A Measurement System for the On-Line Diagnostics
of Power Transformer Bushings
Marco Faifer, Member, IEEE, Roberto Ottoboni, Fellow, IEEE, Sergio Toscani, Student Member, IEEE
Dipartimento di Elettrotecnica, Politecnico di Milano
Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32 20133 Milano ITALY
e-mail: marco.faifer@polimi.it
AbstractSeveral studies highlight that power transformer
bushings are among the least reliable components in power
systems. Furthermore, bushing failures are responsible for a very
significant number of transformer breakdowns. This encouraged
the research on continuous monitoring systems allowing the
detection of incipient faults and thus the implementation of
Condition Based Maintenance (CBM) techniques to power
transformer bushings. Many on-line diagnostic techniques can be
found in literature; however most part of them suffers from some
limitations or high complexity. The authors have previously
proposed a novel method allowing the early fault detection
through the superimposition of a high frequency signal across the
bushing tap and ground. In this paper it will be shown how this
monitoring technique can be implemented. A prototype has been
developed and its measurement performance has been evaluated.
Keywords-HV bushings, measurement systems, capacitance
measurements, dielectric measurements.
I. INTRODUCTION
The heavy dependency of the nowadays society on energy
is a matter of fact. A considerable amount of it is converted
into electricity before being utilized; the experts agree that this
fraction is going to rapidly increase in the future. It is also clear
to all that the availability of electric energy is a key for the
growth of the World economy. In this scenario, the
dependability of the power transmission and distribution
networks becomes crucial. A large improvement can be
obtained through a rational servicing of their components and
the implementation of advanced maintenance strategies. In the
last decade Condition Based Maintenance (CBM) techniques
have been introduced in electric power systems. They are based
on the continuous monitoring of the actual wear status of the
components in order to identify weakness and incipient
failures. It is well known that the implementation of these
methods requires to properly modify the network equipment. A
previous paper of the authors can be placed in this framework
[1]. It proposes a diagnostic method for a crucial component in
electrical power systems: the transformer bushing. Some
studies have shown that it is responsible for almost half of the
failures occurring in High Voltage (HV) and Medium Voltage
(MV) transformers [2].
Other works reporting on-line diagnostic methods for
power transformer bushing can be found in literature [2], [3],
[4]. Basically they perform a dynamic analysis of diagnostic
indexes which are someway related to the bushings
capacitances and power losses [5], [6]. However, in our
978-1-61284-946-1/11/$26.00 2011 IEEE
opinion all of them suffer from some criticalities as described
in [1]. The method previously presented by the authors [1] tries
to overcome these limitations.
The proposed technique is based on the continuous
measurement of the impedance across the bushing tap and
ground, considering a test frequency of about a megahertz. It is
then possible to evaluate both the equivalent capacitance and
the power factor of the bushing [5]. It is well known that the
knowledge of these parameters, or better their evolution over
time, allows inferring information about its wear condition [7]
[8].
In this paper a device allowing the implementation of this
diagnostic method is presented. After a brief recall about the
electrical model of the system and the fault detection
technique, a detailed description of the proposed measurement
system is provided. Finally, its metrological characterization is
reported.
II. TARGET AND MEASUREMENT REQUIREMENTS
The authors have previously proposed a method allowing to
continuously monitor the status of the bushing without putting
the transformer out of service. As aforementioned, the wear
condition can be evaluated through the measurement of the
impedance across the bushing tap and ground (Figure 1).
HIGH VOLTAGE LINE
CONDUCTOR
C1
TAP
C2
FLANGE
TRANSFORMER
Figure 1. Power transformer bushing.
It has been shown that considering a frequency of some
hundreds of kilohertz, the equivalent circuit reported in Figure
2 can be employed during the study [1]. Zeq is the equivalent
impedance of the transformer, the substation equipment and the
line connected to the bushing. C1 is the tap to high voltage
conductor sub capacitance, while C2 represents the tap to
flange sub capacitance. Two parallel resistances R1 and R2 have
been introduced in order to consider the power losses. Let us
suppose that Zeq is lower than one tenth of the impedance given
by the parallel of R1 and C1. In this case it can be shown that
the method proposed by the authors allows to estimate the
equivalent capacitance C given by the parallel of C1 and C2,
and its dissipation factor.
Figure 2. Equivalent circuit of the system.
It is well known that variations of the capacitance C and its
power factor are symptoms of the transformer bushing wear;
the acceptable limits are reported in [6]. By analyzing the
circuit depicted in Figure 2, considering the typical values of
the bushing parameters and taking into account their maximum
changes allowed by the IEEE standards, it can be estimated
that in order to guarantee the early fault detection the
measurement system shall have a resolution better than 0.1% in
evaluating the equivalent capacitance and of some percentage
for the resistance [1].
The last crucial issue of the measurement system is related
to the safety of the user. Because of the bushing sub-
capacitances, the tap may reach a fairly high voltage with
respect to ground. Both the measurement equipment and their
users have to be protected against this potentially harmful
condition; hence a proper insulation must be introduced.
III. THE MEASUREMENT SYSTEM
The measurement system implementing the proposed
method allows, by means of a vector volt-amperometric
technique [9], to estimate the real and the imaginary part of the
impedance across the bushing tap and ground at a frequency f
of about 1 MHz. Because of the peculiar application, it shall
guarantee not only good measurement accuracy but also
ancillary yet essential features. In particular, the intrinsic
dangerousness of the high voltage requires an adequate level of
insulation. Furthermore, the possibility that a failure results in a
hazardous situation has to be avoided. These problems
immediately arise during the implementation of the device. In a
linear system, it is possible to study the response to each
frequency component separately; when considering the AC
mains frequency fm, the network connected to the bushing can
be represented by its Thevenin equivalent, namely a voltage
generator VL and a negligible series impedance ZL. Then, it is
straightforward to compute the Thevenin equivalent across the
bushing tap and ground. The amplitude VTH of the generator
and the series impedance ZTH are given by:
C1 1
VTH VL ZTH (1)
C1 C2 j 2 f m C1 C2
having noticed that the power losses in the bushing are
negligible for the purpose. Since C1 and C2 are in the same
order of magnitude, the open circuit voltage VTH is very high.
In order to avoid that such a dangerous voltage is applied to the
bushing tap, it is usually shorted to ground.
The estimation of the bushing capacitance and power factor
requires to impose a known tap to ground voltage signal having
a frequency f and to measure the consequent current. In the
proposed measurement system, the stimulus voltage is applied
by means of a high frequency transformer (depicted in Figure
3) having a signal generator connected to its primary side. Let
us call ZG its output impedance at the AC mains frequency and
referred to the secondary side. If ZG is much lower than ZTH, the
bushing tap and ground are virtually shorted when considering
the frequency fm, thus avoiding dangerous voltages to arise.
Furthermore, the magnetizing impedance of the signal
transformer at the AC mains frequency is usually much lower
than ZTH; this further reduces the voltage between the bushing
tap and ground. However, in case of failure a dangerous
voltage may be applied to the measurement devices. So, a
proper insulation between them and the user has to be
guaranteed.
The estimation of the impedance across the bushing tap and
ground requires the measurement of the current injected
through the high frequency transformer. A shunt resistance
Rshunt (Figure 3) much lower than ZTH can be successfully
employed.
Figure 3. Equivalent circuit at the AC mains frequency.
Because of the transformer low pass filtering and
nonlinearities, it is difficult to properly control the actual
waveform and amplitude of the stimulus voltage applied to the
bushing tap; therefore, it has to be measured. Since all of the
other elements can be considered linear, the harmonic
decomposition of the tap voltage and of the consequent current
allows to evaluate the impedance at the analysis frequency f
abstracting from the waveforms. Thus, a very simple square
wave signal generator can be used.
 Oscillator Divider Transformer TAP The fundamental frequency fTE of the signal acquired in
equivalent time is:
v1 v2

