A Contribution to Everlasting Electrical Insulation for DC Voltage: PD-Phobic Materials

Abstract

This paper focuses on the design of insulating materials candidate from DC-supply applications, proposing viable solutions that may increase the defect-tolerance of an insulation system and avoid the presence of highly energetic phenomena, specifically partial discharges, which can cause premature insulation breakdown. It is shown that, in principle, polymeric materials for DC insulation can be structured, possibly through nanotechnology, to avoid partial discharge inception in steady state even in UHVDC cables and high-field design insulation systems, which would exclude partial discharge degradation from the aging factors that can affect insulation reliability and life. This approach may provide basic tools to design DC insulation having electro-thermal life and reliability of virtually unlimited extent, thus of so-called PD-phobic materials.