Features and Benefits of UHF Partial Discharge Monitoring Systems for GIS

N. Achatz, J. Gorablenkow, U. Schichler B. Hampton, J. Pearson

SIEMENS AG Diagnostic Monitoring Systems Ltd.
Power Transmission and Distribution United Kingdom
High Voltage Division, Germany dms@dmsystems.co.uk
uwe.schichler@siemens.com



Abstract: This paper describes the features and benefits
of ultra high frequency (UHF) partial discharge
monitoring (PDM) systems for gas-insulated switchgear
(GIS). The main features of two high-performance PDM
systems are described in detail including explanations of
the data displays, and the interpretation of partial
discharge data by expert systems. The benefits of such
monitoring systems are summarized by evaluation of
statistical data. An outlook for future PDM system
features is given.

INTRODUCTION

GIS have been in operation for more than 30 years and
they have shown a high level of reliability with
extremely low failure rates. This is the result of quality
assurance during the complete design and manu-
facturing process as well as during the erection and on-
site commissioning. The return of experience shows that
some of the in-service failures are related to defects in
the insulation system. Many of these defects can be
detected in service by continuous PD monitoring based
on the UHF technique.
Different PDM systems are nowadays available and all
systems operate on the same principle of UHF
technology, which has not changed over the last decades
after the first experiments were made 25 years ago [1].
The difference between them lies in their PD detection
sensitivity and the system features. The user-friendly
display of the PD data, the accuracy of automatic PD
identification and of course the reliabilty of the PDM
system equipment itself are important facts which have
to be taken into account.

PRINCIPLE OF UHF PD DETECTION

The principle of the UHF technique was developed in
the UK more than 20 years ago, and is now well-known
worldwide after being adopted by many leading
switchgear manufacturers and utilities. However it may
be recalled that the current pulse which forms the partial
discharge has a very short risetime, which recent
measurements have indicated can be less than 70
picoseconds. The rising edges of these pulses excite the
GIS chambers into multiple resonances at frequencies of
up to at least some GHz. Although the duration of the
current pulse is less than a few nanoseconds, the
microwave resonances persist for a relatively long time,
typically a few microseconds. They may readily be
picked up by UHF couplers fitted either inside the GIS
chambers, or over dielectric apertures in the chamber
wall.
Whether internal or external couplers are used, the UHF
signals can be amplified and displayed in different ways
where their characteristic patterns reveal the nature of
any defect that might be present in the GIS. More
recently, they may be analysed automatically with good
accuracy. With this early warning of any impending
breakdown, utilities can take appropriate action to
virtually eliminate enforced outages of their GIS.

Extensive investigations in laboratories have confirmed
that PD detection using UHF technology results in
higher or at least the same sensitivity as detection by PD
measurement as set out in IEC 60270. For PDM system
application at GIS substations a sensitivity verification
procedure was published by Cigr based on a detection
level of equivalent to 5 pC [2].



Figure 1: 420 kV GIS with PDM system


UHF PDM SYSTEMS FOR GIS

Different PDM systems are nowadays applicable for PD
monitoring of GIS in service. The design and main
features of two high-performance PDM systems [3-7],
which are used worldwide, are described in the
following subchapters.
PDM system: type A

The main components of this PDM system are the
following (Fig. 2):
UHF couplers - antenna for UHF signals
PD converter box - signal conversion from UHF to
low frequency, noise rejection
central processor unit - monitoring of data stream
data concentrator - share/fit together of data stream
operator unit - data display, archiving, remote control
expert system - identification of PD defect

The PDM system monitors more than 120 UHF
couplers simultaneously, enabling the measurement of
phase resolved partial discharge (PRPD) charts and PD
short term trends (STT) as well as the presentation of all
results as history trend diagrams [5-7]. In addition, an
automatic noise suppression and an expert system for
computer based identification of the PD defect is
integrated. The PDM system output is connected to the
substation control system to give warning and alarm
signals in case of any critical PD activity.



Figure 2: PDM system hardware arrangement

Three single phase UHF/LF-converter which acts as an
amplifier and peak detector are the main parts within the
PD converter box. In the frequency range examined, the
sensitivity limit for UHF signals is set at -80 dBm. The
dynamic range of the UHF/LF-converter input covers
all signals between -80 dBm and 0 dBm (Fig. 3).
Furthermore the detection of fast transient signals
caused by switching operations, and a high voltage
phase angle detection, are achieved.

