Characteristics of Creepage Discharge in Oil/Pressboard Composite Insulation

This paper deals with partial discharge characteristics in oil/pressboard composite insulation system, which is used in oil-immersed power transformer. It is found that the discharge propagates in the same route on the pressboard surface as in the previous discharge every time under repeated impulse voltage application. We also revealed that the white trace remained along the path of discharge and affected the subsequent discharge progress because of being a weak point part on insulation. This study presents an investigation of the effect of the white trace on partial discharge inception voltage (PDIV) of the composite insulation system with high-speed optical observation and electrical measurements for the discharge propagation. The discharge propagation mechanism is also discussed with comparing the discharge progress characteristics before and after the white trace formation.