Special Technical Sessions

Session 1

Proper grounding of electric installations is vitally important for personal safety and to provide the required levels of selectivity, sensitivity and speed of operation for protection devices on electrical installations. A majority of the grounding system components are buried underground and are subject to deterioration from corrosion, dig-ins and damage from heavy fault currents, yet the extent of this deterioration cannot be ascertained through visual inspections. It is not difficult to find installations around us where existing grounding systems fail to provide adequate protection. Yet one can also easily find installations where considerable sums of money are unnecessarily spent on overly designed grounding systems.

This special tutorial, will in 3 hours, summarize a three-day technical workshop first presented by Kinectrics in October, 2002. Bill Chisholm will cover safe limits of current through the human body, safe step and touch potentials, electrical accident risk assessment and the role of specified surface stone in providing a safe work environment. Jody Levine will discuss temporary working grounds, covering their function, selection, specific system considerations and maintenance. Peter Dick will present material on common deficiencies in station grounding and the role of measurements, including grid integrity, soil resistivity, surface stone resistivity and current injection.

Instructors

William Alexander Chisholm - Dr. Chisholm received his B.A.Sc. (Electrical) in 1977 followed by M.Eng. (Electrical) in 1979 from the University of Toronto and received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 1983 from University of Waterloo. He has been employed full-time by Ontario Hydro since 1977 in positions of increasing responsibility. He has carried out a number of contract assignments for the Canadian Electrical Association, Electric Power Research Institute and the University of Toronto and also served a three-year term as Adjunct Professor at University of Western Ontario. Dr. Chisholm is an internationally-acknowledged expert in lightning protection of power systems and chair of the IEEE Lightning and Insulation Subcommittee.

Jody Levine - Ms. Levine received her BASc (Electrical) and MASc (Electrical) from the University of Waterloo. She has a wide range of high-voltage and high-current electrical testing experience on substation and grounding connectors, fiber-optic overhead ground wires, surge arresters, cables and overhead insulation systems. Jody is leading a major new research program to establish appropriate failure criteria for field-aged substation grounding connectors. She is a registered professional engineer, an IEEE member and a member of several Surge Protective Devices working groups and task forces.

Eugene Peter Dick - Mr. Dick received his B.A.Sc. (Electrical) in 1971 from the University of Waterloo followed two years later by M.A.Sc from the University of British Columbia. His main areas of his interest include the testing and modelling of electrical transients in circuit breakers, lines, cables, transformers and grounding systems. He has made significant contributions towards development of grounding standards, models and field measurement techniques on behalf of IEEE, CEA, MEA and Ontario Hydro. He routinely undertakes assignments involving grounding systems' condition assessment to validate co-ordination of safe touch and step potentials. Peter is a registered professional engineer and senior member of IEEE.

Session 2

The principal objective of Power System Asset Management is to enable the organization to meet it's shareholder and service delivery objectives efficiently and effectively. This requires the utility to make effective decisions related to the acquisition, application and disposal of utility assets; while at the same time making business decisions involving the use of capital resources and the assessment of risk and costs over the physical life of the asset.

At Toronto Hydro, we have deployed an Asset Management model that incorporates traditional AM strategies such as maximizing long-term investment value, enhancing shareholder value, reducing capital and operating costs, increasing asset utilization, and maintaining superior levels of performance into a collaborative relationship between Asset Manager and Service Provider.

This presentation will describe the Asset Management journey at Toronto Hydro, from its genesis in 1999 to its present day state. In addition, we'll venture into more non-traditional Asset Management strategies planned for the future including infrastructure outsourcing, new business opportunities, alliances and partnerships.

Session 3

This course will cover various techniques used to assess the condition of power transformers and to determine the end of life for power transformers. The focus will be on the insulation system in power transformers, although other components will also be briefly discussed. Aging mechanisms for the insulation system will be described. Various diagnostic techniques used to detect premature aging of insulation will be discussed. Both on-line and off-line methods will be covered. The emphasis will be on practical usefulness and limitations of various diagnostic methods. Use of diagnostic tests and the criteria to determine the end of life (and hence the need for replacement) of the equipment from service will be discussed.

Instructor

Bal Gupta - Bal Gupta is a principal Scientist/Engineer with AOK Technologies Inc. involved with condition assessment and failure analysis of electrical equipment. Up to July 2000, he was a principal research engineer/physicist with Ontario Power Technologies (formerly Ontario Hydro Research Division), where he was involved in application and development of sophisticated measurement techniques to assess the condition of insulation systems in electrical equipment. He was project leader/principal investigator of many projects on transformers, rotating machines, cables and capacitors. He earned a Ph.D. in Physics from University of Toronto, and is a registered professional engineer in the province of Ontario. He has authored/co-authored over 70 technical papers and three patents. He is a fellow of IEEE and is/has been involved in IEEE activities as member and/or chair of various working groups, subcommittees and committees in Power Engineering Society and Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Society. Dr. Gupta was an Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation from 1988 to 1996.

Session 4

Many underground extruded medium-voltage cable systems have experienced premature failures due to water treeing. There are thousands of miles of installed cables in various states of degradation and utilities need to know which cables are the most degraded so that they can be replaced first. A considerable effort has been spent to determine diagnostic techniques to determine the condition of extruded cable systems. The course will describe the different techniques available and discuss their advantages and shortcomings. Some tests such as dissipation factor measurements assess the overall condition of the insulation, while localized degradation can be detected by partial discharge measurements. However water tree degradation cannot be detected by partial discharge measurements unless electrical trees have been initiated from individual water trees. Factors that affect cable degradation will also be discussed.

Instructor

John Densley - John Densley was educated in the United Kingdom, where he obtained a B. Sc. (Eng) and Ph.D. in electrical engineering in 1964 and 1967 respectively. In 1968, he joined the high voltage group of the National Research Council of Canada, where he became leader of the electrical insulation research group. In 1991, John joined the Ontario Hydro Research Division, which later became Ontario Power Technologies and then Kinectrics, where he continued his research into aging and diagnostics of electrical insulation. He has published more than 100 papers. He retired from Kinectrics in 2000 and is now a consultant. Dr. Densley is a Fellow of the IEEE, active in the PES Insulated Conductors Committee, DEIS, CIGRE and IEC. He is a Registered Professional Engineer in the Province of Ontario.