0
32
64
96
128
160
192
224
256
-80 -70 -60 -50 -40 -30 -20 -10 0
0
32
64
96
128
160
192
224
256
0 30 60 90 120 150 180 210 240

Figure 3: UHF/LF-converter ouput versus signal input
left: input (dBm), right: input (mV)

For the automatic identification of a PD defect it is
necessary to measure and store the PD activity as a
phase resolved pulse sequence (PRPS). So the aquired
PD pulse amplitude, time of occurrence and the phase
angle are available for further analysis. All diagnostic
systems based on pattern recognition use the com-
ponents feature extraction, classification algorithm and
reference database for evaluation of the PRPS data. The
applied redundant PD diagnosis system (RDS) has a
redundancy in its classification algorithms, and this
system was tested with 1247 UHF data sets coming
from industrial conditions. The three classifiers are: L2-
distance, neural networks and fuzzy logic. This RDS
was continuously updated and improved. The actual
version of RDS is based on a hierarchical concept and
the extraction of -, u/- and u-features. The
diagnosis result is that 96.6 % of the PD defects are
identified in the correct way and only 3.4 % of the PD
data sets are recognised as unknown or wrong [8].

For a risk assessment based on PD diagnostics many
factors have to be taken into account. These include not
only the knowledge about the type and location of a PD
defect, but also exact knowledge of the GIS design, the
experience of the GIS manufacturer and the utilities
operating and grid conditions. An additional factor for
risk assessment on moving particles is the occurrence of
PD bursts, which are an indication for the breakdown
probability. Fig. 4 shows PRPD patterns from moving
particles with PD burst indication on top of the chart.

tag rail for phase resolved PD bursts



Figure 4: PRPD of particles with PD burst indicator [5]


PDM system: type B

This PDM monitoring system, currently installed in
more than 45 GIS worldwide, consists of the following
basic parts (Fig. 5):
UHF couplers - to take the UHF signals from the
GIS.
Optical Converter Units (OCUs) - each OCU con-
tains circuitry to detect and process the UHF signals
from one 3-phase set of couplers. The UHF data is
then transmitted via an optical fibre to the equipment
cabinets, which are often located in the Relay Room.
The equipment cabinets contain the electronics to
receive and handle the streamed data from the OCUs,
and the PC and Control Unit for data storage and
display.

Optical Converter Unit
Equipment
cabinets
UHF coupler

Figure 5: General arrangement of the radial PDM


The features of the UHF discharge pulses most useful
for interpretation purposes are their amplitude, point on
wave, and the intervals between them. These parameters
enable typical defects such as fixed point corona, free
metallic particles and floating electrodes to be
identified. Other defects also have their own distinctive
features [3,4]. The UHF data may be displayed in any
way which reveals the characteristic patterns typical of
the defects causing them, as, for example, that of corona
in the 3D pattern of Fig. 6.

Figure 6: Busbar corona, streamers and leaders

A pattern recognition system developed by the PDM
manufacturer enables PD signals to be identified
automatically, and with high accuracy. This system is
especially important to utilities who may be monitoring
many hundreds of UHF couplers on their GIS, since it
removes the need for an expert to routinely examine the
PD data patterns.

The three main areas of soft computing used in pattern
recognition tasks are artificial neural networks (ANNs),
genetic algorithms and fuzzy logic. These approaches
have been combined with more traditional statistical
techniques to form a highly-effective hybrid classifier.
The stages in this, illustrated in Fig. 7, are to:

remove noise from the raw input data
extract complementary features, and form the input
vectors for a number of classifiers
combine the classifier outputs using a trainable
combination function
monitor the overall process by a control system that
can bypass and modify any of the preceding stages,
before making the final classification.

input
noise
removal
feature
extraction
other
classifiers
fuzzy
logic
ANNs
genetic
classifier
combination
function
control
system
output


Figure 7: System for classifying PD signals

The following performance figures were obtained for
the ANN component working in isolation, having been
trained using a database of approximately one million
exemplars. The modular ANN was trained on 80 % of
the database, and then tested on the remaining 20 %.
The results of the tests are shown in Table 1.

