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33-205

Session 2000
CIGR

INSULATION PERFORMANCE OF 500KV HVDC

RIHAND-DADRI LINE IN INDIA
L.N.AGRAWAL*
A.K.KAPUR
M.L.SACHDEVA
CM(OS)
ED(SO&OS)
FORMER CHIEF ENGINEER
POWERGRID CORPORATION OF INDIA LTD.
INDIA

SUMMARY
For Bulk transfer of power over long distances and
two regional network operating at different
frequencies, HVDC option is considered to be the most
appropriate and economical. The HVDC Transmission
Technology in the country has since come a long way.
The National HVDC experimental lines between Lower
Sileru in Andhra Pradesh and Bersoor in Madhya
Pradesh was established on October 03, 1989 and full
rated power was transferred in August1990. The
2x250MW Back to Back HVDC at Vindhayachal (link
between Northern & Western Region) was
commissioned in June 1990 and 500 kV, 1500 MW,
840 Km long HVDC bipole transmission line between
Rihand and Dadri (near Delhi) was commissioned in
April,1991. This first 500kV Transmission Line in the
Tropical country is the longest one. For the design of
line insulation/insulators string, the governing criteria
is the pollution performance. Though, pollution is one
of the valid criteria for any EHV AC Transmission line,
HVDC requires special consideration due to
continuous static charge prevalent on the insulators.
While, engineering the first HVDC Transmission line,
sufficient operating experience in the Asian/African
countries in regard to electrical and insulation
performance was not known, this line was, therefore,
designed based on the light pollution criteria. Both the
terminal stations and HVDC line are facing severe
pollution problem. Applications of RTV and silicone
grease were considered to improve pollution
performance but only application of silicon grease was
found useful and the same is being regularly used at
the terminals. However, silicon grease cannot be
applied to HVDC line due to long distance, scattered
locations and their difficult approach. Due to large
number of trippings in the initial period after the

commissioning of line, POWERGRID took up R&D

project with a reputed manufacturer to study the
pollution aspects both in the field and the laboratory.
This paper briefly describes the results of the analysis
and studies carried out in India and abroad. Besides
the normal pollution for the first HVDC line, problems
arising out of bird perching and defecation have also
been experienced. Various preventive measures such
as
installation
of
bird
guards,
manual
cleaning/washing, application of RTV and semi glazed
insulators considered to overcome these problems have
been described in the paper. Recently, Polymer
Insulators have also been installed at a few critical
locations to study their pollution performance.
1.0 INTRODUCTION DEVELOPMENT OF
POWER SYSTEM IN INDIA
1.1
The Indian Power Sector is facing major
challenges today. The demand for power as a result of
the opening of economy is going up at an increasing
pace which will deteriorate the power supply position,
if remedial measures are not taken soon. Despite, our
country planners attaching utmost importance to
energy sector since beginning and there being manifold
increase in installed generating capacity, (about 90,000
MW at present as against 1362 MW in 1947), energy
and peak shortages are still continuing. Besides power
shortages even the quality of power is open to
question. Wide variation in the frequency and voltages
are routine affairs. Keeping in view the demandsupply gap, the 9th plan (1997-2002), 10th plan (20022007), 11th plan (2007-2012) identify a capacity
addition of around 40,000 MW, 55,000 MW and
60,000 MW respectively.

2.0 DESIGN CRITERIA FOR INSULATION FOR

500 kV HVDC LINE
For any EHV Transmission line, design criteria for
insulation requirement is determined from the
consideration of Switching over voltages, Lightning
over voltage, power frequency and pollution
performance. However, in case of HVDC, pollution
performance becomes governing criteria as the HVDC
is prone to pollution deposits due to continuous static
charge around the insulators. The first 500 kV
HVDC line has been designed for light pollution
corresponding to ESDD of 0.045 mg/cm2 and creepage
distance of 41.6mm/kV due to superior performance of
the V string which have been deployed on this line.
Based on this criteria, no. of insulator discs deployed

on this line are 38 nos. per limb of the V string.

