Remaining life estimation of a overhead composite insulator using particle swarm optimization technique

In the recent years the world has witnessed a push towards green energy and fuels. This has resulted in the integration of renewable energy into the existing grids. With the developments in renewable energy sector taking mammoth steps, it is equally important to consider and enhance the transmission line capacities. Transmission of power to the consumer end is desirable to be done at high voltage levels to reduce the line losses that occur. But the transmission of power at higher voltages; in the magnitude of several hundreds of kilovolts, again pose a limiting factor in the design and useful life estimation of overhead transmission line insulators. In this paper, the life estimation of composite insulators used in overhead transmission lines is studied. The use of composite insulators for overhead transmission lines picked up momentum over the last few decades. Composite silicone insulators when being used as overhead transmission lines, are subjected to multiple stresses some of them being, wind, rain, ultra violet radiations, temperature, mechanical, thermal and electrical, which reduces their life drastically. Hence the prediction of life time of these insulators is of prime importance. In this paper a fuzzy logic controller is developed which is capable of predicting the life of composite insulators. Particle swarm optimization (PSO) technique is used to enhance the accuracy of the model. Mamdani model of fuzzy logic controller is used, with a combination of Triangular and Gaussian membership functions. It is found that the particle swarm optimization tuned controller with multi membership function rule set gives lower error than a fuzzy logic controller without optimization. The result obtained from simulation with and without optimization is compared with the experimental data available to validate the effectiveness of the proposed system.