Signal type
Accuracy of
identification
Free Particle 97.5 %
Chamber Corona 98.3 %
Busbar Corona 98.1 %
Floating Component 99.6 %
Insulation 97.0 %
Mobile phone signals 98.0 %
Radar 98.6 %
Various non-PD signals e.g.
switching, lights noise,
motor noise
98.5 %

Table 1: ANN performance using a test set of data





degrees
cycle no
BENEFITS OF PDM SYSTEM APPLICATION

In general the benefit of PDM system application can be
described by the successful detection of PD defects
during GIS operation and the prevention of related
breakdowns. A lot of information is available nowadays
for the statistical evaluation of PDM systems. Two
different databases are available:

A) One type of PDM system continuously taking PD
data from 363 UHF couplers, which are located at six
GIS with rated voltages from 245 kV to 550 kV (one
single GIS manufacturer). The PD detection sensitivity
was equivalent to an apparent charge of 5 pC and often
much better. PD data of a seven years period and 223
bay-years are available in total. Only one defect was
found in service. A floating electrode defect was
detected by the PDM system and confirmed by visual
inspection during the repair work. For all GIS with
PDM system application no in-service breakdown has
occured so far. The PD defect rate for the available data
basis can be calculated as follows:

Number of UHF couplers 363
Number of bay-years 223
Number of UHF coupler-years 1356
Total number of defects (critical PD) 1
Defects per 100 bay-years 0.45
Defects per 100 UHF coupler-years 0.074

B) Since 1996 a PDM system manufacturer has been
monitoring data from its PDM systems, which now
contain more than 3000 UHF couplers (different GIS
manufacturers, GIS with rated voltages from 132 kV to
800 kV). The results from more than 1000 bay-years of
in-service operation show that outages were obtained to
remove 47 defects that would almost certainly have
caused complete breakdown of the GIS, had no action
been taken. Over the same period, breakdown occurred
for unknown causes in only 2 GIS that were being
monitored.

An in-service breakdown in a GIS typically takes more
than a week to repair, and the costs of this, together
with the consequent circuit disruption and loss of supply
in a single outage, usually far outweigh the initial cost
of high-performance PDM systems. A detailed life-
cycle-cost calculation based on typical or type-related
failure rates and outage costs for GIS substations can
confirm the above mentioned general statement. Several
utilities recognise the evident benefits of being able to
prevent most of their GIS breakdowns, and are
installing high-performance PDM systems to their major
GIS [9].

FEATURES OF FUTURE PDM SYSTEMS

Both described PDM systems have been updated and
improved continuously in the past according to the
return of experience and customer requirements. The
technical features of future PDM systems will be as
follows:
application of a standard UHF front-end with high
dynamic range and intelligent noise suppression
monitoring of more than 200 UHF couplers by use of
PDM electronic board modules
application of standardized PDM system equipment
with high reliability and an expected lifetime of more
than 15 years
user-friendly software with flexible data display
including trend diagrams and customized reporting
PD identification with high accuracy and support to
the risk assessment based on PD diagnostics
behaviour more like a black box with submission
of PD alarms to the substation control system only in
case of service relevant PD activity.

CONCLUSION

The principle of the UHF technique was developed
more than 20 years ago, and is well-known worldwide.
Different PDM systems are nowadays available for PD
monitoring of GIS in service. The difference between
them lies in their PD detection sensitivity and their
PDM system features. Several utilities recognise the
benefits and are installing high-performance PDM
systems to their major GIS in order to detect PD activity
at an early stage. The application of standardized and
high-performance PDM equipment will enhance the
reliability of future PDM systems.

REFERENCES

[1] Hampton, 21 years on, UHF monitoring comes of
age, CIGRE Study Committee 15, Gas Insulated
Systems Symposium, Dubai, UAE, 2001
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Systems for GIS: Sensitivity Verification for the
UHF method and the Acoustic method, Electra,
No. 183, 1999
[3] Hampton, Newlands, Detecting and Locating Par-
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th
Int.
Symposium on Gaseous Dielectrics, USA, 1984
[4] Pearson, Hampton, Sellars, A continuous UHF
monitor for gas-insulated Substations, IEEE
Transactions on Electrical Insulation, Vol. 26, 1991
[5] Schichler, Gorablenkow, Experience with UHF
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th
ICPADM,
Xian, PR of China, 2000
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ISH,
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