BP-Filter BP-Filter fS f
f ET (6)
N pp N PP M 1

S&H S&H
The two sampled signals v1 and v2 are then elaborated by a
processing unit that implements the volt-amperometric spectral
Elaboration Unit A\D converters analysis. In particular, the impedance across the bushing tap
Optical Fiber and ground at the frequency f is computed. For sake of
simplicity, it can be expressed in terms of equivalent resistance
Figure 4. Architecture of the measurement system. and capacitance of a RC parallel circuit.
The employment of this kind of signal generator allows
adopting the architecture reported in Figure 4. It permits to
achieve a synchronous acquisition: the sampling clock and the IV. THE DEVELOPED PROTOTYPE
voltage stimulus are generated starting from the same oscillator A prototype of the described measurement system has been
by means of digital counters. Having considered a test developed; its basic architecture is depicted in
frequency of 1 MHz and the required measurement accuracy, Figure 5.
an equivalent time sampling technique has been chosen so that
high resolution ADCs can be employed. Therefore, the current Sample &
v1 BP Filter
and voltage signals (v2 and v1 respectively) must be band pass Buffer
Hold NI USB-
filtered before being sampled in order to avoid aliasing 6259BNC
PC
16-bit ADC
artifacts. In particular, there shall not be significant frequency v2
Buffer BP Filter Sample & Optical
Fiber
components outside the range ffS/2 where fS is the sampling Hold fS
rate. In order to assure a synchronous acquisition of the signals fS&H
v1 and v2, two sample and hold devices have been used. Bushing f FPGA
Tap Pulse
The theory of sequential equivalent time sampling states Transformer fOSC
Shunt
that in order to obtain a sampled signal having NPP points per
Oscillator
cycle, the sampling frequency shall be: Ad-hoc hardware

Figure 5. Overall architecture of the prototype.

