IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Vol. 20, No.

6; December 2013 2165

1070-9878/13/$25.00 2013 IEEE
Risk Assessment on Defects in GIS Based on PD Diagnostics

CIGRE WG D1.03 (TF 09)
U. Schichler, Convenor (Germany), W. Koltunowicz, Secretary (Austria), F. Endo (Japan), K. Feser (Germany),
A. Giboulet (France), A. Girodet (France), H. Hama (Japan), B. Hampton (United Kingdom),
H.-G. Kranz (Germany), J. Lopez-Roldan (Australia), L. Lundgaard (Norway),
S. Meijer (Netherlands), C. Neumann (Germany), S. Okabe (Japan),
J. Pearson (United Kingdom), R. Pietsch (Germany),
U. Riechert (Switzerland) and S. Tenbohlen (Germany)

ABSTRACT
The paper, prepared by CIGRE WG D1.03 (TF 09), presents the guidelines for risk
assessment procedure on defects in GIS based on PD diagnostics. The procedure,
described in detail in CIGRE Technical Brochure 525, starts with sensitive PD
measurement to detect the critical defects and follows with identification of the type of
the defect and its location inside the GIS. This information taken together with other
essential data from laboratory measurements, manufacturer's experience, design
aspects and trend analysis of the PD activity, are the base for the estimation of the
criticality of the defects. Finally, the risk assessment is performed based on the
estimated dielectric failure probability and failure consequences that can be different
in case of on-site testing or in service activity.
Index Terms Gas insulated substation, defects, partial discharge measurements,
diagnostics and risk assessment.

1 INTRODUCTION.
THE number of installed GIS substations increases rapidly all
over the world. The reliability of GIS is improving, as
technology develops and improved designs are introduced.
The in-service dielectric performance of GIS is satisfactory up
to a nominal voltage of 170 kV but the dielectric failure rate is
considered to be too elevated for higher nominal voltages.
The worldwide in-service return of experience for GIS is
presented in [1]. Referring to that, about 30 % of the dielectric
failures are related to design deficiencies. Other failures are
related to quality assurance problems. Failures caused by mobile
particles represent 20 % of the total. Loose shields lead to
floating element type defects while current carrying contact
create galling type defects; both are also common malfunctions.
Problems related to insulators surface contamination by particles
and voids in the bulk insulation cannot be excluded (Figure 1).
The majority of the problems can be eliminated by improved
quality assurance during manufacturing and on-site assembly.
The improved dielectric testing procedures and more efficient
diagnostic checks, during on-site tests and later in service, have
to be adopted.
The present document, prepared by CIGRE WG D1.03 (TF
09), describes the guidelines for risk assessment based on PD
diagnostics (Figure 2).
The first step of the risk assessment procedure is to perform a
sensitive PD measurement to detect the critical defects (section
2). After the detection of a PD signal, it is necessary to obtain
information about the type of defect and about its location inside
the GIS (section 3).

Figure 1. Mean distribution of dielectric failures in service [1].

Taken together with other essential information from
laboratory measurements, manufacturer's experience, design
aspects and trend analysis of the PD activity, the criticality of the
defects can be estimated (section 4). This allows the estimation of
the dielectric failure probability. In the last step, the risk
assessment is performed based on the estimated dielectric failure
probability and failure consequences (section 5). The final Manuscript received on 28 January 2013, in final form 2 August 2013.
2166 U. Schichler et al.: Risk Assessment on Defects in GIS Based on PD Diagnostics
decision can be different in case of on-site testing or in service
activity.
The proposed risk assessment procedure based on PD
diagnostics combines technical and other parameters (e.g. social
and economic) and will support test engineers, engineers at
condition monitoring departments and asset managers.
The more detailed information about the procedure with
examples of its application is presented in CIGRE TB 525 [2].

Figure 2. Principle steps for risk assessment based on PD diagnostics.

2 DEFECT PROPERTIES
2.1 BREAKDOWN BEHAVIOUR OF GAS-INSULATED
SYSTEM TO DEFECTS
The volt-time curves for different types of the defects are
presented in Figure 3 [3].

