It is known that electrified droplets deform and may become unstable when the electric field they are exposed to reaches a certain critical value. These instabilities are accompanied by electric discharges due to the local enhancement of the electric field caused by the deformed droplets.Here we report and highlight an interesting aspect of the behavior of unstable water droplets and discharge generation: by implementing wettability engineering, we can manipulate these discharges. We demonstrate that wettability strongly influences the shape of a droplet that is exposed to an electric field. The difference in shape is directly related to differences in the critical value of the applied electric field at which inception of discharge occurs. Using theoretical models, we can predict and sufficiently support our observations. Thus, by tailoring the wettability of the surface, we can control droplet's behavior from expediting the discharge inception to completely restricting it.

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Recent developments in low-cost and low-power data acquisition technology and machine learningbased algorithms, combined with rapidly increasing decentralized embedded computing power, offer the opportunity to develop improved and intelligent maintenance strategies based on continuous monitoring and real-time health evaluation of the equipment. This paradigm changes the prospects in equipment maintenance, offering significantly reduced costs in asset management. The lifetime of properly dimensioned equipment is expected to be several decades, sometimes as much as 40 to 60 years. Most maintenance checks therefore only confirm the excellent condition of the component and would have not been necessary at this point in time. Thus, not only delaying the replacement, but also delaying a maintenance interval based on the health condition would be very welcome. Hence, the most commonly used maintenance concepts are changed from time-based checks to a new and more intelligent approach, oriented towards a just-in-time service. This article aims to introduce the concepts of intelligent maintenance strategies, trends, and challenges of T&D equipment condition monitoring, as well as the automatic estimation of equipment health. Biographies

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