| Summary: | This paper has the purpose to investigate HVDC insulation design considering real operating conditions, when DC steady-state is affected by frequent voltage transients or load variations that may be present during all life. Electrical field distribution in insulation, and in insulation defects, may change significantly from DC steady-state when voltage and load vary with time, which can cause partial discharge activity often not been properly accounted for at the design stage. The Part I of this paper is dedicated to prove, through experiments, models and simulations, that electrical and thermal transients may incept partial discharges in defective insulations during cable energization, voltage polarity inversion at a constant nominal load, as well as during load variations at a constant nominal voltage. This can cause accelerated aging and premature breakdown even if the insulation system is designed properly to withstand DC electrothermal stress, without partial discharges in steady state, for all life, as it will be shown in Part II. Focus is on cables, but the approach described here is general for any DC insulation system.
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