1
TS M T (2)
N PP The user interface, the system management and the data
processing are provided by a VI implemented on a PC which
has been developed using the software NI LabVIEW. In order
to improve the flexibility of the prototype and to reduce the
N PP development time, commercial devices has been used when
fS f (3)
1 M N PP available. In particular the signal acquisition is assured by a NI
USB-6259BNC board by National Instruments. Its main
features are reported in the following:
where TS is the sampling time, T is the period of the sampled
16-bits ADCs
signal while M is the number of full periods elapsed between
the acquisition of two consecutive samples. Leakage errors in analog bandwidth of 1.7 MHz @-3dB
evaluating the spectral components have to be reduced by
acquiring an integer number NP of periods of the sampled 500 kHz maximum sampling frequency (2 channels)
signal. Therefore the total number of samples is given by: External trigger capability
NTOT N P N PP (4) USB data transmission.
In order to ensure a safe operation, an optical
communication between PC and data acquisition board has
In order to avoid possible interferences due to the mains
been implemented by using commercial USB to optical fiber
voltage (fm= 50 Hz or 60 Hz) it is recommendable that:
converters. These devices allow to set a bidirectional
1 communication channel with a maximum transfer rate of
TOBS TS NTOT (5) 480Mbit/s and a distance up to 500m.
fm
The synchronization of the whole system is provided by an
ad-hoc developed board that also generates the stimulus signal
where TOBS is the observation time. at 1 MHz which is applied to the bushing tap through a pulse
transformer as shown in Figure 5. The oscillator frequency is
32 MHz while the other synchronization signals have been instrument and the developed measurement system. The results
obtained from it by means of FPGA-based frequency dividers. of the comparison are summarized in TABLE I. As previously
It has been chosen to pick 32 points per period in equivalent explained the prototype has been tuned using the sample
time, while the single sample is acquired every 5 periods of the number 8.
stimulus signal. So, the FPGA shall provide three different
outputs: the stimulus signal and two properly delayed signals TABLE I. PERFORMANCE IN THE MEASUREMENT OF CAPACITANCE.
having the same frequency of 32/161 MHz. They are the Agilent HP 4284A Prototype
trigger signals for the S&Hs and for the ADCs respectively. Sample Cp Relative Cp Relative standard Relative
124 equivalent periods has been observed in each acquisition, # [pF] uncertainty [pF] deviation error %
so that the total number of processed samples is 3968. 1 223.10 6E-04 232.52 1.28E-04 4.22
The two signals v1 and v2 are picked-up by means of high 2 333.28 6E-04 333.64 1.84E-04 0.11
input impedance buffers and then conditioned by using high 3 395.01 6E-04 389.76 1.14E-04 -1.33
performance bandpass filters. They have a central frequency of 4 474.94 6E-04 461.52 6.45E-05 -2.82
1 MHz, assuring an attenuation of at least 100 dB outside the 5 561.91 6E-04 539.19 5.09E-05 -4.04
900-1100 kHz band; thus aliasing effects are completely 6 333.41 6E-04 333.33 1.59E-04 -0.03
avoided. 7 335.06 6E-04 335.00 1.52E-04 -0.02
8 334.18 6E-04 334.19 2.07E-04 0.01
9 334.68 6E-04 334.65 1.20E-04 -0.01
10 335.60 6E-04 335.48 1.46E-04 -0.03
11 336.35 6E-04 336.19 1.63E-04 -0.05
12 334.19 6E-04 334.20 1.79E-04 0.01
13 338.63 6E-04 338.17 1.53E-04 -0.13
14 338.74 6E-04 338.30 1.42E-04 -0.13