Technical parameters for the terminal equipments and
HVDC line is given at Annexure-I.
3.0 PERFORMANCE OF
RIHAND-DADRI LINE

500

kV

HVDC

Subsequent to the commissioning of 500 kV HVDC

line, it was observed that trippings have started taking
place immediately after one year of its commissioning
due to contamination and the wetting caused by high
humidity/fog during late evening, early morning and
night especially during the winter months. Trippings
that have taken place from 1992 till 1999 are given in
figure 1. From this, it would be seen that no. of
trippings have considerably increased during 1992-95
and thereafter due to manual cleaning, the no. of
trippings have reduced considerably.

100
80
60
40
20
0
19
92
19
93
19
94
19
95
19
96
19
97
19
98
19
99

No of trippings

Simultaneous growth in transmission sector has also

been phenomenal. More than 5 million Circuit KM of
Transmission lines having about 0.425 thousand circuit
Kms of 800 kV, 40.70 thousand Circuit KM of 400
kV, 82.30 thousand Circuit KM of 220/230 kV, 2050
thousand Circuit KM of 132/110 kV and below and
about 3200 thousand circuit KM of LT distribution ,
besides about 3.17 thousands circuit KM of 500 kV
HVDC lines are in operation. POWERGRID alone is
maintaining and operating over 32,000 circuit kms. of
EHV transmission lines with transformation capacity
of about 25,000 MVA distributed over 62 Substations
and handling over 30% of the total power available in
the country. POWERGRID is one of the largest bulk
power transmission company and is ranked among top
six power utilities in the world for successful
maintaining the Transmission availability of over 98%
since its inception. Till recently, the planning of the
transmission system was being done on regional basis
which neglected establishment of adequate interregional links for optimal exchange of power to
facilitate controlled power exchange. A series of steps
have been taken to establish adequate inter regional
links between various regions to facilitate formation of
an integrated National Grid ultimately. Today, 500
MW HVDC back-to-back link at Vindhayachal in
Madhya Pradesh interconnecting the Western &
Northern regions and a 1000 MW HVDC back-to-back
link at Bhadrawati in Maharashtra interconnecting the
Western & Southern regions are in operation. The
Jeypore-Gazuwaka 500 MW HVDC Link to connect
the Eastern & Southern regions is in full operation
from August1999. To further augment the
transmission network and evacuate surplus power from
the Eastern region , 500 MW HVDC link at Sasaram is
also planned which would facilitate transfer of power
to the Northern Region. With the completion of these
inter-regional ties, the basic framework of National
Grid will be completed. During the 9th plan, it is
proposed to add about 20,000 Circuit Kms of EHV
Transmission lines besides 1200 Kms of 500 HVDC
line from Talcher to Kolar and a 500 kV HVDC line
from Ib Valley to Jaipur.

Year
Figure-1
4.0 INVESTIGATION
TRIPPINGS

INTO

CAUSES

OF

To investigate the causes of trippings which were due

to contamination, POWERGRID in association with
CPRI took up the work of measuring the intensity of
pollution. The level of pollution was found more than
the design value. In the meanwhile, POWERGRID
also took up the matter with a reputed manufacturer to
look into the pollution aspects of HVDC line and also
to suggest remedial measures to combat this problem.
4.1 Condition of the insulators removed from the
line
Porcelain insulators were removed from pole I during
April97. Glass insulators were removed from pole II
during March99. Both glass and porcelain insulators
were again removed during October/November99.
The surface condition of these insulators were visually
examined and slight flash over marks on the metal caps
of porcelain insulators which were removed from pole
I during April97 in heavy polluted areas. These
insulators are shown in figure 2 & 3.

Figure-2
4.2 Measurement of pollution and Chemical
composition
The Chemical Analysis of the contaminants present in
the pollutants and measurement of deposit of the
pollution on the insulator units were carried out and the
results are tabulated in Table I & II in Annexure-I.
From the results for porcelain insulators, it will be seen
that ESDD varies from .0108 mg/sq. cm to 0.547
mg/sq. cm on the outer surface and 0.0684 mg/sq. cm
on the inner surface of the insulator disc of V string.
Similarly, the NSDD varies from .0144 mg/sq. cm to
8.866 mg/sq. cm on the outer surface and .0338 mg/sq.
cm to 0.68 mg/ sq. cm on the inner surface on the
insulator disc of V string. From the results for glass
insulators, it will be seen that ESDD varies from 0.05
mg/sq. cm to 0.81 mg/sq. cm and NSDD varies from
1.49 mg/sq. cm to 8.17 mg/sq. cm on the insulators
from V string.

