This paper describes an education scenario for a first course in power electronics based on a MATLAB/SIMULINK approach. This scenario was followed in the Electrical Engineering Department of the TEI of Crete in 2014 and students were asked to fill in a questionnaire after completing the class. The scenario was based on thyristor-based rectification and AC control, as prior approaches were based on the use of hardware and/or the simulation of such circuits in OrCAD/PSpice. Fourier/harmonic analysis through the use of MATLAB was added and students were encouraged to undertake projects focused on simulating other types of converters in SIMULINK to receive a passing grade. The course's syllabus, the general teaching approach and the questionnaire's results are briefly presented and discussed in the paper.

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This article describes the experience acquired from the longterm use of room temperature vulcanized silicone rubber coated glass insulators and high temperature vulcanized composite insulators in coastal transmission lines along with the results of comparative measurements performed in an experimental HV test station.

Pollution of outdoor high voltage insulators is a common problem for utilities, with a considerable impact to power system reliability. In an effort to prevent possible flashovers due to pollution, many methods have been applied, aiming to improve the insulation performance, either by suppressing the formation of surface conductivity or by increasing the possible insulation level. In the case of substations, the selection of the appropriate technique is complex due to certain issues correlated to the nature of the installation. In this paper, several techniques usually implemented by utilities, are investigated based on the experienced gained in the case of Crete, a Greek island in southern Europe, where due to the coastal development of the power system, the majority of high voltage installations are exposed to intense marine pollution. The technique of coating insulators with Room Temperature Vulcanized Silicone Rubber (RTV SIR) has proved rather efficient and therefore is presented extendedly. Correlation of the material behaviour with environmental conditions is discussed and results from long term monitoring, including environmental parameters and leakage current measurements, in a 150 kV Substation are presented. It is shown that RTV SIR coatings have remarkably suppressed surface activity and that porcelain insulators exhibit different activity period when coated.

High Voltage insulators are scattered throughout any HV network and a single insulator fault may cause an excessive outage. Reliability is a key issue for electric power systems and fault-free performance of insulators greatly reflects on the reliability of the system. Environmental influence is rather important for the optimum selection of outdoor insulators and, therefore, field measurements provide valuable information. Utilities perform such measurements in order to decide upon the location/route of new HV installations (substations, lines etc) and also to optimize the selection, maintenance and replacement of already installed insulators. A rather interesting case in Greek territory is the island of Crete, due to the coastal development of the network and the local weather conditions. The Greek utility has employed a variety of remedies to cope with the pollution problem. Following the positive feedback after the installation on certain tower in the past, a large project to replace all ceramic insulators with new polymer ones of hydrophobic surface is now in progress. Polymer coatings have also been extensively applied on substations and also on certain areas/towers of the transmission network in the past. In order to investigate the pollution accumulation and the impact of natural washing on different insulator types, a series of periodical ESDD and NSDD pollution measurements were conducted in HEDNO’s TALOS High Voltage Test Station for a 3-months period. Multiple measurements were performed on each insulator every month in order to collect additional data. Five different insulators were selected based on the types historically used in the Cretan Network. Along with the standard glass disc profile, two strings of glass fog profile (the one coated with RTV) and two long-rod composite insulators of different shed profile and material were used. Results are presented and discussed in this paper.