Electric breakdown strength measurement in liquid dielectrics

Development of new technologies and materials in electric power engineering is very closely associated with question of ecology presently. Daily, there is consumed thousands tons of electro-insulating materials, including of electro-insulating oil, which are the main component of paper - oil transformers by the electric power systems devices production. Precautions against the oil leakage into environment, during failure, liquidation, but also normal operation, is really expensive and not absolute safe. Therefore, the current effort is to find new, environmentally friendly alternative, which could be the organic oils. Electrical characteristics of these oils are still not clearly investigated, therefore this paper deals with research and comparison of electric breakdown strength of mineral oils, silicone oil and vegetable oils, which is an important electrical parameter of liquid dielectrics.