This paper gives an overview of electrical DC phenomena in GIL/GIS, the influence of insulating properties of SF6 and filled epoxy resin, and design of new support insulator for 320kV HVDC GIL/GIS. The busbar system including the insulator was designed not only to satisfy all standard requirements such as mechanical, temperature rise, heating cycle performance but also particular requirements for HVDC applications such as superimposed impulse tests. Finally and for the first time at actual scale, type test according to CIGRE JWG D1/B3.57 was conducted in EDF R&D Les Renardières laboratory to verify the design and insulating performance of the 320kV HVDC GIL/GIS system. The satisfactory results allow to confirm the high technology readiness level of HVDC GIL/GIS.

This paper evidences the influence of different parameters on the electric field on DC spacers in GIS/GIL and thus their dielectric withstand under S/IMP tests. A notable difference in term of electric field can be observed in function of impulse polarity, load condition (with/without heating current) and insulating material’s properties. For example, an overstress of 0.3pu was obtained on spacer’s surface in case of superimposed impulse test with opposite impulse polarity, high load condition and high leakage current in gas. Contrary to AC system where the simple LI tests were enough, S/IMP tests with both impulse polarity, ZL and HL conditions are mandatory to verify the insulating performance of HVDC GIS/GIL spacer. This paper gives a better understanding of the electric field distribution in HVDC GIS/GIL and helps for the design and tests

Most high voltage gas circuit breakers (HVCB) in operation use SF6 as the arc interruption medium because of its high dielectric strength and good arc interruption properties. However, SF6 also displays a high global warming potential which motivates the investigation of possible alternatives to this gas.

Space charge accumulation on High Voltage Direct Current Gas Insulated Substations can produce electrical field reinforcements in the insulation that need to be taken into account in the equipment design. The TSM (Thermal Step Method) is one of the experimental techniques allowing to determine space charge distributions in insulating materials. However localized defects (i.e. microvoids, delaminations etc) cannot usually be detected by this technique. A new numerical approach to study the influence of structural defects on Thermal Step Method currents is proposed. The method is based on a Finite Element numerical simulation allowing to simultaneously solve electrical and thermal equations. The effect of three different defects were studied. It results that ring defects, with diameters smaller than 0.4 mm, produce less than 10% of change on TSM current signals. This confirms the difficulty to detect small defects by this method. It was also observed that delaminations can produce variations in signal as high as 70%, and even generate signals of opposing sign from the case without defect.