What would cause this?

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Pollution on the insulators getting wet and washing down. Salt from ocean sprays during hurricanes will also do that.
We have had to pressure wash the insulators to quiet them down.
 
Hv&Lv said:
Pollution on the insulators getting wet and washing down. Salt from ocean sprays during hurricanes will also do that.
We have had to pressure wash the insulators to quiet them down.
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Thanks- thats good to know- or not :lol::p.

Dumb question- are these insulators just one stage away from flashing over?
 
K8MHZ said:
I saw it several times when I was working on a new power plant. It would be rainy/misty with fog and the 315kv insulators would arc over like that. It was kind of spooky because we had to walk by them on the way to brass in.
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Ok- so it there might be some "acceptable" norm to it.
 
mbrooke said:
What would cause this level discharge on insulators? And is discharge correct term for the phenomenon? I don't think I have ever seen this, even in fog or rain.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPe0Ucy0wMY
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I'm going to have to say that is not supposed to happen, and I would say there is insufficient insulation or distance on the insulators. If that was a common occurrence, there would be tons of YouTube videos showing the phenomena.

If that is caused by a hard-driving rain, or acid rain, what is to keep the arcs from going phase to phase if there was a significant crosswind?

300kv EDM. I'm surprised the locals don't throw pennies or pesos or whatever at the bottom of the insulators to see what kind of etching they would get. Then again, I don't think I would want to get close enough to that to throw a penny
 
Cleaning insulators, as mentioned, will help. Corona can also look like tracking, but in this case, the heavy rain mixed with the contaminants creates the current path to ground. Phase to phase is unlikely since the leakage path is to ground through the insulator surfaces and metal structure. There's plenty of air between each phase and air is a really good insulator. Susbstations near the ocean are cleaned while energized with pulsed water jets to eliminate the possibility of any current following the stream of water to the operator. Nice way of saying you don't want to be the bug in the zapper.
 
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