The flashover phenomenon of the insulator is the main cause for insulating failure of GIS/GIL, and one of the most critical impacting factors is the accumulation of surface charge. The common methods to restrain the surface charge accumulation are reviewed in this paper. Through the reasonable comparison and analysis of these methods, nano-coatings for the insulator were selected as a way to restrain the surface charge accumulation. Based on this, six nano-coated epoxy resin samples with different concentrations of P25-TiO ₂ nanoparticles were produced. A high precision 3D surface charge measurement system was developed in this paper with a spatial resolution of 4.0 mm ² and a charge resolution of 0.01 µ C (m ² · mV) ⁻¹ . The experimental results for the epoxy resin sample showed that with the concentration of nanoparticles of the coating material increasing, the surface charge density tended to first decrease and then increase. In the sample coated with 0.5% concentration of nanoparticles, the suppression effect is the optimum, leading to a 63.8% reduction of charge density under DC voltage. The application test for actual nano-coated GIS/GIL basin insulator indicated that the maximum suppression degree for the charge density under DC voltage could reach 48.3%, while it could reach 22.2% for switching impulse voltage and 12.5% for AC context. The control mechanism of nano-coatings on charge accumulation was proposed based on the analysis for surface morphology features and traps characteristics; the shallow traps dominate in the migration of charges while the deep traps operate on the charge accumulation. With the concentration of nanoparticles in nano-coating material mounting up, the density of shallow traps continuously increases, while for deep traps, it first decreases and then increases. For the sample with 0.5% concentration of nanoparticles coated, the competition between shallow traps and deep traps comes to the most balanced state, producing the most significant suppression impact on surface charge accumulation.

Surface charge accumulation can incur changes in electric field distribution, involved in the electron propagation process, and result in a significant decrease in the surface flashover voltage. The existing 2D surface charge measurement fails to meet the actual needs in real engineering applications that usually adopt the 45° conical frustum insulators. The present research developed a novel 3D measurement platform to capture surface charge distribution on solid insulation under nanosecond pulse in a vacuum. The results indicate that all surface charges are positive under a positive pulse and negative under a negative pulse. Surface charges tend to accumulate more near the upper electrode. Surface charge density increases significantly with the increase in pulse counts and amplitudes. Accumulation of surface charge results in a certain decrease of flashover voltage. Taking consideration of the secondary electron emission for the surface charge accumulation, four materials were obtained to demonstrate the effects on surface charge. Combining the effect incurred by secondary electron emission and the weighty action taken by surface charge accumulation on the flashover phenomena, the discharge mechanism along the insulator surface under nanosecond pulse voltage was proposed.

DC wall bushing is one of the key equipment in high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission project. At present, post insulators based on epoxy composites are widely used for supporting insulation in SF ₆ -insulated apparatus. However, the flashover faults caused by surface charge accumulation can be a severe threat to the long-term operation of the post insulators under dc field. Therefore, the issue of charge accumulation on epoxy post insulators in HVDC wall bushing and its effect on flashover has been widely concerned. Aiming at this problem, the flashover characteristics of epoxy samples in SF ₆ gas under polarity reversal conditions with dc voltage prestressed for 10–600 min were measured in this article. The flashover process is analyzed through surface charge distribution measurement and electric field computation. The results show that with the increase of prestressed time, the accumulated negative charge density could reach $-14.8\,\,\mu \text{C}/\text{m}^{{2}}$ , which led to a 12% increase in maximum field strength. As a result, the polarity reversal flashover voltage could decrease by 12% and the flashover time delay could decrease by 84.6%. This article can offer as a reference for the effect of surface charge accumulation on flashover in SF ₆ gas-insulated equipment.

The micron metal particles are inevitably produced in long-term operation condition of high voltage direct current SF₆ insulated apparatus, which could frequently cause the surface discharge. Degradation of long-term surface discharge will be a severe threat to the insulation strength. Aiming at this problem, the surface charge accumulation and flashover voltage of epoxy itself before and after discharge degradation by particles were compared in this paper. The composition after degradation was measured by EDS and FTIR. The microstructure was observed by SEM. The roughness was measured as well. The trap distribution was measured by SPD. The mechanism of degradation and its effect on insulation characteristics were analyzed. The results show that the surface charge accumulation increase three times after degradation. Additionally, flashover voltage decreases 19% after degradation. The smoothly surface after degradation decrease the trap energy level for 14%, which might be the change reason of surface charge accumulation and flashover voltage. This paper can offer as a reference for the effect of micron metal particles on insulation degradation in SF₆ gas insulated equipment.