Figure 3. Principle behavior of SF
6
-insulated systems to defects [3].

Defects that can reduce the insulation withstand level of the
GIS below the coordination withstand level and which might
lead to dielectric failure are the critical ones. The size of
critical defect will depend on the GIS dimensions (design
voltage gradients) and on gas pressure. The design voltage
gradient for lighting voltage depends on manufacturer, but
may typically be in the range of 140-180 kV/cm for GIS of
rated voltages from 123 kV to 400 kV. Considering a working
pressure of 0.45 MPa, the following information can be
derived.
A sharp protrusion on the inner conductor is critical at
lightning impulse voltages. A protrusion of 1 mm length will
lead to breakdown during lightning impulse tests whereas at
AC test voltages and switching impulse voltages even a 5 mm
long particle on the inner conductor is still not critical [4, 5].
This is well explained by the corona stabilisation effect at AC
voltage and SF
6
pressure of about 0.3 MPa [6].
The influence of a particle on an insulator vs. electrical
withstand of GIS configuration for different lengths of the
particle and at varying SF
6
pressure is presented in [3]. It is
shown that to detect a particle by flashover on an insulation
material, the lightning impulse is the most critical voltage
type. A particle shorter than 2 mm, located in the highest
electric field regions, is critical and reduces the flashover field
strength far below the designed level. Switching impulse
voltages and AC voltages are less sensitive. A 4 mm long
particle leads to breakdown during AC test and a 10 mm one
at nominal AC voltage.
Mobile particles are critical under AC voltages. The critical
particle length for wires is in the range from 3 to 5 mm [4, 5, 7].
2.2 SENSITIVITY OF PD MEASUREMENTS
In Table 1, for each defect type, the critical and detectable
defect lengths are indicated. The detectable values were
obtained with conventional PD measurements (according to
IEC 60270) performed at nominal voltage. At this voltage
level (nominal field strength) only critical moving particles
can be detected by PD. At the AC test voltage, all critical
defects will show PD, but their magnitude can be very low
(less than 1 pC), depending on the length of the defect and the
nominal voltage of the GIS.
The PD magnitude for the same defect placed in GIS of
different voltage level will decrease with the increase of
nominal voltage. The apparent charge value is inversely
proportional to the total width of the insulation, so the higher
the voltage level of the equipment, the lower the sensitivity of
PD measurement.

Table 1. Critical and detectable defects length for different defects.
Type of defect
Critical defect Detectable
length of
defect at U
n
[mm]
Length
[mm]
Apparent charge
acc.to IEC 60270
Moving particle 3 5 2 - 10 pC 3 - 5
Protrusion on HV
conductor
around 1 1 - 2 pC 3 - 4
Protrusion on enclosure 4 6 2 pC 10 - 15
Particle on insulation 1 2 about 0.5 pC 3 - 10
Void 3-4 (dia) 1 - 2 pC 2 3
Mobile particles are the most common defects detected on-
site. The difference between the PD inception level and
breakdown value is much higher than for other defect types
indicated in Table 1. This means that free particles can be
detected with greater simplicity.
Floating electrodes give a high PD magnitude and they are
easy to detect by PD diagnostic methods. Insulators and
partitions dont show any critical ageing due to voids if they
pass a PD measurement in the sensitivity range of 1 pC after
the manufacturing process.
IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Vol. 20, No. 6; December 2013 2167
Figure 4 displays the sensitivity of the different PD
diagnostic methods and indicates the possibilities to
detect PD defects with critical length under various test
voltages. Sometimes even non-critical defects can be
detected. The differences in detectability between routine
tests, HV tests on-site and in-service are caused by the
voltage dependency on PD activity. For on-site test, the
PD measurements at 80 % of short time AC voltage
withstand level are considered [1].

Figure 4. Sensitivity of PD diagnostic methods during routine test, on-site
test and in service.

