It is now more than a decade since High-Voltage Engineering and Testing (HVET), 2nd Edition, was published in the IEE Power and Energy Series. The origins of the HVET books, and also the equally successful accompanying International Summer School series by the same title over the period 1993–2008, is briefly recorded and explained at the end of this preface to provide the readers with valuable background information expressed in both historical and technical contexts. In the past decade, significant changes have continued to take place in the electricity supply industry in the UK and worldwide, and many more strategic and very costly network devel-opments anticipated in the very near future will be discussed in this latest edition.
There has been much talk in the past few years of ‘smart-grids’ and ‘enhanced intelligent energy networks’ of the future, i.e., within the next one to two decades.
However major under-investment in the sector for many years, linked to the recent world recession or ‘economic downturn’, will certainly delay completion and full integration of these diverse/complex/extremely costly proposed technological advances.
This new third edition of HVET will again provide a valuable broad overview of the developments in the sector including renewable energy (windfarms, biomass etc.). Cost, environmental and operational aspects are covered. Modern substation condition monitoring strategies for switchgear, transformers and cables are discussed and new insulation co-ordination (IC) technologies are discussed – adopted using higher performance arresters for new ultra high-voltage AC transmission substations in China, India and Japan (operating at voltages 1,100 kV). Fundamental design concepts, special strategic network developments, asset management issues at EHV and other special matters are also discussed.
The book also touches on how network equipment and systems operate and are monitored and managed at this time – and can perhaps best be managed in the future. The important roll of CIGRE in the energy sector via its extensive Study Committee structure (see Table 1, Introduction), and production of Technical Brochures, is also explained. Consider now the first two of several strategic new energy themes discussed in this edition of HVET:
1. Recently, there have been political concerns expressed by MPs and media coverage commenting that Britain’s energy markets are ‘inherently-flawed’
and that ‘anti-competitive practices’ may be forcing up the costs paid by
consumers. Five of Britain’s energy companies are facing mounting pressure to cut fuel prices after recent figures from Ofgem (the industry regulator) showed the average profits they earned, per household, rose 40% one recent winter to the highest figure for five years. This comes at a time of huge profits for the energy companies – several of whom are now (at least partly) owned by overseas companies, for example EDF Energy and GDF Suez (French owned), E.ON and RWE (German owned), Enel (Italian owned). Ofgem indicated recently that profit margins earned by the so-called Big Six Companies – British Gas, Scottish Power, EDF Energy, npower, Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) and E.ON – increased from £75 per average ‘dual-fuel’ custo-mer in November 2009 to £105 at the start of February 2010.
Energy bills continue to rise and UK consumers will also be footing the
£25–35 billion bill to upgrade the UK’s energy network for the next four to five decades. In 2013, Ofgem indicated that householders will be paying off this huge cost, via levies, over a 45 year period (instead of the existing period of 20 years). Consequentially, it is projected, and claimed, that energy bills will reduce soon in the UK.
2. A study from the Energy and Climate Change Committee on the future of Britain’s electricity networks has called for the introduction of a more efficient ‘smart grid’, capable of intelligently managing demand and supply. A member of this committee, P. Tipping, MP, said ‘our existing regulatory and policy frameworks, along with grid infra-structure we rely on, were developed to serve the fossil-fuel economy of the twentieth century.
The future looks very different’ and called for a review of the British Elec-tricity Trading and Transmission Arrangements, which have formed the foundation for UK power activity since 2005. He also stated that by 2020, the UK network would need to accommodate a more diverse energy mix.1 Many strategic aspects will be dealt with in the new third edition of HVET. In addition, speculative new technologies and new techniques perhaps novel today, yet likely to become strategic and standard technology very soon – for next gen-eration systems – are also reported on. One example that could possibly fit this bill is ‘fault current limiters’, which have been developed/researched for some years but have not as yet achieved the commercial success that many predicted. This situation may well change dramatically in the next decade. Obviously a very strong strategic contender in this category would be ‘smart grids’, referred to by some as condition monitoring to achieve greatly improved electricity network commercial profitability, management of demand, supply, etc. Electricity grid networks in UK and in many countries are still largely set up as for twentieth-century needs! All areas of the energy sector need to draw on relevant lessons learned in other
1At that time, the UK energy consumer was already concerned and disgruntled with the realisation that the seemingly ever-escalating domestic energy fuel bills would continue to rise indefinitely – part of these payments contributing towards the highly subsidised future development to the UK’s ‘diverse-mix’
energy network infrastructure.
appropriate sectors, for example telecoms. Technically, this is certainly a very good time for ‘smart-grid’ changes as everyone is trying to work networks harder and more efficiently. There are ‘rich-pickings’ available to those who can ‘interpret needs’ and develop effective intelligent software systems, etc., capable of working energy networks, harder, safer, longer and more efficiently/profitably, and who can anticipate early enough what new techniques/methodologies are likely to play the best strategic and economic roles in managing T&D networks better (technically and economically) in the very near future.
