Three-Pronged Approach to Optimize Electrical Insulation Systems

To maximize power density and dynamics, the supply of electrical and electronics components in electrical assets can go from sinusoidal AC to modulated AC and DC, including voltage and load transients.  Hybrid power supply can be a viable option that includes supplying the same component, such as cables by different types of voltage waveforms, and modulated AC and DC. This determines electrical, thermal and mechanical stress profiles that can change significantly with supply voltage and time. This can increase electrothermal and mechanical aging rates (intrinsic and extrinsic aging). As an example, the electric field in defects can incept partial discharges (PD) for one or the other stress conditions, with different PD amplitude and repetition rate. This impacts their harmfulness and the extrinsic aging rate. Life reduction can be dramatic, even if PD activity is discontinuous. The three-pronged approach allows a design that drives the optimized design of insulation systems to maximize their reliability, life, and dimensions/weight, while considering the risk of generating extrinsic aging phenomena.