Abstract
Private electrical facilities are judged whether it is suitable for the insulation aging condition of their incoming underground cables using DC leakage current test method. In the case where the service point of utility is the secondary side of cut out switch installed in the electric pole, there is a problem that it is difficult to separate the lightning arresters(LA) because of their high position of the pole. Therefore, the field test voltage is applied at value lower than DC 30 kV, which are stated in the inspection guideline. However, this test could reduced the insulation performance of the LA by accelerating the electrical stress of the metal oxide varistor element in the pre-breakdown region. In this study, we analyzed the relationship between the DC test voltage and the leakage current using the non-destructive DC high voltage equipment with leakage current measurement function. The results show that the leakage current increases sharply above the specified test voltage. As a consequence, it could be contributed to improve insulation aging inspection method by selecting the possible test area on the VI characteristic curve of the pre-breakdown area of the LA.