World events and reactions to several other important emerging energy issues warrant and necessitate extended coverage/discussions on renewable and other energy issues in this third edition, partly because of the widespread unrest reported in the UK press/media etc., on several short-term and longer-term energy-related issues. Similarly, because of apparent UK government’s indecision concerning nuclear new-build plant vs renewables vs a recent new rush for gas initiative in the
‘post’-Fukushima nuclear accident (2011) era – and more significantly, the apparent lack of a coherent and consistent overall UK energy policy – these and other strategic aspects are also covered in this new edition. Very important issues relate to technical, economic and security aspects linked to the current worldwide problems associated with cyber-crime, cyber-hacking, cyber-intrusion, etc. using malicious software.
These aspects are covered, mainly in Chapter 23, with an indication given of the scale and frequency of the worldwide cyber issues, and how these issues are cur-rently being dealt with within the energy sector.
Finally, the extensive referencing of CIGRE Technical Brochure publications in this third edition of HVET has been done very deliberately. Perusal of appro-priate CIGRE Technical Brochures (TBs) can help empower the reader if he/she uses them as an additional resource when reading refereed IET/IOP/IEEE, etc., publications on similar themes. Sadly, in the UK, many higher degree researchers or engineering degree students doing final year projects have in the past failed to be aware of, or to follow up effectively, extensive and valuable CIGRE TBs and Electra paper materials as they often felt little incentive to read, refer to or publish in these ‘non-rigorously refereed journals’ from a research assessment publishing
‘credibility viewpoint’. Fortunately these views are now changing worldwide, and hopefully also in the UK, as there is much valuable technical information to be obtained with this search approach – as this writer has been urging students and academics to do for 25+ years within HVET School and elsewhere.
In summary, the challenges ahead are great and the career opportunities for the next generation of power engineer are very promising – good luck.
Acknowledgements
Significant to the successes of both the HVET course over the period 1993–2008 and the HVET book to date have been the excellent individual expert contributors to both formats, each expert having been particularly active in his/her sector(s), including ESI, IEC Standards, design and manufacture, R&D, consultancy or testing aspects xxix
and within the professional bodies IET/IOP/IEC/BSI/CIGRE, etc. The majority of authors in this third edition are also distinguished and active members of CIGRE, WGs, or IEC Committees or the famous Current-Zero-Club, restricted to world experts in Arc-Interruption. All are fully aware of the ongoing dynamic changes in the energy and network sector, worldwide.
This Editor, who was also Chair of the successful IET/HVET Summer School series 1993–2008, is pleased to record his very grateful thanks to all HVET con-tributors and lecturers for their generous and committed support over the years (1993–2008) in passing on their expertise to the next generation of engineers in this sector.
In particular at this time, he also wishes to express his sincere thanks and grateful appreciation to all contributors to this third edition HVET for giving their time so generously to prepare their valuable and strategic contributions, at a time of heavy work commitments and other duties.
Hugh M. Ryan, Editor HVET 3rd Edition, 2013
Historical background to HVET books, Editions 1, 2 and 3
The first, second and now third editions of this HVET book developed from subject material initially prepared and delivered at the IET HVET International School Courses covering the same subject areas (1993–2008). Interestingly, the International HVET Course series – covering High-Voltage, Engineering and Testing – evolved and developed in the UK following the strongly voiced concerns and wishes of the IEE membership ‘at large’ during and following two UK IEE meetings on related topics that the writer chaired in 1991, one at CERL, Leatherhead the other at IET Headquarters, Savoy Place, London. At, and subsequent to these events, there were
1. very strong concerns expressed at the diminishing UK expertise in the sector, particularly in HV measurement and traceability/testing
2. the strong wishes expressed by most of the IEE members in the audiences, at both these events, to have suitable new training course(s) established on HV testing, measurement and traceability, etc., developed, organised and made available to facilitate the ‘proper and appropriate training’ of the next gen-eration of HV experts in the UK and abroad, otherwise it was feared that much of the expertise would be lost.
Note: To put these 1991 IEE membership concerns into perspective, it must be recognised that during the 1980s and 1990s many HV laboratories in both the old and new universities in the UK closed and laboratory space often converted, into new IT suites. Many of the larger machines in undergraduate laboratories were also removed and progressively it was sometimes difficult to distinguish between uni-versity electrical departments and computing departments, as both were largely resourced by many computers plus software simulation tools instead of power machines, etc., or HV testing equipment. Similar savage cut-backs in the UK
power engineering industrial manufacturing base reduced the popularity of HV power engineering still further at that time.
