On Line Continuous Monitoring, Detection, and Location of Partial Discharge and Dynamic Aging in Medium and High Voltage Electrical Insulation
Grant
Overview
Affiliation
View All
Overview
abstract
Qatarâ s power generation capacity is ever growing and expected to reach 13,000MW by 2018. In order to cater to the countryâ s development needs, many new utility projects are supposed to be performed in the upcoming few years [1]. Electric utility networks typically include a large amount of generation, transmission, and distribution plants and equipment. The maintenance of those plants and equipment is crucial to avoid unnecessary and expensive treatments or replacements. In order to properly perform that maintenance, it is necessary to have credible information on the condition of those assets. The optimal utilization of those assets can be achieved by devising suitable maintenance strategies; thus, their life expectancy can be predicted, which allows timely and properly planned replacement or refurbishment. The trend of expanding maintenance periods and increasing the assets lifetime, eg. switchgear, brings with it a need for non-invasive monitoring and diagnostic techniques. These techniques help in ensuring equipment endurance, and reliability [2]. The need for improved reliability and continuous service for a particular period, and optimal economic performance of electric grids has grown in importance over recent years. In particular, the high investment and operating costs of medium and high voltage switchgears justify the need for real-time monitoring as well as effective condition assessment and diagnostics. Such practices assist in extending equipment operation and in avoiding catastrophic failures of essential elements. Statistics indicate that 85% of equipment failures at medium and high voltages are partial discharge (PD) related [3]. This highlights the importance of focusing on this fault toward obtaining more reliable power systems. Incipient faults, which usually evolve from PDs, cause major insulation degradation and lead to permanent faults in electrical power networks [4]. The cost of not timely equipment maintenance or sudden failure is usually very high. Consequently, the insulation materials, which are known as the backbone of any electrical system, are essential elements and increasingly used in all electric power generation, transmission, and distribution systems in medium and high voltage power networks. Power cables, switchgears, splices, transformers, motors, generators, bushings, bus ducts, capacitors, and reactors are some devices where insulation materials are used to separate conducting parts and provide isolation from earthed components. Trends for modernizing the power grids focus on improving the grid availability and maintainability; however, particular attention is given to the reliability of existing electric grids across the three key areas, namely generation, transmission, and distribution. Grid reliability depends on the quality of fault management and fault prevention, even in the presence of several perturbations, such as unbalanced supply voltages, harmonics, and measurement noises.........
