INMR’ s 100 th Coincides with Two 50-Year Milestones
One of the ways INMR has proven remarkably effective is as a‘ technical bridge’ among many nations.
Transient Thoughts
46 20
YEARS
Q2 2013
This special issue of INMR offers a good opportunity to reflect on this journal’ s growing body of valuable literature to support power engineers worldwide as well as the insulator and surge arrester manufacturing industries, among others( found in its archives at: www. inmr. com).
I recall meeting Marvin Zimmerman at a conference in Montreal during the mid 90s. Our discussion soon led to my first contributed article, which described how Ontario Hydro applied cold-fog and icing test methods to rank the efficacy of alternative solutions to flashover faults from road salt and industrial pollution under wintery conditions. At the time, this topic was at the forefront of selecting housings for insulators, bushings and arresters since it dealt with leakage distance as well as dry arc dimensions. The impact of icing, snow and road salt proved to be of interest for many readers, even those living in warm and desert conditions. In a sense, our winter can be regarded as a‘ perfectly disguised desert’ since the steady build-up of electrically conductive pollution on surfaces is locked in place by accumulating frost or a thin layer of ice.
I fondly remember showing my father( like Marvin a trained chemist), the completed issue that contained my first article and I cherish the memory of his positive feedback on both the end quality and results of the editorial process. A good editor and expert graphic designer allow researchers such as myself make the transition from focused scientific papers to more practical technical articles by improving clarity while preserving integrity.
It turns out that this 100th issue milestone corresponds to a related pair of 50-year anniversaries – namely the IEEE, formed in January 1963, and its Dielectrics & Electrical Insulation Society( DEIS), which had its first technical meeting that September. DEIS was initially a technical group on insulation chaired by J. R. Perkins of DuPont. Its first Transactions consisted of peer-reviewed journal papers in 1965 but nothing more was published until 1967. Comments about the challenge of sustaining interest in insulators were also initially thrown at INMR’ s founder; thankfully, both publications went on to earn readers’ trust and continued support.
The IEEE group transformed under chair Ray Bartnikas to the Electrical Insulation Society in January 1978, just as I was starting my career in lightning and high voltage testing at Ontario Hydro Research. Chaired by the late John Tanaka, the Society refocused itself as the Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Society in February 1986. This era especially resonates with me since my work at Ontario Hydro on icing flashovers of insulators started with a record series of such events at 500 kV only a month later.
The DEIS traditionally supports an Electrical Insulation Conference( EIC) to discuss advances in polymer technology. From the outset, the EIC was supported by major manufacturers of the era who welcomed the opportunity to discuss service requirements with users. A later DEIS initiative was sponsoring the Conference on Electrical Insulation & Dielectric Phenomena( CEIDP) to serve the insulation research community. Bridging the gap between EIC applications and CEIDP theory are bi-annual International Symposia on Electrical Insulation( ISEI).
By the end of last year, the DEIS had over 2200 members, roughly half in the U. S. and Canada. But less than 3 % came from China. Among the ways in which INMR has proven remarkably effective is as a technical bridge among nations, with its strong international focus that includes its Chinese language edition. Then, there are inclusive conferences held across the globe, the next one in early September in Vancouver. I hope that the coming 50 years will see expanded membership for DEIS, which can look to INMR to gauge global interest in its areas of insulation research.
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers( IEEE) also turns 50 this year. IEEE was formed early in 1963 with the merger the American Institute of Electrical Engineers( AIEE) and the Institute of Radio Engineers( IRE). The DEIS is one of its 38 societies and I have mentioned the work of its Power and Energy Society( PES) in past columns. Rather than describe IEEE’ s full size and scope( with 400,000 members reading 30 % of the world’ s electrical engineering technical literature in more than 100 peer-reviewed journals), I would like to draw your attention to what IEEE does well in terms of development and refinement of consensus standards.
I recently participated as part of a team designing a new transmission line and was pleased and surprised that another team member decided to make use of a new IEEE Standard, 1724-2011, Guide for the Preparation of a Transmission Line Design Criteria Document. When initiating a new design, there are many, sometimes conflicting, sources of data. In only 20 pages, IEEE 1724 lays out a structure for organizing the information and defining these assumptions. For example, insulator types and configurations are defined in Section 2 of the Guide. Section 3 holds the climatic conditions influencing insulator selection( including wind, ice, combined mechanical loadings, unusual winds and pollution). Insulation coordination aspects – including de-rating factors such as air pressure and humidity – form a part of the electrical design criteria in Section 4. The criteria for lightning protection are also set out, including the results of using line surge arresters in place of shielding and grounding. Mechanical strength requirements of insulators are placed with other structural design assumptions in Section 5.
When writing the design criteria document it soon became apparent that, while no expert had all the answers, at least one team member could complete each sub-section with confidence. At the end, the design criteria document( structured in IEEE 1724-2011 format) was comprehensive and complete. Congratulations to Glenn Davidson, Chair of the large IEEE Task Force of the Line Design Working Group of the Overhead Lines Subcommittee, on a truly complete guide for practicing line design engineers.
Dr. William A. Chisholm W. A. Chisholm @ ieee. org