Research on operation and fault diagnosis technology for EHV/UHV SF6 circuit breakers pre-insertion resistors

Pre-insertion resistors (PIR) are critical components for suppressing the closing inrush current and operating overvoltage during the closing process of the circuit breaker. And it is widely adopted in 800kV and above transmission lines and alternating current filters of converter substations. These special application environments lead to higher failure rates than other electrical components. However, in the daily operation and fault diagnosis of PIR, there is no systematic method to analyze whether there are defects in PIR and the cause of failure after the PIR fails. Based on two PIR failure in series and parallel structures, this paper proposes methods such as dynamic resistance fitting, acoustic and vibration signal detection, insulation performance test, and heat capacity test during operation. In the aspect of fault diagnosis, methods such as PIR splicing based on Iterative Closest Point, stress analysis, and electric field simulation are proposed. Finally, proposed methods can be adjusted to estimate the operating state of PIR through the disassembly inspection to avoid the GIS breakdown accident during the operation of the circuit breaker. (C) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Automated summary

Pre-insertion resistors (PIR) are critical components for suppressing inrush current and overvoltage during circuit breaker closing, especially in high voltage transmission lines. However, there is currently no systematic method for analyzing defects and causes of failure in PIR.