Evaluation of breakdown characteristics of gas insulated switchgears for non-standard lightning impulse waveforms under diverse conditions

To lower the lightning impulse withstand voltage of gas insulated switchgear (GIS) while maintaining the high reliability of its insulation performance, it is important to define in an organized way the insulation characteristics for non-standard lightning impulse voltage waveforms that represent actual surge waveforms in the field and compare them with the characteristics for the standard lightning impulse waveform quantitatively. In the preceding researches, the dielectric breakdown voltage-time characteristics were measured under several different conditions on the quasi-uniform SF₆ gas gap and partly the cone-shaped insulating spacers that represent an insulation element of GIS for six kinds of non-standard lightning impulse waveforms associated with lightning surges and disconnector switching surges. As a result, in the tested range, the dielectric breakdown values for non-standard lightning impulse waveforms were higher than those for the standard lightning impulse waveform by 3% to 36%. In these experiments, parameters other than waveforms were fixed to standard conditions. In this paper insulation characteristics on quasi-uniform SF₆ gas gaps were examined while changing conditions on gas pressures, gap lengths, electrode surface roughness, voltage polarities, and bias voltages. As a result, it was confirmed that the results under standard experimental conditions in the preceding experiments can be applied widely to the GIS actual equipment conditions.