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Advanced Dielectric Materials, Sensing, Monitoring, and Diagnostic Technologies for High-Voltage Equipment in New Power Systems

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A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "F: Electrical Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 June 2026 | Viewed by 6097

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Jiefeng Liu

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Guest Editor

Department of Electrical Engineering, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China
Interests: high-voltage engineering; insulation aging; dielectric response analysis; state evaluation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Xianhao Fan

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Guest Editor Assistant

Department of Electrical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Interests: dielectric insulation; insulation aging; intelligent optimization; state evaluation; fault diagnosis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Building a new type of power system is the key to promoting the high-quality development of energy and electricity under the "dual carbon" goal. The requirements for the construction of a new type of power system will inevitably bring huge challenges and changes to the operation and maintenance of the power grid. To significantly improve the transparency level of the power grid, enhance the quality and efficiency of the energy supply chain, and ensure the safe operation of the new power system, it is increasingly important to research and develop advanced materials, as well as sensing, monitoring, and diagnostic technologies, and to achieve the digital and intelligent transformation of power system equipment.

We are therefore organizing a Special Issue on the topic of "Advanced Dielectric Materials, Sensing, Monitoring, and Diagnostic Technologies for High-Voltage Equipment in New Power Systems", and issue a call for submissions to experts and scholars in this field at home and abroad to jointly explore the cutting-edge progress, difficulties/challenges, and future development directions in this field. Experts and scholars in related fields are welcome to actively submit articles.

Dr. Jiefeng Liu
Guest Editor

Dr. Xianhao Fan
Guest Editor Assistant

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

dielectric
insulation
measurement
fault diagnosis
state evaluation

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Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

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12 pages, 9460 KB

Open AccessArticle

Dielectric Response Characteristics and a Preliminary Ice-Type Discrimination Framework for Ice Accretion on High-Voltage Transmission Lines

by Junhua He and Hualong Zheng

Energies 2026, 19(10), 2316; https://doi.org/10.3390/en19102316 - 12 May 2026

Viewed by 201

Abstract

Atmospheric ice accretion on transmission lines threatens the safe operation of power systems, whereas existing monitoring methods mainly focus on ice thickness, load, or morphology and provide limited material-related information for distinguishing ice types. This study investigates the dielectric response of ice and snow samples to evaluate its feasibility for preliminary ice-type discrimination. Artificial glaze ice and natural snow samples were measured using a self-built temperature-controlled parallel-plate system within 10–100 kHz. The effects of freezing-water conductivity, temperature, surface water film, and snow density were examined, and representative glaze ice, dry snow, and wet snow samples were further compared under the same measurement framework. The results show that the dielectric constant generally decreases with frequency, while conductivity, water film, and density mainly increase the response magnitude and, in some cases, alter the prominence of loss-related features. These trends are consistent with reported dielectric dispersion, conductive loss, and snow density-related mixing behavior. Dielectric loss provides clearer differences between glaze ice and snow-related samples than dielectric constant alone, whereas dry and wet snow require combined consideration of dielectric constant and loss. A preliminary two-step hierarchical framework is therefore proposed for the tested sample set. Further validation over broader frequency ranges and conductor-like geometries is required before practical application. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Dielectric Materials, Sensing, Monitoring, and Diagnostic Technologies for High-Voltage Equipment in New Power Systems)

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25 pages, 1954 KB

Open AccessArticle

Flexible Load Reserve Capacity Evaluation Method Considering User Response Willingness for Sustainable Reserve Provision

by Zhongxi Ou, Lihong Qian, Sui Peng, Weijie Wu, Liang Zhang, Mingqian Feng, Chuyuan Hong, Haoran Shen and Wei Dai

Energies 2026, 19(9), 2165; https://doi.org/10.3390/en19092165 - 30 Apr 2026

Viewed by 407

Abstract

In future active distribution networks with high penetrations of renewable energy, flexible loads are expected to play an increasingly important role as reserve resources to support the sustainable and reliable operation of power grids. Accurate evaluation of flexible load reserve capacity is therefore essential for reliable reserve scheduling. Existing research mainly focuses on the operational characteristics and physical constraints of flexible loads, while insufficiently accounting for user response willingness and the uncertainty of user decision-making behavior, which may lead to biased reserve capacity assessments and impair the sustainability of reserve supply in actual grid operation. To address this issue, this paper proposes a results-oriented reserve capacity evaluation method for flexible loads that explicitly incorporates user response willingness. Specifically, a fuzzy logic system is developed to quantitatively characterize the response willingness of electric vehicle (EV) and air-conditioning (AC) users under multiple influencing factors. Then, a probabilistic modeling approach for user decision-making behavior is established using the theory of planned behavior, enabling explicit representation of behavioral uncertainty. Furthermore, a comprehensive reserve capacity evaluation framework for flexible loads is constructed by integrating user willingness states, sustainable response duration, and operational power constraints. Finally, the case studies demonstrate that the proposed method can effectively improve the objectivity of flexible load reserve capacity assessments while maintaining high user participation willingness, thus supporting the long-term sustainable application of flexible loads as grid reserve resources. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Dielectric Materials, Sensing, Monitoring, and Diagnostic Technologies for High-Voltage Equipment in New Power Systems)

