The University of Manchester and National Grid are collaborating on the development of electric field (e-field) sensor technology that will be mounted on drones to facilitate live inspections of insulators deployed on overhead transmission lines.
Ofgem’s Network Innovation Allowance (NIA) is investing $1.35 million over a three-year period that could generate savings worth $3.4 million across a duration of 15 years via resource and cost efficiencies in the process of monitoring transmission networks.
At present, the e-field profiles of insulators are assessed by lineworkers who scale pylons following circuit outages. The insulator samples are then dispatched for forensic analysis.
The University of Manchester’s High Voltage Laboratory will develop and trial the technology. The laboratory can test 800kV AC, 600kV DC and 2MW impulse.
The research project will be led by Khristopher Kabbabe of the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering; Professor Ian Cotton of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering; Sinisa Durovic and Vidyadhar Peesapati.
The project will also generate digital twins for a number of insulators to identify electric field profiles under varying conditions, formulate algorithms to facilitate the assessment of the condition of insulators, and scale down the technology so as to ensure it can be mounted on a drone.
A key challenge of the research project is the development of an algorithm that can distinguish the effect of pollution on the electric field of an insulator.
