Bird Streamer Initiated Breakdown Characteristics under HVDC Conditions

A study of the role played by bird streamers (bird excretements) in transmission line faults under HVDC conditions is described in this paper. The research was initiated due to the lack of knowledge regarding this phenomenon. An insight is given as to what bird streamers faults are, and their role in the breakdown of air-gaps. A model HVDC transmission line tower has been built at the HVDC laboratory at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. The tower was used facilitate in the air-gap breakdown tests. The tests were carried out in order to find the minimum distance required on a transmission tower top for a flashover to occur. The results obtained show that a streamer effectively reduces the air-gap between the tower and the live fitting on a tower. An indication of future work will be given.