COMMUNIQUÉ

for immediate publication

SUBJECT: Two international Best Paper Awards CIGELE STUDIES THE ONSET OF ELECTRIC DISCHARGES ON THE ICE SURFACE

Hydro-Québec and the University of Quebec at Chicoutimi (UQAC) are pleased to announce that a team of researchers from the Industrial Chair on Atmospheric Icing of Power Network Equipment (CIGELE), established at UQAC since September 1997, have received the award for the best paper in the category of polluted or iced insulator flashover from the International Symposium on High-Voltage Engineering (ISH).

ISH is a biennial and the largest and most important international conference on high-voltage engineering research, and its eleventh conference was held in London, U.K., from August 23 to 27, 1999. There were researchers from 41 participating countries and over 500 technical papers were presented.

Best paper awards were bestowed in 8 categories. The winning paper in the category of polluted or iced insulators for power systems was "Ultra-High Speed Photographic Observations of Discharge Development along the Ice Surface", authored by Professor M. Farzaneh (CIGELE Chairholder at UQAC), S. Brettschneider (Ph.D. student at UQAC), and Professor K.D. Srivastava and Dr. S. Li from the University of British Columbia (UBC). This investigation was made within the framework of a long term collaboration between UQAC and UBC. Professor Farzaneh's research group has a considerable experience in high voltage and atmospheric icing of power line equipment, while Professor Srivastava's has a remarkable experience in the technology of ultra-high speed photography, and UBC loaned to UQAC for two years the high speed camera that was used for the experiments.

The reported research is unique and original. In particular, it uses an ultra-high speed camera to record the first few nanoseconds in the development of an electrical discharge on the ice surface. No such fundamental study has been reported in published literature. The investigation is going on and will improve our understanding of flashover of iced insulators, as well as help us design better transmission lines for operation in cold climate regions. This investigation constitutes the main part of Mr. Brettschneider's thesis and the ISH coordinating committee was very impressed by the achievement of such a young researcher.

The best paper awards at ISH-99 were established jointly by Hydro-Québec and ISH to encourage capable researchers from around the world to pursue high voltage research likely to lead to a better design and exploitation of electrical power networks.

Best Paper at the Eastern Snow Conference

This new development in the field of research on icing was also the subject of another paper this summer. The paper in question, entitled "Study of Ice Surface Breakdown Using Ultra-High Speed Photography", authored by Mr. Stephan Brettschneider, Professor M. Farzaneh, Professor K.D. Srivastava and Dr. S. Li, received the Eastern Snow Conference Best Paper Award of the Student Paper Competition. A medal was given to Mr. Stephan Brettschneider (Ph.D. student at CIGELE, UQAC) during the 56th annual meeting of this organization that took place in Fredericton, New Brunswick, from June 2 to 4, 1999.

Source :

Denis Claveau, information agent
Public Affairs Department

DC/elm
22/99

September 13, 1999