PLANNING
location, production data, and producer of old and new
insulators are registered. The approach gives the
OHL monitoring information system is used for making
opportunity to stack statistical data on insulator
on-line decisions, but for strategic management
reliability and analyse the failure flow dynamics.
decisions it is necessary to add OHL condition trend
forecast. Only these both parts can be laid as a
In DB separate block electrical performances of the
foundation of development of measures aimed at power
OHL availability are continuously registered, besides
utility management improvement. Fig. 1 depicts
temporal characteristics of changes in the OHL
interconnection between tactical and strategic
operating regime: duration of OHL availability, duration
information in making management decisions.
of scheduled and breakdown maintenance, and outages.
These data is supplemented with information on all
The OHL element condition assessment is performed at
OHL failures and lightning strokes. Noting that line
the basis of checking their residual strength against real
imperfection locations are possible to determine in
loads taking into account corrosion wear and
about 60 % of cases, this kind of electrical stress is
mechanical faults. Test calculations of elements of OHL
identified with high precision. With OHL failure
with service life over 30 years give an opportunity to
initiation short circuit currents characterising electrical
find out strength resources reserved during the OHL
loads on the insulators are registered. To refine an
design. They can be considered determining basic
electrical stress area the information about estimated
design criterion according to new standards adopted
and actual line damage position is added to the
during this period.
controlled quantities. Collected measurement results of
the tower eathing resistance help to specialise factor in
Using of such an analysis increases planning efficiency
an exponential model of electrical stress decay along the
of the OHL scheduled maintenance and reconstruction
OHL.
capacity: according to their technical condition and
forecast all OHL are divided into groups.
Documentation is depicted so that after getting the
Reconstruction appropriateness, as well as terms and
estimated line damage position the necessary
capacities of scheduled maintenance are set for every
information on this section is presented in evident visual
group. Identification of weak links permits to effectively
form. Optimal route for the crew to reach the line
damage position is highlighted on a display map.
allocate investments and time for the OHL
maintenance [3].
Informational
System
Data Actual OHL
Collection State
Assessment
Forecast Predicted OHL
State
Assessment
Figure 1. Model for management of OHL insulator maintenance
Span-wise inspection of vegetation cutover patch in
adjacent area reduces risk of short circuit related to tree
falls, allows to get on-line information, to supervise
and to plan very expensive operations. Transmission
line divisions for two years conduct an attempt of
implementation of such approach.
To assess actual insulation condition all kind of
stresses on every string is described in a form of
deterministic parameters used in OHL design. To
describe insulator failure process including emergency
situations a probabilistic phenomenological model of
injury accumulation is employed. Tracking time
dependence of single insulator failure allows getting an
empirical distribution function of accumulated injuries
for every insulator of all inspected lines.
Well-known shape of reliability dependence on
lifetime is a curve consisting of three zones. The first
one, being nearly linear increase, corresponds to initial
period of operation when evidently fault elements quit
out. The second zone characterises the period of stable
operation. The third zone corresponds to the beginning
of the period when according to statistical rules
complex implicit and explicit stresses result in
avalanche-like increase in failures. The main
prognostic task is to forecast the limits of transition
from the second zone to the third one. Evidently, only
such a forecast allows reserving time for making
strategic management decisions.
Only implementation of information technologies in
DB gives the possibility to obtain the insulation
behaviour for several ensembles: for every OHL, for
every power company, for every range of voltage
(330, 400, 500, 750 kV), insulator types, tension and
suspension strings. At the same time for each of the
Management
Management
Decision
ensembles stress loading coefficients (electrical,
mechanical, and air pollution), history of loading,
climate conditions, tower design, OHL design, OHL
responsibility in the IPG are monitored.
The DB containing this set of measurable parameters
permits to instantly assign any given situation to a type
of distributions and to determine crucial moment of
time for making a decision. Obviously, it is the
prediction that enables to create a delay for strategic
management decisions.
The DB implementation to practice joins the necessity
of operating division staff training, as well as training
of management personnel. At the same time a system
of activity is needed for developing probabilistic based
management criteria with their following approval.
5. CONCLUSIONS
An information system is developed for running the
maintenance documentation depicting the 330-750 kV
OHL isolation life cycle. Modern techniques of data
collection and processing are applied at two different
levels the North-western regional division of the
Federal Power Grid Company of Russia and a single
power company. This information is available and
appropriate for the analysis at the federal level to make
strategic decisions.
Developed approach to organisation of the information
monitoring of the OHL line insulation enables to
analyse, forecast, and plan activity of power utilities,
company divisions, and to considerably raise the level
of the OHL maintenance supervision.
To describe insulator life cycle all available data on the
OHL element electrical and mechanical strengths and
stresses are collected in addition to detailed
information on insulator type, age and location. Data
received in a unified presentation form from different
power company functional divisions and research and
development institutions are integrated into the
information system.
In the field of OHL maintenance an inventory of time
consumption related to every kind of maintenance of
the OHL as a whole and line insulation is arranged.
Preliminary patterns of quantitatively evaluated time
expenditures related to every kind of maintenance of
the OHL as a whole and line insulation are determined
in more detail then before. These results have allowed
raising a question of reducing maintenance costs only
as a consequence of activity co-ordination between the
system operation and transmission line divisions.
New form of information collection, storage, and
processing is being used. Transmission line division
personnel have already approved forms used for
collection and presentation of data. Now these forms
are being improving by transmission line divisions in
collaboration with research institution.
Complete and representative data on insulator electrical
and mechanical strengths and stresses imposed, as well
as influence of air pollution create the necessary
prerequisites for a statistical treatment of their life
cycle. Two timely statistical problems are connected to
a large share of insulators. The first one implies
determining the dependence of the probability of an
insulator string survival on the service time of one or
two failed insulator. The second problem concerns the
determination of the probability of the OHL failure
dependence on the total amount of failed insulators in a
line. To solve these problems the DB is created and the
data collected over long period of time are statistically
treated.
DB allows determining empirical distributions of the
periods of OHL availability, scheduled and breakdown
maintenance, and outages, classified according to
causes of their origin. The probabilistic indicators of
the OHL availability will be a basis for making
management decisions.
Comprehensive information monitoring of the OHL
permits to develop quantitative criteria of the OHL
survival, durability, and maintainability absent in
practice. Using pessimistic, as well as optimistic
predictions based on these criteria creates a foundation
for strategic planning at the federal level. Information
system of OHL maintenance support gives the
possibility to make management decisions taking into
account risk level, to plan scheduled maintenance,
effectively allocate investments, and as a result to
optimise OHL maintenance expenditures.
REFERENCES
[1] GOST 27661-88. Line Suspension Cap Insulators.
Types, Parameters and Sizes. - Moscow, 1988
[2] B. I. Mekhanoshin, Ye. M. Medvedev, L. Yu.
Rivin, V. A. Shkaptsov, Ye.A.Yavorsky, Yu. A.
Dementyev , R. Urwin, Use of an Airborne Laser
Locator to Improve Availability and Quality of
Maintenance of Overhead Lines, (CIGRE-2000,
Rep 22-204).
[3] A. A. Smirnov. Criterion for Making Decisions
on Capacity of Overhead Transmission Line
Element Maintenance and Reconstruction.
(Perspective directions in development of
electrical power industry and electrical
engineering equipment in 2000–2010, 2000, 1-34,
pp. 116-118).