Disappointingly, in recent years this power engineering downturn situation has continued – fortunately with a few areas of outstanding expertise remaining – culminating in the virtual ending of UK transmission switchgear manufacturing and certain other traditional power engineering manufacturing capabilities. Now, in 2013, the recent closure of a UK Bushing Manufacturing facility and also the Clothier UHV Testing Laboratory complex, both located at Hebburn, UK, has exacerbated the position even further. Consequently, the need for the latest version of this HVET book is again timely, reflecting on traditional, new and anticipated future strategic developments in the power engineering sector.
Historically, this writer (editor of editions 1, 2 and 3 of this HVET book) decided to prepare a report for the IEE Power Divisional Board on a proposed new HVET (High-Voltage Engineering and Testing) course, suggesting a slightly
‘broader scope’ for this proposed course, after some helpful discussions with colleagues, who were later to become founder members of HVET Course Steering Committee. The IEE Power Division approved this initiative and sup-ported the running this course annually, for the first several years (1993–2002).
This International HVET Course Series (1993–2008) proved to be a success (commercially, educationally and technically) with more than 400 delegates coming from more than 30 countries, and the HVET book 2nd Edition appeared in the IEE best seller lists. Therefore, it can truly be stated that this has been a
‘bottom-up’ initiative, from IEE members in the audiences at the above two technical meetings back in 1991 who were the real ‘catalysts’ for starting HVET, in both course and book formats. This approach of using delegate feedback continued to prove invaluable when checking, updating and maintaining the HVET course relevance ‘year-on-year’.
It had always been the policy of the IET HVET Course Organising Committee (1993–2008) to ‘tweak’ the course delivery slightly each year and also to introduce new aspects and materials regularly, when felt to be appropriate, reflecting any changes in the ESI and always ‘listening and taking on board’ from the interactive technical discussions the views of the international delegates, fellow lecturers, etc., regarding any possible improvements to course structure/themes and assessing the interest in possible new area(s) to ‘pick up on’ for the next year. Indeed, one
‘speculative-type’ lecture session was usually held each year, to introduce and debate with course delegates one or two different speculative or new technical aspects – or drivers for the future – in anticipation of likely new trends, and to
‘touch-on’ how changes would affect the operation and economics of electricity networks of the future and equipment. Also considered were the operational implications and how these changes might be ‘managed’. This has been done on the HVET course by the course committee over several years, with themes such as advanced condition monitoring, fibre optical monitoring, fibre, new developments in the UHV sector, evolving drivers and strategies for change in Electricity ESIs, global warming, carbon footprints, renewable energy, wind power, tidal, wave, solar, biomass, and so on! Also any relevant strategic updates or anticipated xxxi
dynamic changes within ESIs or HV testing sectors worldwide were reported to delegates year on year, covering any recent IET/IEEE/IOP/CIGRE publications and including important changes to IEC Standards and relevant CIGRE TBs, Working Group (WG) reports, etc. Brief details of such developments and possible strategic changes were made available to delegates at the school each year and the importance of IET/IEC/CIGRE activities touched on from a perspective of
‘empowering delegates’ in their chosen area of interest, or even broader issues.
This was well received by delegates and who often remained in contact with course lecturers a long time after the school.
The HVET course, and its accompanying book, has been very well received both nationally and internationally for many years. Consider just one tribute: an extract of a recent letter from the IET Chief Executive and Secretary, April 2008, to one retiring founder-member of the HVET Course Steering Committee. It states:
I am writing to you on behalf of the Institution of Engineering and Technology in recognition of the outstanding contribution you have made over the years to the High Voltage, Engineering and Testing Course. The Course has become our flagship power systems training school which has inspired other sectors in the IET to emulate its formula. It is accepted globally that HVET sets the standard for other organisations providing this training and the sector has the highest regard for its quality and practical delivery. None of this would be possible without the exceptional con-tribution and energy of the volunteers behind it. It is with sadness that I read that you have had to resign from the steering committee for health reasons on the advice of your Doctor. Your presence among the team and IET staff will be missed as the Course continues to serve the engineering community.
Note: This writer considers the above comments to be an appropriate and accurate tribute to the individual and, in his humble opinion, it could equally well have been written collectively for all the HVET committee and course lecturers, over the entire life of the HVET course up to that time (1993–2008). Many of these indi-viduals have also contributed to all three editions of the HVET book.
This clearly reflects their continuing commitment to passing on their expertise to the next generation of workers in the sector! – To them again, a big thank you.