Off-line Partial Discharge Research Articles

Multi-stress Cyclic Testing of Roebel Stator Bars for Hydropower

A multi-stress test rig was built to investigate the effect of many start-stops (load cycling) on hydropower generator insulation. To emulate real-life start-stops, stator bars were subjected to accelerated temperature cycling by circulating a 3.5 kA current and then cooling down with fans while high voltage (service voltage) was applied simultaneously to the insulation. A total of 250 load cycles were applied. Partial discharges (PD) were recorded on-line during load cycling, and after every 50 cycles, off-line dielectric loss and PD measurements were conducted. There was an apparent increase in dielectric losses after they had been subjected to a total of 250 load cycles. During load cycling, the PD level generally decreased with temperature, but there was a temporary increase in the PD activity during temperature rise and fall. This trend can be explained by different thermal expansion in copper and insulating material (epoxymica), suggesting that a stator bar that is load-cycled will be exposed to substantially higher PD levels than a stator bar under a uniform load and temperature, leading to further deterioration of the insulation quality.

Design of Archimedes Spiral Antenna to Optimize for Partial Discharge Detection of Inverter Fed Motor Insulation

The partial discharge (PD) in inverter-fed motors generated from high frequency and short rise time impulsive voltage are more complex than traditional sinusoidal voltage operated motors due to the noise initiated from fast switching power electronics devices. Available PD sensors and related technology for DC and sinusoidal voltage cannot be used at repetitive impulsive voltage conditions. This work aims to report the design of antenna with optimized geometry and satisfied parameters to detect PD for impulsive voltage. The antenna is verified and the influence of both impulse voltage parameters and test configuration on PD features are discussed. The envelope detection technique after the filter in the frequency domain was proposed to reduce the complexity and cost of PD test hardware under impulsive voltages with fast rise times. The frequency domain energy of PD from motor insulation is mainly distributed in the range of 0.6-1.8 GHz. By increasing the amplitude and frequency of input impulsive voltage, the range of PD energy spectrum is enlarged to (1.5-1.8 GHz) and by decreasing input amplitude the PD signal strength decays abruptly. Moreover, the high-frequency distribution of PD energy attenuates more severely with the distance and the electromagnetic energy of PD decays nonlinearly with the increase of propagation distance. Therefore, under the premise of satisfying the safety test, selecting the test distance below 15 cm can ensure that the test results have a high signal-to-noise ratio and signal integrity. The experience reported in this study could provide suggestions for off-line PD measurements for inverter-fed motor insulation evaluations for manufacturers.

Measured and simulated time-evolution PD characteristics of typical installation defects in MV XLPE cable terminations

In condition monitoring of medium voltage (MV) power cable accessories, there are still challenges in the recognition of partial discharge (PD) defects. In the present paper, typical installation defects were deliberately introduced into MV XLPE power cable terminations. Accelerated ageing under PD activity was achieved by applying voltage at elevated frequency for 900 hours. At suitable time intervals, off-line PD measurements were conducted for each test specimen at 50 Hz test voltage. The results show that the initial PD signatures in the form of Partial Discharge Phase-Resolved-Patterns (PDPRP) are unique for each defect type. The signatures in turn evolve uniquely under continuous voltage application. A modified 3-Capacitor PD model based on the physiochemical processes in the discharge area was implemented in MATLAB Simulink™. The measured initial PD characteristics and the subsequent time-dependent changes were interpreted by comparison with the computer numerical simulation results. It is confirmed that the conductivity of the discharging surface area as well as the voltage at which the cavity breaks down, both change with ageing under PD activity, are the dominant parameters that influence the time-evolution of the PD signatures. Furthermore, the geometry and ventilation of the discharge area is a function of the installation defect type and therefore each defect type gives a unique PD signature. The ability to recognise installation defect through PD tests immediately after installation as well as during the course of on-line PD monitoring is desirable in condition monitoring of power cables. The findings strengthen the credibility of PD diagnosis as an after-installation test as well as in-service condition monitoring technique of MV power cable terminations.

Comparison of Low and High Frequency Partial Discharge Measurements on Stator Windings

Partial discharge (PD) testing has been used for over 60 years primarily as a method to assess condition of the stator winding insulation in motors and generators rated 6 kV and above. More recently it has also been used by some machine manufacturers as a means of assuring the quality of the insulation on single winding elements (coils and bars). Although both on-line and off-line tests mainly use a high voltage capacitor to detect the PD, the PD measuring systems in use work either in the low frequency (LF) regime (less than about 1 MHz) or in the very high frequency (VHF) (30-300 MHz) range. By reference to several international standards, published work as well as some experiments described in this contribution, the advantages and disadvantages of the two approaches are compared. Based on this work, it is now clear that off-line PD tests should be done in the LF range. For on-line tests, either method may be used, but use of the VHF method has become more widespread with machine end users, since the owners themselves can perform and interpret the results with a relatively low risk of false indications.

