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

进入21世纪以来，随着电力需求的不断增长，电力行业面临着诸多挑战。推动这一需求的是公众对化石能源和核能带来的环境和安全风险的日益担忧。另一方面，提供高可靠性和低成本电力的清洁、低成本水力发电厂已经被开发出来。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。***过去雷电引起的暂态，以及负载变化或发生故障的开关操作是过电压的主要原因。然而，随着可再生能源对电网的渗透增加，现在大多数瞬变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）的频繁运行在与风电场相连的电网中很常见。开关操作时，由vcb引起瞬态过电压。因此，在可再生能源负荷很大的地区，某些部件（如变压器和电缆附件）的故障率不断增加。此外，电网的最终用户现在不仅是电力的消费者，而且在许多情况下也成为电力的生产者，使电网更加复杂。由于给电动汽车充电需要大量的电力，电网的压力进一步增加，在未来几年内，汽车的电气化预计将给交通运输行业带来重大转变。新技术和不断变化的负荷对电网组件电气绝缘系统的影响需要研究，因为绝缘失效可能导致停电。本研究旨在通过研究可再生能源和插电式电动汽车渗透的未来电网中电气绝缘系统的性能及其完整性，从开发合适的诊断和合成复合材料的角度来构建可持续绝缘，从而弥合这一差距。滑铁卢大学的高压实验室提供了所需的基础设施，如专门的电源和培训诊断工具。这些HQP对于加拿大的材料、设备和大型电力部件制造商（如变压器）、电力公用事业、当地配电公司、风电场开发商和大型电网（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，这将有助于加拿大电力系统设备制造商和加拿大咨询行业成为技术领导者。

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.