Performance of silicone insulators under salt fog conditions

The use of polymeric materials as an alternative to solve the pollution problems experienced by conventional glass or porcelain insulator strings has been considered by the Mexican utility during the last 5 years. Experimental work presented in this paper was focused to determine the performance of silicone insulators under salt log conditions in order to recommend their application in a 230 kV line exposed to severe pollution conditions (saline and industrial). The evaluation parameters were the insulator's leakage current and flashover events, making a correlation between pollution severity, surface electrical activity and flashover voltage.