IIT Madras develops technique to identify pollution deposit in power transmission network

The IIT Madras research team is planning to approach NTPC, Power Grid and other utilities to demonstrate this technology and its use in the real power system network.

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) have developed a technique to identify pollution deposit level in power transmission networks. The IIT Madras research team is planning to approach NTPC, Power Grid and other utilities to demonstrate the technology and its use in the real power system network, an IIT Madras statement said. 

As per the IIT Madras statement, the pollution-related electrical flashover occurs in the working conditions and can lead to blackouts and collapse of the system. Cleaning the polluted insulator under the working condition seems to be the fool-proof way of resolving the problem, it added. 

A solution based on laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has been developed by the research groups of Prof R Sarathi, Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Madras, and Prof NJ Vasa, Department of Engineering Design, IIT Madras. At present, by shining a laser beam at a distance of 40 metres, the researchers can identify the constituents of pollution deposition, while efforts are underway to extend this distance to 100 metres. This would enable assessing the pollution layer on transmission line insulators and the windmills either from the ground or from a drone. 

Prof Sarathi said, “The presence of salt and other pollutant deposits on the insulating materials were successfully identified using the LIBS analysis. The level of pollution on the insulating material was identified using the proposed linear relationship between normalised intensity ratio of the LIBS spectra and the equivalent salt deposition density (ESDD) level.” 

To determine the constituents and amount of pollution, the deposition on the insulators is collected and then the evaluation of the equivalent salt deposit density (ESDD) and non-soluble material deposit density (NSDD) is carried out. There are also attempts to measure the leakage current through the insulator to monitor the severity of the pollution. These are quite cumbersome and expensive, the IIT Madras statement said. 

The researchers said using this technique, the pollution level on the transmission line insulators and the windmills could be identified at any remote location. No interruption of the power transmission is required nor the cumbersome process of climbing on to the tower. The technique is simple and reliable, which can provide accurate results within no time. The entire length of the transmission line could be monitored effectively for its condition on pollution deposit level, in a short time. This work was financially supported under the National Perspective Plan of the Ministry of Power, Government of India, through Central Power Research Institute (CPRI), Bengaluru. 

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