NON INTRUSIVE OPERATIONAL MV SWITCHGEAR CONDITION ASSESMENT

Hrushaabh Mishra, CTO, Syselec Technologies

[email protected], +91 8108123468

ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION

The electricity distribution scenario around The medium voltage switchgear is the core
the world is experiencing a number of often “component” of distribution networks and of
clashing drivers: regulating Authorities statu- industrial users’ power plants and in the rare
tory objectives pressure to enhance distribu- but catastrophic occurrence of an internal
tion networks quality and performances, high failure may have a significant impact on
level of competition in the energy supply and power availability to supplied loads, in partic-
equipment manufacturer business, higher ular as restoration time can be long.
industrial and commercial end users con-
While mechanical issues of the switching
sciousness to the electricity commodity con-
equipment are often addressed by manufac-
tinuity and availability issues and its econom-
turer prescribed maintenance and related
ic value. In this scenario we face, in particu-
condition is easier to check; insulating parts
lar in industrialized countries, an aging elec-
surface or internal degradation, especially if
trical infrastructure.
triggered from environmental or electrical
Condition assessment of MV substation stresses, may become critical in the equip-
equipment can play a significant role in sup- ment operating life when aging phenomena
porting asset management decisions and starts and standard maintenance procedure
drive maintenance, retrofit or refurbishment are not likely to prevent or detect them.
actions. On the long run it can help to limit
The majority of the degradation processes
loss of supply events due to equipment fail-
affecting insulting components as bushings,
ures and relevant personnel safety concerns.
cable termination, current and voltage trans-
The paper describes an experimental cam- formers, etc. are associated to Partial Dis-
paign to assess the capability of commercial charge (PD) activity that can be defined as “a
non-intrusive Partial Discharge (PD) equip- localized electrical discharge in an insulation
ment to detect different PD sources induced system that does not completely bridge the
in a 17.5 kV metalclad / internal arc electrodes”.
switchgear (SWG) assembly and to properly
PD activity associated to an insulation aging
locate them, comparing the performances
and degradation process typically increases
with a conventional electrical detection sys-
with the defect evolution. Therefore PD activ-
tem.
ity measurement can be used as a diagnos-
The use of non-intrusive PD detectors is pro- tic tool to assess equipment condition and to
posed in the scheme of routine controls to locate defect source, enabling selective in-
provide confidence in the safety and reliabili- tervention to remove aging component prior
ty of installed switchgear and as condition to complete failure.
monitoring method to support maintenance
PD PHENOMENA AND DETECTION
policy, and investment decisions on plant re-
METHODS
placement or refurbishment.
The PD presence and activity amplitude can defines at which level an inherent defect be-
be important criterions to assess the insula- comes active and related to SWG operating
tion system condition, both in the production voltage may help in assessing the defect
process and later on site during the electrical severity.
equipment service life.
Non-intrusive PD commercial equipment,
When PD occurs, typically in some defective better suited to operate on installed equip-
part of insulation or in high electric field re- ment in operation condition and respecting
gion on surfaces or in air, several detectable safety procedure on live equipment is based
physical effects are associated, as dielectric on the detection of the PD effects, as sound
losses and heat production, electromagnetic and electromagnetic high frequency emis-
transients over a wide frequency spectrum, sion.
sound, light and chemical reactions.
Non-conventional PD detection methods are
Several of those effects can be measured not yet supported from a suitable in-
and the information thus collected can be ternational standard (CIGRE WG D1.02
used to assess the affected insulation sys- works to recommendations for non-conven-
tem condition. tional PD detection methods
standardization).
Traditionally the most used detection method
has been based on electrical measurement, In particular the impossibility to use direct
in accordance to the IEC 60270 standard. calibration procedures or to make measure-
Widely used in laboratories for material char- ments of the PD activity apparent charge (pC
acterization and as quality acceptance level) arise questions on how to compare
method on insulating components and new measurements, sensitivity and fault location
equipment in electromechanical manufactur- capability with respect to conventional PD
ing, the electrical PD measurement has in- detection methods and have to be verified
creased in recognition capability by the intro- case by case.
duction of digital instrumentation, enhancing
COMMERCIAL EQUIPMENT
sensitivity and noise rejection.
The commercial equipment considered in
In field applications, it is mainly used while
this experimentation is based on different de-
commissioning electrical systems but is less
tection criteria (see table 1) and has been
friendly when the task is to evaluate the insu-
selected aiming to on-line condition assess-
lation condition of an on-line system, as it
ment. The table shows the main features of
has to be out of service, test conditions are
the equipment used from two supplying
different from operational ones and typically
companies involved, listing the different de-
tests are then conducted in single phase
vices versus the detection criteria.
configuration and with no load, therefore on
cold equipment. All equipment detects electromagnetic emis-
sion in the HF to VHF range but with different
They enable high sensitivity measure of the
coupling systems.
PD activity apparent charge in pico Coulumb
(pC) and definition of the inception voltage, Transient Earth Voltage (TEV)
i.e. the voltage above which a PD activity
threshold is overcome. The inception voltage
TEV detection, available in all EA Technology Table 1: Commercial equipment detection
family devices, enables a capacitive coupling methods
to the SWG metal frame with handheld de-
TEST SWITCHGEAR SETUP
vices. In PDL1 device, as signal travels from
PD source, enables location by triangulation A 17.5 kV rated voltage metal-clad/internal
with two probes with a 600mm minimum res- arc switchgear assembly of four units of ABB
olution. main product air insulated switchgear (AIS)
has been assembled to assess in an experi-
Acoustic
mental campaign the capability of commer-
Using acoustic method to detect and locate cial nonintrusive PD equipment to detect in-
the PD source at about 40 kHz aims to mea- duced PD sources and to properly locate
sure the airborne sound. Primarily used on them, comparing the performances with a
outdoor equipment and overhead lines, ap- conventional electrical detection system.
plication to AIS is possible when an air path
Number and location of PD sources rules
is available, as through vents.
Defect are installed only below the circuit
Antenna
breaker (CB) in the cable compartment so to
It is fitted in the electric field between high isolate each defect/PD source by opening
voltages and earth forms a capacitive cou- the CB and therefore to have the possibility
pling electrode to the system under analysis. to search a defect at the time.
The need to be installed in high voltage
For the same reason a maximum of one de-
“view” makes it the less flexible for on-line
fect per phase and per panel is installed, so
assessment.
that by single-phase energization it will be
Rogowski coil possible to identify the each active source.

