A coastal trial facility for high voltage composite cross-arms

A trial site has been developed within a substation on the North East coast of Scotland for electrical testing high voltage composite cross-arms. A 400 kV transformer energizes two cross-arms installed on a lattice tower oriented at 90° from each other. A custom made protection system has been designed to keep the equipment within operating limits and minimize potential damage from faults. The purpose of the trial is to monitor the electrical performance of the cross-arms by measuring the leakage current on the surface of the insulating members. Weather monitoring equipment that includes a weather transmitter, a present weather detector and a solar sensor is used to correlate electrical behavior with specific weather phenomena. Cameras overlooking the cross-arms provide information regarding pollution accumulation and snow accretion. A data acquisition and control platform is responsible for recording the measurements. The monitoring system is capable of compiling and transmitting wirelessly a summary of the leakage current and weather information every five minutes.