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21 pages, 3350 KB

Open AccessArticle

GIS Partial Discharge Fault Diagnosis Based on Multi-Source Feature Fusion and ResNet-MLP

by Bingjian Jia, Qing Sun, Weiwei Guo, Mingzheng Wang, Qian Wang and Hongfeng Zhao

Energies 2026, 19(4), 1073; https://doi.org/10.3390/en19041073 - 19 Feb 2026

Viewed by 621

Abstract

Partial discharge (PD) signals in gas-insulated switchgear (GIS) exhibit complex characteristics, and single-modal feature recognition methods face limitations in achieving satisfactory diagnostic accuracy due to incomplete fault information representation. This paper proposes a multi-modal fault diagnosis framework that effectively integrates complementary information from different sensing modalities to improve defect identification performance. First, PRPD time-domain statistical features from HFCT measurements and frequency-domain features from UHF signals are extracted to construct a comprehensive hybrid feature set. Z-score normalization is applied to eliminate scale differences between heterogeneous features. Principal component analysis (PCA) is then employed for dimensionality reduction, preserving essential discriminative information while removing redundancy. Finally, a ResNet-MLP classifier with skip connections is designed to enhance nonlinear feature extraction and alleviate gradient vanishing problems in deep network training. Experimental validation on four typical defect types—protrusion defect, floating discharge, metal particle discharge, and surface discharge on insulator—demonstrates that the proposed method achieves 99.38% classification accuracy on the test set, with consistently high precision, recall, and F1-score across all categories. The proposed approach significantly outperforms standard MLP without residual connections, achieving 98.94% ± 0.49% accuracy compared to 95.47% ± 3.72% over 20 independent runs, demonstrating superior diagnostic accuracy and generalization capability for GIS insulation fault diagnosis. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Dielectric Materials, Sensing, Monitoring, and Diagnostic Technologies for High-Voltage Equipment in New Power Systems)

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19 pages, 5654 KB

Open AccessArticle

Analysis of the Influence of Structural Defects on the Insulation of GIL Basin Insulator Under AC Electric Field

by Zhuoran Yang, Yue Wang, Jian Liu, Hongze Li, Lixiang Lv and Xiaolong Li

Energies 2025, 18(20), 5347; https://doi.org/10.3390/en18205347 - 11 Oct 2025

Viewed by 773

Abstract

Basin insulator is a critical component of gas-insulated transmission line (GIL) systems. Air gap defects and surface crack defects may form in basin insulators due to casting, installation, or transport processes. This phenomenon poses a significant threat to long-term safety and stability and may even lead to partial discharges. This study establishes a simulation model of a GIL system-incorporating insulator to systematically analyze the influence patterns of various defects on the insulation characteristics of the basin insulator. Meanwhile, an equation predicting the relationship between defect size and maximum electric field strength is derived. The research revealed the following: For short air gap defects near the conductor, increasing length reduces their impact on the surrounding electric field, with the radius having minimal effect; for long air gap defects near the conductor, increasing length amplifies their influence. Smooth air gap defects distant from the conductor show negligible variation in maximum electric field strength with increasing length, while unsmooth air gap defects exhibit more pronounced effects at shorter lengths. Under identical conditions, unsmooth air gap defects demonstrate greater influence on the electric field than smooth ones. For elliptical surface defects, variations in radius show the strongest distortion. The degree of influence from surface crack defects correlates directly with their proximity to the conductor. These findings provide critical diagnostic criteria for assessing the insulation performance of basin insulator under damaged conditions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Dielectric Materials, Sensing, Monitoring, and Diagnostic Technologies for High-Voltage Equipment in New Power Systems)

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18 pages, 3029 KB

Open AccessArticle

Polarization and Depolarization Current Characteristics of Cables at Different Water Immersion Stages

by Yuyang Jiao, Jingjiang Qu, Yingqiang Shang, Jingyue Ma, Jiren Chen, Jun Xiong and Zepeng Lv