3 IDENTIFICATION OF PD DEFECTS
Pattern recognition procedures are most successful to
identify the type of the insulation defect, but they always
give only a probabilistic answer about the defect type. This
pattern recognition can be done by experts as well as by
computers. The basic principles of PD diagnosis based on
pattern recognition are described in detail by several authors
[8, 9].
3.1 IDENTIFICATION BASED ON ELECTRIC
MEASUREMENTS
For electrical measurements, computer based phase-
resolved pulse sequence analysis (PRPSA) is commonly
adopted. The following requirements have to be taken into
account [10]:
The feature extraction aims to reduce the complexity of
the PD patterns by processing only characteristic
properties [8, 11, 12];
PD defect classification method recognises the "unknown
defect" and influences on the diagnosis potential;
PD reference data is a second key component in PD
diagnosis. Using pattern recognition principles it should
be underlined that all PD diagnosis results strongly
depend on the available reference data base [12].
PD activity is always a sequence of PD pulses with their
intensity or apparent charge and time of occurrence. Since
the PD pulse are phase related to the applied voltage, digital
PD acquisition systems record also the magnitude of the test
voltage to measure a phase resolved PD sequence record.
3.2 IDENTIFICATION BASED ON ACOUSTIC
MEASUREMENTS
Discrimination between limited numbers of PDs can easily
be done based on some basic signal parameters, as illustrated
in Figure 5 [13]. The acoustic analyser evaluates the 50/100
Hz periodicity, the signal level magnitude, the variation in the
signal level, the PD pattern and the signal shape. All used
settings of the analyser are recorded together with the patterns
for later evaluation and inclusion in databases. At the moment,
there is no sophisticated computer-based expert system
available for this evaluation due to a lack of correct time
resolution. Moreover, pulse sequence analysis of acoustic
signals is difficult because of the long ringing time of acoustic
pulses. The acoustic method is best applicable for detection of
mobile particles.

Particle
Floating
shield
Protrusion
50/100 Hz
Periodicity
Signal Level
Level
Variation
Pattern
Signal Shape
Weak
50 Hz 100 Hz
High Low High
High Stable Stable
Elevation
plot
Phase
plot
Phase
plot
Cont. Cont. Pulsed


Figure 5. Scheme for PD defect identification using acoustic measurements
[13].

