Substation asset life extension
Your substation is a complex hub of high-voltage equipment that works hard every day to power your production. Do you know your critical substation assets? Do you have strategies in place for maintaining them?
Click on the substation components below to learn more about what they do, why they fail, and how you can prolong their reliable life.
Insulators
Insulators stop the flow of electricity. They prevent energized equipment from touching or arcing onto non-energized equipment, while also providing physical support for busbars, cables, and conductors. Often made of porcelain with steel fixings and cement binding, insulators are sturdy—yet still vulnerable to certain threats.
Failure modes
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Extreme temperatures (high temperatures can damage porcelain and cause structural cracks)
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Flashover (lightening strikes, switching surges)
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Glazing defects (threatens insulation integrity)
Reliability considerations
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Partial discharge (PD) monitoring
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IR scanning
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Visual checks for damage
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Physical checks such as tapping and ring tests (when appropriate)