Energies 2025, 18(19), 5094; https://doi.org/10.3390/en18195094 - 25 Sep 2025

Viewed by 1434

Abstract

To address the insulation degradation caused by moisture intrusion due to damage to the outer sheath of power cables, this study systematically analyzed the charge transport characteristics of XLPE cables at different water immersion stages using polarization/depolarization current (PDC) measurements. An evaluation method for assessing water immersion levels was proposed based on conductivity, charge density, and charge mobility. Experiments were conducted on commercial 10 kV XLPE cable samples subjected to accelerated water immersion for durations ranging from 0 to 30 days. PDC data were collected via a custom-built three-electrode measurement platform. The results indicated that with increasing immersion time, the decay rate of polarization/depolarization currents slowed, the steady-state current amplitude rose significantly, and the DC conductivity increased from 1.86 × 10⁻¹⁷ S/m to 2.70 × 10⁻¹⁵ S/m—a nearly two-order-of-magnitude increase. The Pearson correlation coefficient between charge mobility and immersion time reached 0.96, indicating a strong positive correlation. Additional tests on XLPE insulation slices showed a rapid rise in conductivity during early immersion, a decrease in breakdown voltage from 93.64 kV to 66.70 kV, and enhanced space charge accumulation under prolonged immersion and higher electric fields. The proposed dual-parameter criterion (conductivity and charge mobility) effectively distinguishes between early and advanced stages of cable water immersion, offering a practical approach for non-destructive assessment of insulation conditions and early detection of moisture intrusion, with significant potential for application in predictive maintenance and insulation diagnostics. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Dielectric Materials, Sensing, Monitoring, and Diagnostic Technologies for High-Voltage Equipment in New Power Systems)

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22 pages, 3572 KB

Open AccessArticle

Analysis of the Effect of the Degree of Mixing of Synthetic Ester with Mineral Oil as an Impregnating Liquid of NOMEX^® 910 Cellulose–Aramid Insulation on the Time Characteristics of Polarization and Depolarization Currents Using the PDC Method

by Adam Krotowski and Stefan Wolny

Energies 2025, 18(12), 3080; https://doi.org/10.3390/en18123080 - 11 Jun 2025

Viewed by 1376

Abstract

This article continues the authors’ research on NOMEX^® 910 cellulose–aramid insulation saturated with modern electrical insulating liquids, which is increasingly used in the construction of high-power transformers The increase in technical requirements and environmental awareness influences, nowadays, shows that, during the overhaul and modernization of power transformers, petroleum-based mineral oils are increasingly being replaced by biodegradable synthetic esters (oil retrofilling). As a result of this process, the solid insulation of the windings are saturated with an oil–ester liquid mixture with a percentage composition that is difficult to predict. The purpose of the research described in this paper was to test the effect of the degree of mixing of synthetic ester with mineral oil on the diagnostic measurements of NOMEX^® 910 cellulose–aramid insulation realized via the polarization PDC method. Thus, the research conducted included determining the influence of such factors as the degree of mixing of synthetic ester with mineral oil and the measurement temperature on the value of the recorded time courses of the polarization and depolarization current. The final stage of the research involved analyzing the extent to which the aforementioned factors affect parameters characterizing polarization processes in the dielectric, i.e., the dominant dielectric relaxation time constants τ₁ and τ₂, and the activation energy E_A. The test and analysis results described in the paper will allow better interpretation of the results of diagnostic tests of transformers with solid insulation built on NOMEX^® 910 paper, in which mineral oil was replaced with synthetic ester as a result of the upgrade. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Dielectric Materials, Sensing, Monitoring, and Diagnostic Technologies for High-Voltage Equipment in New Power Systems)

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Review

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21 pages, 879 KB

Open AccessReview

Review of Insulation Defect Detection Methods for a Gas-Insulated Switchgear

by Tengfei Li, Qin Xu, Kai Gao, Zhiwen Yuan, Junjie Chen and Chuanyang Li

Energies 2026, 19(6), 1491; https://doi.org/10.3390/en19061491 - 17 Mar 2026

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 612

Abstract

Gas-insulated switchgear (GIS) is a critical component of modern power systems. During operation, internal defects increase the probability of partial discharge and flashover within the insulation system, thereby constituting a major cause of equipment failure. Considering the diversity of existing GIS insulation condition monitoring methods, it is of great significance to systematically review and evaluate current monitoring technologies. This paper summarizes the detection principles and recent advances in electrical, acoustic, optical, modal analysis, and gas component analysis techniques. Through a comparative analysis of the advantages, limitations, and application scenarios of different methods, in conjunction with failure cases induced by typical GIS insulation defects, the primary bottlenecks faced by various condition monitoring technologies are discussed. Furthermore, future research directions for GIS insulation condition detection are outlined. This study provides a reference for the development of GIS insulation monitoring technologies and the formulation of efficient operation and maintenance strategies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Dielectric Materials, Sensing, Monitoring, and Diagnostic Technologies for High-Voltage Equipment in New Power Systems)

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