Figure-4
5.1 Application of Silicon Grease and RTV coating
As mentioned in the preceding paragraph that both the
terminal stations i.e. Dadri and Rihand were facing
severe pollution problem and this problem was very
severe at Dadri terminal. Various types of silicon
grease and RTV were experimented on a test samples
to see the performance under pollution condition.
Based on studies, only silicon grease was found to be
suitable under the present pollution conditions and the
same is being applied every year at both the terminals.
As this study was carried out about five years ago,
since then, there had been improvement in the RTV
product so this has been experimented on sample
insulators at Dadri terminal. RTV coating was applied
on anti fog HVDC Disc insulator in September98 and
suspended below Air core reactor in charged area.
One more similar sample was coated with RTV in
August99 and suspended in non charged area. Both
these samples were examined and tested for
Hydrophobicity on 6th December99. Both these
samples have been found to have almost lost
Hydrphobicity. However, after cleaning the insulators,
it was observed that RTV coating retained
Hydrophobicity. The results is shown in figure 4. This
experiment conclude that due to very heavy and sticky
pollution, RTV coating is not successful. However, it
may work if we do washing at regular intervals.
5.2 Semi glazed Insulator
The feasibility of semi glazed insulator for HVDC
application was considered.
The commercial
production of these insulators are still in inception
stage.

Figure-3
5.0 REMEDIAL MEASURES
Based on studies carried out, following remedial
measures have been suggested/implemented:-

5.3 Addition of Insulators in the existing Insulator

string
The addition of insulators in the existing string on line
side and earth side was considered. Addition of
insulators on line side has not been found feasible due

to instability generated in the string. The efficiency of

adding the insulators on earth side will depend upon
the flash over path followed by arc.
5.4 Hotline Washing
Hotline washing on the artificially contaminated
insulator was carried out in a systematic way in the
laboratory. The laboratory results of hotline washing
showed that the efficiency of washing on artificially
contaminated insulators in laboratory and on
contaminated insulators taken from the line have been
70% and 50% respectively. To avoid risk of failure
during washing, the severity of contamination is
required to be checked to fix the interval of washing so
that the actual contamination severity is less than the
designed contamination.

6.3 Installation of Polymer Insulators

Besides implementing the above preventive measures,
POWERGRID has also installed polymer insulators as
shown in figure 5 of different makes at the selected
locations to evaluate their effectiveness against
pollution. No trippings observed in polymer insulators
installed in March99 at location no. 1961, 2121 and
2124 in pole II. Additional polymer insulators have
been installed in pole I in October99 at location nos.
1847, 2024 and 2090 and in pole II in November99 at
location nos. 1766, 1843, 1891 and 2099. The results
of performance of additional polymer insulators will
be available after the winter month i.e. December99,
January & February2000 and shall be reported at the
time of CIGRE conference.
6.4 Operation under reduced voltage

6.0 PREVENTIVE MEASURES ADOPTED BY

POWERGRID
Based on the Investigations carried out with the
reputed manufacturer, Hotline washing of the Insulator
string was suggested. Presently, POWERGRID is
exploring the feasibility of the Hotline washing from
ground as well as helicopter for insulator strings.
Meanwhile, following preventive measures have been
adopted to overcome the problem of frequent flash
over on insulator strings due to contamination.

POWERGRID sometimes also resort to operate the

HVDC line on reduced voltage in event of the
trippings becoming excessive. This affect the transfer
power capacity of the HVDC line.
Due to the implementation of the above mentioned
preventive measures, the number of trippings due to
contamination flashover of insulator strings have
reduced considerably.
7.0
MODIFIED APPROACH FOR FUTURE
HVDC LINES

6.1 Cleaning of Insulators

To clean the insulators manually twice a year i.e.
before the onset of monsoon and before the start of the
winter have been taken up regularly.
6.2 Installation of the Bird Guards
The stretches of the line which experiences bird
defecation on the towers, thereby leading to deposits of
the bird defecation on the Insulators, the towers have
been/are being provided with bird guard fabricated out
of metallic sheet on the cross-arms. This has reduced
bird defecation on insulator strings to some extent.