4 ASSESSMENT OF CRITICAL DEFECTS
4.1 MOBILE PARTICLES
Despite all the precautions taken during the assembly of
the GIS, particles may enter the compartments of the GIS.
Free metallic particles can move along the enclosure or lift-
off and finally jump towards the HV conductor, depending
on their size, weight and the electrostatic forces acting on
them. The breakdown will occur when the particle is about
to get in contact with the HV conductor.
During electrical conditioning AC voltage is increased
step by step until the short time withstand voltage test level.
The time of permanence at the voltage steps should be long
enough to allow particles to move to a low field area or to
particle traps where they will remain innocuous. A risk
assessment is necessary, if PD activity remains after the
conditioning procedure or if particles are detected in
service. Particles can be classified to ones which: a) move
along the enclosure, b) jump and may reach the HV
conductor.
2168 U. Schichler et al.: Risk Assessment on Defects in GIS Based on PD Diagnostics
The discrimination between moving and jumping particles
can be performed by the analysis of PD pattern and
spectrum recorded with UHF measurements [14] or time-of-
flight measurements using the acoustic method [15]. The
criticality of a jumping particle depends on its length and
mass. Acoustic measurements can provide, with some
assumption, indications about the particle mass and length
[15].
A moving particle has the possibility to develop into
another type of defect particle on an insulator if during
the trajectory movement the particle can reach and stay on
the surface of an insulator. This defect will be much more
sensitive to lightning impulses rather than AC overvoltages.
Mobile particle dimensions and its location, evaluation of
temporary overvoltages and estimation of the trajectory in
relation to the insulation materials in the compartment must
be analysed by the GIS manufacturer and/or the utility in
order to assess the dielectric failure probability of this
defect.
4.2 LOOSE AND ELECTRICAL FLOATING
ELEMENTS
Incorrectly fixed or unscrewed elements of the GIS can
start to vibrate under the applied voltage and current. They
can finally lose electrical contact with the HV electrode or
the enclosure and remain on floating potential.
Mechanical vibrations produce a strong acoustical
signal easily detectable by acoustical measurements. They
do not produce electrical discharges so they cannot be
detected by other diagnostic methods. Their acoustic
signals are continuous with the 100 Hz envelope and are
observed in relation to the zero crossing of the applied
voltage.
A different situation takes place with the floating
elements. When the withstand voltage between the HV
electrode and the floating shield is exceeded, an electrical
discharge occurs. Such discharge is observed at the rising
flanks of the applied voltage and produces a continuous
PD signal. This kind of defect is easily identified and
localised by any kind of electrical PD measurement. It
produces a much higher PD level than the others and the
corresponding pattern is typical. Acoustic PD
measurements give a 100 Hz envelope and an amplitude
equal for both polarities. With this type of defect,
spontaneous breakdown is not expected in-service within
a short period of time. As mentioned in [16], monitoring
has to be performed as a preliminary analysis of the
defect. The failure probability should take into account
the PD level but also the design of the compartment. The
risk of pollution of the spacer surface by metallic dust
created by discharges can lead to a different defect
classified as "particle on insulation material".
4.3 PARTICLE ON INSULATION MATERIALS
A mobile particle moves and under electrostatic forces may
reach and stay on an insulator. This type of defect is critical at
VFT and lightning impulse voltage [16]. The criticality of
such defect depends on the position, size of the particle, its
orientation with regard to the tangential electrical field, and
on the SF
6
pressure. A particle of 2 mm reduces by a factor
of two the dielectric strength under lightning impulse stress
compared to clean condition.
During on-site tests and particularly in service, the
probability to detect such defects is reduced due to the low
level of PD activity at the respective voltage. If detected,
such particles should be removed.
4.4 PROTRUSION
Considering quality assurance procedures in the factory
(e.g. dimensional controls carried out on metallic parts),
protrusions are very seldom found in GIS.
Protrusions on HV conductors are mostly due to
scratches of metallic surfaces by insufficient care during
assembly. Such defects reduce the lightning impulse
dielectric strength of the equipment (Figure 3) and the PD
level is very low, close to the background noise level.
The shape of the protrusions tip can change in time with
voltage application from a sharp to a rounded one. This can
influence both, the PD inception voltage and the breakdown
level [15]. Protrusions can be classified in two categories:
Rounded protrusion: the small difference between the
PD inception voltage and the breakdown voltage makes
the detection of such defects very difficult as a small
increase of the test voltage develops a leader, which
rapidly causes breakdown;
Sharp protrusion: the length of the protrusion
influences the inception voltage. The corona
stabilisation process reduces locally the electrical field
and the PD level remains stable as the voltage
increases. A sufficient difference exists between the
inception voltage and the breakdown voltage to make
the PD detection possible.
There is no direct correlation between the length of the
protrusion and the PD magnitude. Detection of a critical
sharp protrusion by PD diagnostics is very difficult during
on-site tests and impossible in service. Protrusions, when
detected, should be removed, regardless of length.
4.5 VOIDS IN INSULATION MATERIAL AND
CAVITIES IN SPACER
Manufacturers have improved the moulding techniques
during the last decades and very stringent quality assurance
control procedures are applied. Defects like minute metallic
inclusions, small voids in cast resin or areas of delamination
between insulation material and metallic insert can be rarely
found in a new GIS. Electrical PD measurements in the
factory are able to detect most of these defects and PD
pattern and trend analysis are performed in order to estimate
the criticality of such defects. In [18], different phases of the
ageing process and the PD patterns associated with this
IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Vol. 20, No. 6; December 2013 2169
phenomenon are described. These kinds of defect generally
require a period of applied voltage to become active. The
PD activity is not stable, has the tendency to fade away in
time, as the discharge activity continuously changes its
intensity.
5 RISK ASSESSMENT
5.1 GUIDELINE
Risk assessment on defects in GIS based on PD diagnostics
is a complex task. One approach to perform risk assessment is
to combine technical and non-technical (social and
economical) impact parameters to estimate the dielectric
failure probability and consequences (Figure 6, [19]). The
technical impact parameters in this document are related to
insulation defects generating PD. Sensitive PD measurements
are necessary to detect and identify the defect type. To assess
the technical risk the diagnostic confidence of each PD
identification process must be considered. Based on the risk
assessment, further actions have to be taken [2].

