A Study of Bird Streamer Initiated Breakdown Characteristics Under HVDC Conditions

The paper reports on research conducted in order to understand the contribution of bird streamers to transmission line faults under HVDC conditions. The research was initiated due to the lack of knowledge regarding this phenomenon under HVDC conditions. The experimental work was conducted on a model transmission line tower, which was used to suspend insulator strings of various configurations. Tests were carried out to determine breakdown characteristics under both negative and positive polarities. The experimental results led to the development of a model for predicting the protected zone length on an HVDC transmission towers. There was good agreement between the predicted and the practically applied zone length.