As expected, the error becomes higher when the

capacitance of the sample moves away from that of sample 8.
This clearly indicates a gain error which can be partly
compensated through a more accurate calibration of the
measurement system. Further tests have been performed in
order to verify the measurement performance in evaluating the
dissipation factor. Sample number 8 has been modified by
connecting some resistors in parallel. Their values are similar
Figure 6. VI front panel. to those expected to be measured when the prototype is
connected to a typical bushing tap. TABLE II reports the main
As aforementioned the signal processing has been results.
implemented by means of a VI; its front panel is shown in
Figure 6. Its main task is the computation of the equivalent TABLE II. PERFORMANCE IN THE MEASUREMENT OF RESISTANCE.
impedance through a frequency domain analysis of the signals
v1 and v2 [8]. It also provides an estimation of the capacitance Agilent HP 4284A Prototype
and the resistance of a RC parallel model obtained as the Relative
Sample Rp Relative Rp Relative
standard
average of 100 measurements; in addition it computes the # [k] uncertainty [k]]
deviation
error %
sample standard deviation of the estimate quantities. 1 14.02 5.1E-03 14.02 3.0E-03 0.00
2 13.69 5.0E-03 13.68 2.0E-03 0.07
3 13.40 4.9E-03 13.41 3.0E-03 -0.05
V. MEASUREMENT SYSTEM CHARACTERIZATION 4 13.14 4.8E-03 13.16 3.0E-03 -0.16
The performance of the measurement system has been 5 12.87 4.7E-03 12.91 3.0E-03 -0.28
evaluated through a comparison with a state of the art LCR 6 12.66 4.6E-03 12.73 2.0E-03 -0.55
meter (Agilent 4284A). The prototype has been finely tuned so 7 12.25 4.5E-03 12.33 2.0E-03 -0.64
that its reading matches that of the precision LCR meter when 8 12.08 4.4E-03 12.16 2.0E-03 -0.68
measuring a silver-mica capacitor having a rated capacitance of 9 11.78 4.3E-03 11.84 2.0E-03 -0.48
330 pF (which represents the tap to ground capacitance of a
10 11.58 4.2E-03 11.64 2.0E-03 -0.53
typical bushing). As shown in [1] the key feature of the
11 11.22 4.1E-03 11.30 2.0E-03 -0.69
measurement system is the capability to resolve small changes
in capacitance and dissipation factor. So, it is crucial to test the
performance of the prototype in measuring values of As stated before, a measurement system devoted to
capacitance similar to these expected at the bushing tap. Other diagnostic purpose shall be able to detect the variations of the
13 silver mica capacitors have been prepared for this purpose. capacitance and resistance rather than their absolute values.
All of them have been measured with both the reference These capabilities are summarized in Figure 7 and Figure 8;
from these data it is possible to assess that the measurement VI. CONCLUSIONS
system can detect relative capacitance variations of about 0.1% In the paper a measurement system devoted to the on-line
and relative resistance variations of about 1%. diagnosis of power transformer bushings has been presented. It
allows to continuously evaluate its capacitance and dissipation
1.4 factor at a frequency of 1 MHz. Through integration between
commercial devices and ad-hoc electronics, a prototype has
Measured capacitance variation %

1.2
been developed. The simple yet smart architecture allows to
1.0 obtain accurate measurements together with a safe operation.
0.8
The metrological performances of the system have been
0.6 tested through a comparison with a high precision LCR meter.
0.4 The experimental results show that the diagnostic method
proposed by the authors in a previous work can be
0.2
implemented by using relatively low cost equipment.
0.0
-0.2
-0.4 REFERENCES
-0.4 -0.2 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4
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Capacitance variation % Power Transformer Bushings, in Proc. IEEE Instrumentation and
Meaurement Technology Conference, to be published.
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Figure 7. Capacitance measurement. monitoring and diagnoses of power transformer bushings", IEEE Trans.
Dielectr. Electr. Insul., vol. 13, no. 3, pp.608-615, June 2006.
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0.5 of high-voltage bushings and current transformers using the sum current
method," IEEE Trans. on Power Del., vol. 15, no. 1, pp.155-162, Jan.
Measured resistance variation %

0.0 2000.
-0.5 [4] Z. Berler, V. Sokolov, V. Prikhodko, D. Bates, "On-line monitoring of
HV bushings and current transformers", in Proc. Electrical Insulation
-1.0 Conf. and Electal Manufacturing Expo., Indianapolis, IN, 2005, pp.61-
66.
-1.5
[5] IEEE Standard General Requirements and Test Procedure for Power
-2.0 Apparatus Bushings, IEEE Standard C57.19.00, 2004.
[6] IEEE Standard Performance Characteristics and Dimensions for
-2.5 Outdoor Apparatus Bushings, IEEE Standard C57.19.01, 2000.
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-3.5
[8] ABB Power Technology Products AB (2000, Aug. 30). Bushing
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diagnosis and conditioning - ABB Product information [Online].
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