Inductively coupled to the power system on It is possible to obtain a PD free condition to

cable terminals shields or accessible SWG evaluate background noise level energising
earthing connections. It is the only system the bus-bar system with all CBs open.
that enables an electrical calibration.
Induced defects
Of the considered equipment only UltraTEV,
In figure 1 the different position and type of
the most basic device from the reading point
artificial defect is shown: post insulator - in
of view, combines detection of acoustic
“high” or “low” position – and bushing.
emission to electrical detection.
PD free post insulators have been modified
UltraTEV MiniTEV PDL1 IDP16
to induce surface discharges by short-circuit-
UltraTEV MiniTEV PDL1 IDP16 ing part of the original creeping distance.

!
 voltage have been realized, either by laying
a conductive paint band on the surface start-
ing from one of the terminals (figure 2), or by
connecting a copper wire to the HV terminal
till one of the intermediate shreds.

In a preliminary assessment activity two MV

industrial installations have been surveyed.
One substation was experiencing supply in-
terruption due to earth current leakage caus-
ing the Utility upstream protection interven-
tion.

! The faulty element was identified in casted

CTs dated 1978 with high level of surface
Fig1. Switchgear possible induced defect lo- erosion due to tracking phenomena, related
cation to high humidity operating conditions.

The CTs have been removed and one was

installed in the cable compartment in the test
SWG as real defect (Fig. 3).