Figure 6. Flow chart of the proposed risk assessment procedure.

5.2 TECHNICAL IMPACT PARAMETERS OF
PD DEFECTS
The criticality of identified insulation defects is influenced
by different technical parameters. For the estimation of the
failure probability four technical impact parameters have been
defined: defect type properties, defect location, PD signal time
dependencies and voltage wave shape.
Depending on the type of defect, different aspects for each
of the impact parameter have to be considered. Table 2 shows
the technical impact parameters and the related aspects for
different defects detected by PD measurements. Some of these
aspects can be defined by the PD measurement; others are
related to the service condition like e.g. occurrence of
temporary AC overvoltages.
Table 2. Aspects of technical impact parameter for different PD defects.

* no information is currently available from PD measurements
** no influence to the calculation procedure for failure probability
5.3 CALCULATION PROCEDURE OF DIELECTRIC
FAILURE PROBABILITY
To estimate the dielectric failure probability for a certain
defect, a calculation procedure can be defined which is based
on the availability of the following information: confidence of
the diagnosis, the technical impact parameters and related
aspects, and the defect specific criticality range.
5.3.1 CONFIDENCE OF THE DIAGNOSIS
The result of any PD defect identification procedure is
always probabilistic and the uncertainty of the diagnosis
has to be considered in the dielectric failure probability
algorithm [2,19]. The reliable identification of the PD
defect is the key component in determining the failure
probability of the involved PD defect. If a PD diagnosis
system or estimation of a human expert shows a low
confidence in the recognition of the defect type in question,
the dielectric failure probability has to be set to a high
level, which means that additional expertise is necessary.
Taking this into account, the calculation of the breakdown
probability has to consider the value of the diagnosis
confidence factor C (Table 3).

Type of
defect
Technical Impact Parameters
Defect
type
properties
Defect location
Time
Dependencies
Voltage type
and
wave shape
Mobile
Particle
- particle
dimension
and mass
- jump
height
- close to spacer
- vibration
initiating
movement
- local field
strength
- particle trap
- dielectric
coating
- trend of
magnitude
- activity
- time of flight
- AC stress
- DC stress
-
superimposed
Stresses
Floating
Element
-movement
(fixing
design)
- number/
cycle
- close to spacer
- trend of
magnitude
- activity
- phase angle
- AC stress

Particle on
Insulation
- tip shape
- length
- local field
strength *
- activity
- LI
- VFT
Protrusion
- tip shape
- length
- on HV
electrode
**
- LI
- VFT
Void
- size *
- number *
- shape *
- local field
strength *
- trend of
magnitude
- intermittent
activity
- phase angle
stabilisation
- inception/
extinction
voltage
- AC stress
- inception by
transient
Voltage
2170 U. Schichler et al.: Risk Assessment on Defects in GIS Based on PD Diagnostics
Table 3. Diagnosis confidence factor C by an expert system or engineer.
Diagnosis confidence
Range of diagnosis
confidence factor C
Expert system Engineer
Uncertain Untrained 0 - 25 %
Quite uncertain Common expert 26 - 50 %
Quite certain Expert 51 - 75 %
Certain
Outstanding
expert
76 - 100 %

5.3.2 TECHNICAL IMPACT PARAMETERS AND
RELATED ASPECTS
To link the different technical impact parameters and
aspects, the equations 1 to 3 can be used. Additional
weighting factors can be introduced based on experience.
First of all, for each aspect (A
j
) related to a certain technical
impact parameter (IP
i
) a failure probability value between 0
and 1 is set and the failure probability related to one IP
i
is
calculated:
I A
N
1 j
j
i
N N
A
IP
A

