New live line tester for porcelain suspension insulators on high-voltage power lines

Until now at Hydro-Quebec, overhead power transmission line porcelain insulators had been tested by the buzz method which simply consists in applying a short-circuit to each insulator in a string and listening for a buzz-like sound indicating a good insulator. However, safety considerations that preclude short-circuiting insulators and other disadvantages of that method have led Hydro-Quebec to undertake and complete the development of a new insulator tester. The working principle of this new device is based on the automatic measurement and recording of the electric field along the insulator string which decreases considerably in front of an internally-shorted insulator. The tester is slid along the string while the insulators are counted automatically. The information from tests on up to 200 strings can be stored in the device to be later transferred in a host computer for interpretation and/or permanent storage. The new tester also gives information on voltage distribution along the insulator strings which can be useful for the design of future power transmission lines