Wesley Salles Garcia, Ricardo

Using Environmental Parameters to Create Pollution Maps for Power Utilities: Experience in Brazil

Mr. Garcia received his Bachelor Degree in Electrical Engineering and MSc in High Voltage Engineering from Rio de Janeiro Federal University. Since 1985, he has worked in the Transmission Lines and Equipment Department at Brazil’s Electrical Energy Research Center (CEPEL). His research activities are related to ageing and pollution tests on insulators as well as live line maintenance of overhead transmission lines. He is Chairman of the Brazilian Cigré Working Group for Insulators and also active in various international WGs.

Power networks can traverse large areas and be subject to varying types of pollution whose intensity is a key dimensioning parameter for insulators. Pollution severity of a region can be obtained from on-site measurements, behavior of insulators in service in nearby installations, by simulations or through information presented in IEC/TS 60815-1:2008. Unfortunately, site pollution severity is often not sufficiently well defined or even unknown and the result can be inappropriate choice of insulator type and size. This presentation reviews how a pollution map has been elaborated for a large and geographically diverse country such as Brazil using updated environmental data and considering the impact of various interactions among the parameters.