=
=

where N
A
is the number of aspects and N
I
is the number of
technical impact parameters.
Secondly, the failure probabilities of all technical impact
parameters (IP
i
) are added to reach the failure probability FP:

=
=
=
= =
I
A
I
N
1 i I A
N
1 j
j
N
1 i
i
N N
A
P I FP


5.3.3 DEFECT SPECIFIC CRITICALITY RANGE
The minimum (R
min
) and the maximum (R
max
) values of the
dielectric failure probability for each particular PD defect (risk
range) can be estimated. For example, a protrusion can
produce a breakdown in a short time because of a lightning
overvoltage influencing this defect. A void however can only
produce a breakdown after years of ageing and after changing
into an electrical tree. Therefore a void may have a criticality
range up to the medium risk only, whereas the protrusion is
always on the high risk level [2, 18]. However, insufficient
information is available to define the exact values at this
moment. The total failure probability (TFP) is calculated by
the following equation:
( ) C
N
R R R TFP
I
A
I A

|
|
|
|
|
.
|

\
|
|
|
|
|
|
.
|

\
|
+ =


=
=
N
1 i
N
1 j
j
min max min
N
A
1 1

Examples of calculation to estimate the total failure
breakdown TFP are in section 6. The defined settings in these
calculation sheets are based on the experience of the WG
Members. They are not fixed and can be adjusted according to
the experience of the user.
5.4 ESTIMATION OF THE CONSEQUENCES
The estimation of the consequences should be done in
parallel to the calculation of the dielectric failure probability.
The consequences are costs, social-economic and safety
implications. A determination of the consequences is possible
by the application of several non-technical impact parameters
like for example: experience with defects on installed type of
GIS, PD affected component (time to repair, spare parts
availability), outage costs (repair costs of the affected
component or possible damages of further components, costs
of non-delivered energy), liability costs due to third party
damages, penalties coming from customer contracts,
importance of station, system redundancy, public image of the
company, personal injuries in case of an outage and
environmental aspects.
The different information is often available within the
utilities and some of the costs are well known from
experience. Other parameters are generally not financially
assessable and they depend on public and company
requirement. However, the estimation of the consequences
must be done by the utility or asset manager. Otherwise a
proper risk assessment is not possible.
5.5 RISK DIAGRAM
The final risk can be estimated by an adapted Farmer
diagram [19, 20], whose axes are the two independent factors
failure probability of the identified PD defect and
consequences, which are both scaled in a percentage range
(Figure 7).
The consequences are normalized on the maximum
economical consequences in case of a major failure of the
diagnosed switchgear. As an example, lines connecting
different failure probability and certain level of consequences
are chosen to divide the spanned space of the diagram into
three areas of three different risk levels that depend on the
individual utility strategy. In the risk diagram the low,
medium and high risk areas are marked. Each area involves
different actions (Table 4).
For the same dielectric failure probability (points A and B),
different estimation of the consequences can change the risk
assessment area and finally actions to be performed by utility
(Figure 7-b). In time the failure probability can also change,
e.g. a mobile particle moved to a harmless location, and for
the same estimated consequences the risk area can be shifted
from yellow one (point C) to the green one (point A).

a) b)
Figure 7. Risk diagram for PD defects in GIS.
(1)
(2)
(3)
IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Vol. 20, No. 6; December 2013 2171
Table 4. Utility actions for different risk level.
Risk area Action to be performed
Low Normal maintenance strategy is followed
Medium
Maintenance intervals are reduced, defect development
under observation
High
Immediate intervention of the human expert:
- inspection of the compartment with defect
- replacement of the relevant component (life
extended)
- replacement of the complete switchgear as it reaches
end of life
6 EXAMPLES OF RISK ASSESSMENT
BASED ON PD DIAGNOSTICS
6.1 VOID IN A SF
6
/AIR-BUSHING
During on-site testing of a 145 kV GIS, some PD signals
were detected at U= 220 kV by the UHF method with the PD
coupler close to a SF
6
/air-bushing. The adjacent PD coupler
located in the busbar registered no PD activity. The PRPD
pattern changed with time, but the characteristic features were
always the same (Figure 8) and similar to the known
laboratory PD pattern of epoxy-impregnated SF
6
/air-bushing
traced by switching operations (Figure 9).