Offline PD diagnostics using several excitation voltages

Diagnostics on medium-voltage (MV) and high-voltage cables is almost applied at every utility. Not only for condition monitoring, to determine local defects and ageing status of the cable but also as part of a commissioning test, to check the quality of workmanship. Concerning offline partial discharge (PD) diagnostics, there is a wide variety of systems available with each having its own type of excitation voltage. For proper decision making, it is of importance that PD characteristics measured with offline PD systems are directly comparable with PD characteristics at power frequency. If not, it can happen that incipient faults will not be recognised or that recommendations are given to replace a defective component which was not needed. For this research, a number of on-site practical measurements on MV cables, using all types of excitation voltages, have been performed. Both newly installed cables and service-aged cables were part of the test programme. As the measurements were performed, on the same day, data of each type of excitation voltage can be directly compared with each other. Influences like water infiltration or soil temperature can be excluded. The measurements have shown significant differences between the different types of excitation voltage.

Analysis of Off-Line and On-Line Partial Discharge in High Voltage Motor Stator Windings

The off-line and on-line partial discharge (PD) in the stator winding of three high-voltage (HV) motors (1,400 HP, 6.6 kV) is measured and analyzed in this paper. The off-line PD is measured at high values between 24,300 ~ 36,100 pC after 18 years of motor operation. Spare replacement motors were not available for testing the degree of deterioration of the stator windings in standstill status. Therefore, on-line periodic analysis was conducted to monitor the trend of PD after installing a ceramic sensor (110 pF, 6.6 kV) in the terminal box for each phase of each motor. In the stator winding of the No.1 and No.2 HV motors, which showed high magnitudes of off-line PD and low magnitudes of on-line PD, defects are expected to appear in the neutral end of the winding. On the contrary, in the stator windings of the No.3 HV motor, which exhibits high off-line and on-line PD magnitude, defects are expected to appear in the terminal end of the winding where a voltage close to the phase voltage is applied.

Remote monitoring of partial discharge data from insulated power cables

Partial discharge (PD) diagnostics is one of the most widely used tool to assess the insulation condition of insulated power cables and which facilitates informed maintenance planning leading to the extension of the service life of such ageing assets. PD occurs with varying intensity due to circuit loading and weather conditions. Proven systems based on off-line PD diagnostics find limited application, since this method requires a circuit outage. In this study, remote controlled PC based PD monitoring system using client server technology is proposed. Continuous monitoring of cable network using the proposed system can capture sudden or gradual changes in PD activity which is often difficult in conventional PD monitoring systems which are based on spot measurement. In this system, the remote control capability using internet has been implemented to reduce the frequency of site visits which in turn reduces the cost of manpower. Relational database management system is used as a back-end server for data storage, data analysis and data management. This would help the utility to maintain insulation integrity history database which can be used for cable renewal program in the longer term. System design, testing, implementation and field measurements are discussed.

The influence of the rotor on surge pd testing of low voltage AC motor stator windings

Partial discharge (PD) has been identified as one the main root causes of stator winding failures in low voltage (LV) random wound AC motors fed by PWM inverters. To ensure that PWM inverter-fed motors (type I) are PD-free under impulse excitation, the test procedure for acceptance testing of the stator insulation system was developed (IEC TS 60034-18-41). Although many successful cases of applying the TS have been reported, some concerns regarding the test procedure have been raised, and the TS is currently under revision. It is implied in the TS that the rotor has no impact on the surge PD test result, and testing is often performed without the rotor; however, it was observed that the surge PD test results can change with rotor insertion for some types of machines. The off-line surge PD test must be performed under conditions representative of actual operation (with the motor assembled) to guarantee absence of PD. Therefore, it is important to investigate the influence of the rotor, and to incorporate the findings in the test procedure, if necessary. In this paper, the influence of the rotor on the off-line surge PD test is investigated for AC machines, and it is shown that the PD inception voltage (PDIV) can change significantly depending on the rotor design. A detailed analysis is given along with experimental test results on a number of induction and permanent magnet (PM) synchronous motor samples with different rotor designs. Based on the observations made in this work, suggestions on the TS that can provide surge PDIV measurements under conditions closer to that of the actual operation with the rotor are given to help reduce the likelihood of false indications with off-line surge PD testing.

