Assessment of smart grid technologies and changing loads on the electrical insulation condition of power system components

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From the beginning of 21st century, the electricity sectors are facing several challenges with the ever-growing demand in electricity. Fueling this demand is the growing public concern about environmental and safety risks of fossil and nuclear generations. On the other hand, clean, low-cost hydro generating sites that provide high reliability and low cost electricity have already been exploited. Distributed generation consisting of small scale solar and wind power plants has been considered to provide promising solutions to meet the power demands. ***In the past transients due to lightning, and switching operations with load changes or fault occurrences were the main causes of overvoltages. However, with increased penetration of renewable energy sources to the grid, the majority of transients are now due to the nature of the primary source of energy. In addition, the frequent operation of vacuum circuit breakers (VCBs) is common in grids connected to wind farms due to variation in wind speed. The switching operation, by VCBs can cause transient overvoltages. As such, in areas heavily loaded with renewable energy sources the failure rate experienced by certain components like transformers and cable accessories is being constantly experienced. ***Moreover, grid end-users are now not only consumers of electricity but, in many cases also becoming electricity producers, making the grid even more complex. Pressure on the grid has further increased due to the sizable amount of electricity required to charge electric vehicles, which in next few years, from electrification of vehicles is expected to bring a significant shift to the transportation industry. The impact of new technologies and changing loads on the electrical insulation system of power grid components needs to be investigated as insulation failure can lead to power outages. The proposed research aims to bridge this gap by studying the performance of the electrical insulation systems and their integrity in the future grid that is enriched with penetration of renewable energy sources and plug-in electric vehicles from the perspective of developing suitable diagnostics and synthesizing composite materials to build sustainable insulation. The University of Waterloo's HV Lab provides the required infrastructure, such as specialized power sources and diagnostic tools for training. These HQP are essential to Canadian manufacturers of materials, devices and large power components like transformers, and power utilities local distribution companies, wind farm developers and large networks like Hydro One. The knowledge and technology outcomes of this research are of significant importance to the development of the Canadian future grid, and the applied research will enhance the teaching and training of engineers that will contribute to Canadian manufacturers of power system equipment and Canadian consulting industries as technology leaders.