Figure 8. PRPD pattern. Figure 9. PRPD pattern.
(U = 176 kV, f= 97 Hz) (f = 50 Hz, void)

It was suspected that transport damage was the reason of
the defect. The calculation of dielectric failure probability was
performed (Figure 10).

Figure 10. Calculation of dielectric failure probability
The dismantled bushing was subjected to a PD routine
test (according to IEC 60270) and the PD background level
of 1.5 pC was not exceeded up to the full test voltage, so
there had been no damage caused during transport. The
SF
6
/air-bushing was then refitted on-site and tested again.
The PD patterns were reproducible and thus correlated with
an apparent charge of less than 1.5 pC. Due to the low PD
level and the positive service experience with the related
type of SF
6
/air-bushing by the manufacturer and the utility,
there was no objection to put the SF
6
/air-bushing into
operation. There was no further objection for the last 14
years.

6.2 MOBILE PARTICLE IN A 275 KV BUSBAR
The acoustic signature in Figure 11 was recorded in 1997 at
a 275 kV busbar. The acoustic signal showed fluctuating
amplitudes and weak phase correlation that indicated a
bouncing particle. However, both the acoustic amplitudes and
the elevation/flight times were limited, thus the particle was
characterized as small and harmless. The particle is still
present in the GIS, and the busbar has been tested regularly to
observe if the particle is active/moving in service. The
calculation of the dielectric failure probability for the
described defect is presented in Figure 12.


Figure 11. Acoustic signature for a small, harmless particle in a 275 kV
busbar.

Figure 12. Calculation of dielectric failure probability
2172 U. Schichler et al.: Risk Assessment on Defects in GIS Based on PD Diagnostics
6.3 FLOATING ELEMENT CORONA SHIELD IN
DISCONNECTOR IN 400 KV GIS
The activity of PD signal was detected by UHF
measurements (Figure 13) and started to increase in
magnitude. A very large number of alarms were triggered by
the signal, in multiple phases at multiple locations throughout
the GIS, indicating that the signal amplitude was very large
and defect close to a circuit breaker in the yellow phase. The
signal indicated the presence of floating element and the
dielectric failure probability was calculated (Figure 14). The
section was switched out and the signal stopped. Site work
was performed on the corona shield in the disconnector and
the section brought back into service with no activity.


Figure.13 PD pattern acquired with UHF measurements.


Figure 14. Calculation of dielectric failure probability.
7 CONCLUSIONS
The report gives recommendations and guidelines for the
application of PD measurement techniques on site and in service.
The recommendations are mainly given to utility but also to third
party consulting companies and to GIS manufacturers. It is
underlined the necessity of high sensitivity of PD measurement
to detect and locate insulation defects, but the present limits of
interpretation of the results of the PD measurements, as related to
the criticality of the defects, is also noted.
Not all PD defects detected in service are critical and will lead
to failure in short time. The PD measurements have to be
repeated to observe the PD signal behaviour in time. The
remedial actions can be scheduled and perform together with the
regular maintenance activity. In many cases the actions cannot
be limited only to PD measurements but will request to adopt
the detailed risk assessment analysis.
The proposed risk assessment procedure based on PD
diagnostics combines technical and other parameters (e.g. social
and economical) and will support test engineers, engineers at
condition monitoring departments and asset managers.
REFERENCES
[1] CIGRE JWG 33/23.12: Insulation Co-ordination of GIS: Return of
Experience, On Site Tests and Diagnostic Techniques, Electra 176, 1998.
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