A perspective on online partial discharge monitoring for assessment of the condition of rotating machine stator winding insulation

Partial discharges (PD) are small electrical sparks that can occur in liquid or solid insulation systems in high-voltage equipment, and can eventually cause failure of the equipment [1]–[3]. Partial discharge testing has been used for more than 80 years as a factory quality control tool to find manufacturing defects that could eventually lead to equipment failure. We believe that Johnson was the first to measure PD on operating high-voltage equipment, in the 1940s [4]. His aim was to find an online method to determine whether stator winding coils or bars were vibrating excessively in the stator magnetic core. These vibrating coils lead to abrasion of the high-voltage electrical insulation and to eventual failure. A symptom of the insulation abrasion process was that PD (or what he referred to as slot discharge) occurred between the surface of the coil and the stator core. By measuring the PD online, he could indirectly detect the movement of coils, which indicated that failure was likely. The measurement had to be made online because, if the generator were not operating, no magnetic forces would be acting on the coils; thus, the air gaps that are a necessary precursor of PD would not be as large. Johnson was successful in identifying those generators that were suffering the most from this problem, which was caused by the introduction of the first thermoset insulation systems and by workmanship variations that were magnified by an inadequate method of securing the coils in the stator slots for the novel insulation system. The success of the Johnson online PD measuring system inspired other machine manufacturers and even a few utilities to develop their own methods [5], [6]. The main reason Johnson needed online PD measurement was that loose windings do not produce as much PD when the motor or generator is not operating. Thus one of the important reasons for performing online PD tests is to monitor the condition of the equipment under normal operating electrical, thermal, and mechanical stresses. However, with the current emphasis on extending times between maintenance outages, and the push to reduce testing costs in general, the main reason now given for online PD measurement is to avoid shutdown of the equipment, which would be necessary for an off-line PD test or other diagnostic test. Although we believe online PD monitoring was first applied to rotating machines, the same reasons are valid for other electrical equipment, such as oil paper cable joints or terminations, distribution class switchgear, gas-insulated switchgear, and power transformers [2], [3].

Implementation of an Inductively Coupled EM Probe System for PD Diagnosis

In recent years, various types of partial discharge (PD) methods such as capacitive, inductive, electromagnetic, and acoustic coupling techniques have been developed for diagnosing rotating machines. An electromagnetic (EM) probe, which is an inductively coupled type of sensor, is required for detecting corona and internal discharges during off-line tests. In this study, a new technique for enhancing the measurement sensitivities for corona and internal discharge based on an EM inductive position sensor is proposed. An EM probe that winds wires around horseshoe-shaped and cylindershaped ferrites as helices is designed and optimized for the implementation of off-line PD monitoring of the stator winding of a rotating machine. The measurement system based on this design is implemented, and it is verified from the results of the experiment performed in this study that the probe provides similar performance as existing commercial products.

Influence of leakage magnetic fields on partial discharge activity in power transformers

Partial discharges are a clear ageing agent on insulating materials used in high voltage electrical machines. For this reason, there is increasing interest in measuring this phenomenon in an effort to forecast unexpected failures in electrical equipment. Despite the fact that normalized tests have been carried out for years, the effect of leakage magnetic fluxes in transformers and rotating machines stator windings has not yet been considered. The authors show that common stray fluxes in typical high voltage machines modify partial discharge activity, so the interaction between ionization processes and magnetic fields is analysed. This might have a clear effect on the results extracted from on-line and off-line partial discharge measurements.

Off-line PD testing of converter-fed wire-wound motors: when IEC TS 60034-18-41 may fail?

This paper reports and discusses qualification and type test procedures for random wound motors as specified in IEC Technical Specification 60034-18-41. Since laboratory tests dealing with off-line partial discharges measurements followed by life tests showed that motors qualified as good can fail in very short times, an extensive investigation on the causes of such discrepancy and, in particular, on the differences existing between the stresses applied during off-line tests and in service is described. In addition, the results of partial discharge measurements performed on crossed pairs are presented, highlighting how the differences in the applied voltage waveform can influence the Repetitive Partial Discharge Inception Voltage. Suggestions to improve the off-line test procedure and related equipment are eventually discussed.

