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

进入世纪以来，电力需求的不断增长使电力行业面临着诸多挑战。推动这一需求的是公众对化石和核能发电的环境和安全风险的日益关注。另一方面，已经开发了清洁、低成本的水力发电站，提供高可靠性和低成本的电力。由小型太阳能和风力发电厂组成的分布式发电被认为是满足电力需求的有前途的解决方案。 在过去，由于雷电和开关操作与负载变化或故障发生的瞬变是过电压的主要原因。然而，随着可再生能源对电网的渗透率增加，大多数瞬变现在是由于主要能源的性质。此外，由于风速的变化，真空断路器（VCB）的频繁操作在连接到风电场的电网中是常见的。VCB的开关操作会引起瞬态过电压。因此，在可再生能源负荷很高的地区，某些组件（如变压器和电缆附件）的故障率不断增加。 此外，电网终端用户现在不仅是电力消费者，而且在许多情况下也成为电力生产者，使电网更加复杂。由于为电动汽车充电所需的大量电力，电网压力进一步增加，预计未来几年，电动汽车的电气化将给运输行业带来重大转变。新技术和不断变化的负载对电网组件电气绝缘系统的影响需要进行调查，因为绝缘故障可能导致停电。拟议的研究旨在通过研究电气绝缘系统的性能及其在未来电网中的完整性来弥合这一差距，该电网从开发合适的诊断和合成复合材料的角度出发，通过可再生能源和插电式电动汽车的渗透来丰富可持续绝缘。滑铁卢大学的高压实验室提供所需的基础设施，如专用电源和诊断工具。这些HQP对加拿大材料、设备和大型电力部件（如变压器）制造商、电力公司、当地配电公司、风电场开发商和大型网络（如Hydro One）至关重要。本研究的知识和技术成果对加拿大未来电网的发展具有重要意义，应用研究将加强工程师的教学和培训，为加拿大电力系统设备制造商和加拿大咨询行业的技术领导者做出贡献。

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.