New Techniques for Field Inspection of Pin Insulators for Medium Voltage Networks

The aim of this paper is to define a set of new techniques to an efficient field procedure to determine the operational condition of porcelain pin insulators. This intends to assist the maintenance of the distribution networks and the substitution of failed insulators. Considering the technical and economic aspects, two technologies of relatively low cost and easy operation have been applied, detection of ultrasonic and radio interference noises. The results obtained during the field inspections are compared with several tests carried out at the High-Voltage Laboratory of Federal University of Itajuba. From the comparisons of these results the effectiveness of each technology applied to the field research is obtained.