On-line partial discharge monitoring in medium voltage underground cables

For many years incipient partial discharge (PD) faults in power cables have been identified through off-line investigation techniques. More recently, in an effort to allow pro-active asset management of the medium-voltage (MV) cable network to be carried out, continuous on-line monitoring systems are being installed with the aim of reducing unexpected failures. This study presents work on the analysis and handling of acquired data, from the point of view of asset management and the PD activities observed in an on-line cable monitoring systems. Initially, a review of on-line against off-line cable PD monitoring is presented, in terms of their setups and their respective advantages and disadvantages. The study then presents the authors’ experience of applying wavelet-based denoising techniques [both the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) and the second generation wavelet transform (SGWT)] to PD data denoising. Results of a study on the on-line PD-based monitoring of MV underground cables that are presented in the following section demonstrate that PD activity which is observed in on-line monitoring also has an associated high level of electrical noise that must be removed to allow proper identification of the PD signals and the denoised PD activity is seen to vary with time. Finally, the necessity of developing a means by which knowledge rules can automatically be acquired from on-line condition monitoring data, to reduce reliance on human expertise, is discussed.

Analysis of capacitive voltage rise during off-line partial discharge tests on power transformers

Partial discharge test on a transformer is carried out according to the items in IEC 60. During the test, unproved measuring system is calibrated by proved system at a voltage no less than 50% the rated testing voltage. The result is then extrapolated linearly, leading to an error related to the distribution of stray capacitance, which varies with the testing frequency, especially to large transformers. In this paper a factor, named the capacitive rise fact, is introduced to assess the rise. The factor can be adjusted to some extent by changing the reactance that is connected to the LV side of the testing circuit to lower the capacity of the power source. However, the factor changes when the voltage divider on the high voltage side is removed after the voltage ratio has been calculated, and a great error is resulted under unfavorable conditions.

세라믹 커플러를 이용한 고전압회전기 고정자권선의 On-line 및 off-line 부분방전 특성 시험 및 분석

Partial discharge(PD) test can be performed either when the rotating machine is not operating(off-line) or during normal machine operation(on-line). This paper presents an on-line and off-line PD test on a large hydro-generator and induction motor using the same PD acquisition system(PDAS) and ceramic coupler(CC) sensor. PD signal characteristics of CC sensor proved similar with that of epoxy mica coupler(EMC) sensor as a results of PD test for simulated defect winding and frequency response test. A comparison of on-line and off-line PD test for PD characteristic parameters-phase resolved PD(PRPD), maximum PD value(Qmax) and PD occurrence energy(POE)-indicated that on-line PD test could reliably and effectively diagnose insulation conditions which were verified by off-line PD test.

Medium voltage cable defects revealed by off-line partial discharge testing at power frequency

This paper describes typical cable defects uncovered while testing over 9,000 km of medium voltage XLPE insulated cables. After a brief review of the testing method, the procedure that led to the identification, localization, and characterization of typical defects found in operating cables is described. The paper also discusses the "conversion" of water trees (WT) to electrical trees (ET) which are associated with partial discharge (PD) activity in the context of laboratory research. Based on actual service performance of cables, several cases in which ETs associated with WTs did not lead to cable failure even after several years of service in very harsh operating environments are cited.

Importance of bandwidth in PD measurement in operating motors and generators

It is well known that partial discharge (PD) events produce electromagnetic radiation with frequencies from de to sometimes hundreds of megahertz. In addition, in complex structures such as stator windings, the initial pulses are significantly distorted and attenuated as they propagate through a winding. The detection of the PD pulses needs to account for these effects. In particular, the bandwidth of the detection system will influence the sensitivity of the PD measurement, as well as in what portions of the winding PD can be detected. This paper summarizes over 20 years of research into these effects in stator windings, and discusses the implications for off-line and on-line PD testing, and the calibration of the PD quantities into apparent charge.

Simulation of transformer PD pulse propagation and monitoring for a 500 kV substation

This paper discusses the development of a simulation model to study the propagation of partial discharge (PD) pulses of transformers in a 500 kV substation. The results will be used to design an on-line PD monitoring system for transformers. The impedance matrix of a 500 kV, single-phase transformer is computed based on geometry data and its external coupling network (often referred to as coupling impedance) is calculated with electromagnetic transients program (EMTP). It was found that the frequency characteristic of the coupling network is complex and that the traditional lumped coupling capacitance representation is only feasible at <60 kHz. The entire substation network was included to calculate the PD propagation of the transformer. PD responses are obtained at the tank grounding and 500 kV bushing tap grounding with a simulated PD pulse injected at the 500 kV terminal and 220 kV terminal of the transformer, respectively. Simulation shows that, using the resonant frequency of the substation network as monitoring frequency, one effectively can increase the monitoring sensitivity. The off-line and on-line PD calibration can also be made based on the developed simulation model.