Figure-5

7.1 Increase in electrical insulation strength of

string
For future HVDC line, the pollution level (ESDD) has
been considered as 0.085 mg/sq. cm instead of 0.045
mg/sq. cm in existing line. The number of disc in Vstring has been increased from 38 to 41 nos. antifog
type with creepage distance of 540 mm which
correspond to creepage distance of 44.2 mm per kV.

7.2 Installation of Bird guards

Suitable bird guards shall also be provided on the
cross-arm to restrict bird sitting on tower cross arms
and avoid bird defecation on the insulator strings.

future transmission lines instead of V string used till

now.
8.0 CONCLUSION

7.3 Pollution measurement

POWERGRID has initiated pollution measurements
on the existing lines and also along the route of future
transmission lines. This will help in fixing the
frequency of cleaning of the insulator strings as well as
help in proper designing the insulation level for
pollution performance.
7.4 Adoption of I Suspension String
Keeping in view the maintenance problems faced with
V string, decision has been taken to adopt I string for

8.1 The performance of 500kV HVDC line has been

quite satisfactory except for the performance against
pollution. The number of trippings which were quite
excessive in initial stages have come down due to cold/
off-line cleaning of insulators, installation of bird
guards, reduced voltage operation etc. etc. The
feasibility of Hotline Washing is also being explored.
8.2 The work of pollution level measurements has been
taken up on the existing lines and along the route of the
new lines which will help in fixing the frequency of
cleaning and also in determination of insulation level
for the EHV AC and HVDC transmission lines.

ANNEXURE I
TECHNICAL PARAMETERS FOR 500KV HVDC RIHAND-DADRI LINE
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Nominal System Voltage

Maximum System Voltage
BIL (Impulse)
Power frequency withstand voltage(Wet)
Switching surge withstand voltage (Wet)
Minimum Corona extension voltage (dry)
Maximum radio interference

8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.

Equivalent salt deposit density for anti fog disc insulators

Non-soluble deposit density for anti fog disc insulators
Number of insulators per limb in V string and tension string
Minimum creepage distance of each insulator disc
Size of each disc insulator
Electro-mechanical strength of suspension & tension insulator
Power conductor
Conductor per phase/pole
Spacing between phases/poles
Spacing between sub conductors
Minimum ultimate tensile strength of conductor
Overall dia. of conductor
Weight of conductor
Earth wire

500kV
525kV
1800kV (Peak)
830Kv (rms.)
1000kV (peak)
Surface gradient greater than 22kV /cm
1000 micro volts at surface gradient of
22kV/cm
0.045 mg/sq. cm
0.1 mg/sq. cm
38 nos.
540 mm
320 mm x 170 mm
160 KN
ACSR BERSIMIS
4 nos.
12750 mm
457 mm
154 KN
35.05 mm
2181 kg/km
Galvanised steel (7/3.66 mm)

CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
Table No. I
Type of
Insulators

Location
no.

Porcelain
insulators
removed in
April97
Glass Insulators
removed in
March99

Na+

Ka

Soluble Contaminants (mg/ml)

Mg++ Ca++
ClNO3

SO4

1044
1182
2122

30
28
24

39
16
27

7.5
7.8
15

43
54
145

38
28
35

52
69
112

111
118
290

1961
2121
2124

20
17
29

1.3
0.8
0.8

2.7
1.2
2.7

6.95
4.83
5.07

26
24
20

9.1
8.2
6.4

EQUIVALENT SALT DEPOSIT DENSITY (ESDD) AND NON-SOLUBLE SALT DEPOSIT

DENSITY (NSDD)
Table II
Pollution
Density
in mg/
sq. cm
ESDD
NSDD

Location Numbers
Porcelain Insulators removed in April97
Glass Insulators removed in March99
1044
1182
2122
1961
2121
2124
Top
Bottom
Top
Bottom
Top
Bottom Top Bottom
Top
Bottom
Top Bottom
0.55
8.87

0.069
0.68

0.02
0.015

0.028
0.0338

0.011
0.088

0.065
0.492

0.05
1.49

0.15
8.177

0.32
10.6

0.49
2.7

0.66
3.48

0.81
3.62