Fig 2. “Low” post insulator with conductive

!
HV defect
Fig 3. Real defect, treeing surface erosion on
Using different short-circuiting length, PD
CT
sources of different amplitude at the test
 method enables additionally to detect sur-
face discharges, when the signal can be air-
TEST PROCEDURE
borne out of the AIS. This has proven a limi-
Artificial defects were tested to measure PD tation in internal arc proof equipment, where
amplitude and to define the location in the PD acoustic signal detection has been pos-
SWG in agreement to the PD source rules. sible only through vents (Fig. 4).

Energization rules When compared to electrical system as a

reference, TEV principle has a sensitivity in
The validation tests on the AIS were per- the range of 1-2 nC to light the orange warn-
formed according to two modes, as a PD free ing led, flashing at 1 nC and >2.5 nC to enter
single phase HV supply was available: the red zone
- tests with all three phases connected to HV
single-phase supply, for identification of
highest-level source with heavy background
noise by multiple sources. Opening of CBs
and withdrawal procedure is permitted to
identify source.

- single phase tests: SWG is supplied phase

by phase while the other two phase are
grounded.
!
Test voltage and excitation voltages were se-
lected based on Fig 4. Ultrasonic (left led) and TEV (right led)
detection active
AIS rated voltage Um=17.5kV:
The UltraTEV led reading enables to avoid
Uexcitation= 1.5 Um / √3= 15.2 kV confusing readings that are typical of PD ac-
tivity erratic behaviour and can provide same
Utest=1.05 Um / √3=10.6 kV
meaning only when filtered by trending on a
RESULTS HIGHLIGTHS longer timescale. The latest has been the
main limitation in using the MiniTEV, while
Commercial equipment tested, based on the PDL1 instrument overcomes this limit by
TEV and Ultrasonic methods, demonstrated dual probe reading that enables to locate the
the capability to clearly identify the presence source.
of PD sources.
The other equipment tested, IPD16, has
UltraTEV device is the most versatile instru- higher requirements, as sensors must be in-
ment in terms of easiness to use and clear stalled. Downtime is required to access com-
indication. The “traffic light” indication meth- partments for antennas positioning, while
ods, while introducing insensibility due to Rogowski sensors on SWG grounding can
discrete range for the three indications level, be easily placed at SWG ends, providing an
is straightforward in judgment and best suit- integral PD level (fig. 5).
ed for preliminary screening and routine sur-
veys. The combination with ultrasonic (U/S)
The use of several sensors and communica-
tion options enable easier location and trend-
ing.

Table 2 shows the different devices features

versus the easiness to use on field, need of
installation and how intrusive, i.e. if there is
need of modification and downtime prior to
use. In the second section aspects relevant
to the PD source level reading, usefulness
for a condition direct judgment and the capa-
bility to localize the defect location in
switchgear are listed. The plus/minus ranking
shows clearly as TEV instruments are more
versatile for field surveys while IPD16 is
more indicated for installation in critical appli-
cation or when field surveys results require a
continuous monitoring.
!
UltraTEV MiniTEV PDL1 IDP16
Fig 5. IPD system, antenna and Rogowski
installation detail

CONCLUSIONS

The use of non-intrusive PD detectors based

on TEV and ultrasonic detection is proposed
in the scheme of routine controls on installed
SWG. While it is not possible to derive a def-
inite judgement on time to failure, the survey-
! ing can provide a “first aid” to enhance confi-
dence in the safety and reliability of installed
Table 2: Commercial equipment features switchgear. It can trigger further maintenance
actions or the decision to install more com-
plex equipment for permanent monitoring
when signalling high PD activity. On long
term it will support a wider adoption of condi-
tion based maintenance policy and invest-
ment decisions on plant replacement or re-
furbishment.

Acknowledgments

The author acknowledgeS the support from

equipment manufacturers and distributors
during tests performance, EA Technology,
UK; Ampere, Italy.

REFERENCES

[1] IEC 60270: Partial discharge measure-

ment

[2] M. Muhr et Al., 2006, “Sensors and sens-

ing used for non conventional PD detection”,
Proceedings Cigre, D1-102

[3] R. Berti et Al., 2001, “Misura delle

scariche parziali in quadric MT 24 kV”, CESI,
PEC-A1/024304