Environmental Effects on HV Dielectric Materials and Related Sensing Technologies

Abstract

The increase in recent power failures, with negative impacts on humans and the economy, has been largely attributed to environmental effects and the aging of the power network. These have been accelerated in the last years due to two main factors: an increased load on the power network and material degradation owing to the presence of environmental pollutants. These factors together with specific weather conditions create the incipient conditions for power network degradation. In this paper, a review of the influence of environmental factors on high-voltage (HV) materials and components is provided. Sensing and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies developed to prevent the failure of the material structure and HV components are also reported.