50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE HIGH-VOLTAGE LABORATORY AT THE MILAN VIDMAR ELECTRIC POWER RESEARCH INSTITUTE (EIMV)

50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE HIGH-VOLTAGE LABORATORY AT THE MILAN VIDMAR ELECTRIC POWER RESEARCH INSTITUTE (EIMV)

When Prof. Dr. Milan Vidmar founded the Electricity Supply Economy Institute in 1948, he especially emphasised the importance of the High-Voltage Laboratory (HVL). He explained that the basic tool in developing high-voltage devices is calculation tool, but each solution has to be tested and this has remained true to the present day. Strongly IT supported calculation methods, however, substitute tests, but quite some time will pass before they will completely substitute it. 

The building on Jamova 20 street was built in 1962, and the Institute's high-voltage laboratory began to emerge there. In the first phase of its operations, it offered support to local electrical supply economy and the industry of high-voltage equipment, equipment tests were often implemented in order to prove their conformity with specific standards. Subsequently, the laboratory focused on diagnostic testing of equipment for the needs of maintenance, and finally also on the needs of establishing the equipment's working period. 

The High-Voltage Laboratory disposes of sources for direct, alternating current and impulse voltage as well as impulse current source. The capacity of sources is appropriate for the implementation of standard dielectric tests of the majority of high-voltage elements of the electrical distribution system in Slovenia. They are also appropriate for testing sustainability, as well as for tests in special conditions. In some cases a limitation is set by the high-voltage part of the source, or sometimes also charging, which is restricted with regards to the capacity of network charging. 

In all 50 years of its existence, the laboratory has cooperated at important international professional conferences and at the work of working groups of international professional organisations. The laboratory has been used for more than 40 years by the students of the Electrical Engineering Faculty of the University of Ljubljana, at the subject High-Voltage Technology.
After a thorough renovation of the laboratory in 2005, the Institute continues to guarantee quality applied research and schooling of future researchers at the EIMV and in the Slovenian electric power industry.