Draft, submitted to INSUCON 2006, '10th International Insulation Conference', Birmingham, UK, May 24-26, 2006

STRATEGIES TO LOCATE PARTIAL DISCHARGE IN LARGE POWER TRANSFORMERS

Detlev W. Gross and Markus Sller

Power Diagnostix Systems GmbH, Aachen, Germany

ABSTRACT
Internal partial discharge of large power transformers,
whether detected during acceptance testing, by dissolved gas analysis (DGA), or by field measurements,
often indicate incipient or ongoing degradation of the
insulation system.
The internal structure of large power transformers is
very complex. Opening a transformer for diagnostic
measurements is time consuming and very costly. Thus,
typically, diagnostic measurements are limited to the
accessible terminals and the tank wall. Time constraints
and cost considerations further reduce the applicable
techniques.
Strategies and their limitations to identify the location
of partial discharge using the analysis of shape and
phase position of partial discharge pattern under different excitation configurations are discussed. Using an
eight-channel partial discharge detector with parallel
acquisition on all channels minimizes the efforts to
compare the results derived from different taps. Further,
analyzing the electrical signals in frequency as well as
in time domain offers additional indications concerning
the location.
Finally, acoustic signals captured at the tank wall narrow down the area of partial discharge activity. Especially for low level discharge activity acquiring the
phase resolved pattern of the acoustically acquired signal as well as using averaging techniques in time do main simplifies finding the location within the transformer.
PARTIAL DISCHARGE IN LARGE POWER
TRANS FORMERS
The oil-paper insulation system used in large power
transformers does tolerate partial discharge activity to
some extend, other than polymeric insulation systems, such as Polyethylene, for instance. However,
despite some self-healing effects under partial discharge activity, ongoing partial discharge deteriorates
the insulation system and, thus, shall be avoided for
normal operation conditions.
Generally, large power transformers offer the highest
complexity if compared with other high voltage substation equipment. Especially, if equipped with tert iary windings and load tap changers (LTC), the high
internal complexity of the winding and the required
connections and cable assemblies must be considered.
Here, the differential electrical field between con-

ductors and coil layers can cause partial discharge at

a multitude of locations.
Moreover, the possibilities to automate the manufa cturing procedures of large power transformers are
very limited. Mostly, large transformers are built to
the order and often unique for one individual contract. Thus, producing the critical parts of the insulation system requires to a large extend manual labor
and is therefore closely linked to the qualification of
the individuals involved. Further, since the production of large power transformer is very time consuming, the time needed to have the staff trained and
well acquainted with all transformers produced
amounts to years rather than months.
Thus, despite the relative stability of the transformer
insulation systems against discharge activity, partial
discharge testing is excellently suited to ensure the
quality of the overall insulation.
Regrettably, from the testing point of view, transformers are built into closed and inaccessible tanks.
Thus, electrical partial discharge testing is limited to
the accessible bushing taps and some additional
points, such as core and frame connection, if available externally.
Usually, transformers are built on tight production
schedule. In most cases no partial discharge testing is
done prior to the final test witnessed by the customer.
Thus, reducing testing time is crucial.
In case the unit fails the acceptance test, quickly
identifying and location the cause of the partial discharge is mandatory in order to avoid losses on inte rests caused by not being able to ship and invoice the
transformer. Additionally, penalties may be charged
for not shipping in due time.
PARTIAL DISCHARGE ACCEPTANCE TEST
Recent revisions of the relevant standards, such as the
IEC C57.113 [1], have put even more emphasis on
partial discharge acceptance testing [8]. However,
although abandoned with recent revisions, the trad itional 'radio-influence-voltage' testing (RIV) will
surely persist for another decade with several utility
specifications.
Additionally, preferably, large power transformers
are now tested in the three phase induced voltage
mode [6]. Here, a motor generator set or increasingly
an electronic three phase supply with a step-up transformer provides the testing voltage to the low voltage
or tertiary winding of the transformer.

Thus, the partial discharge detector for acceptance

testing shall be able to record the activity on at least
six channels in parallel during the entire acceptance
test procedure.
Based on these requirements a partial discharge detector has been developed that offers true parallel
acquisition of partial discharge (pC) and RIV (V)
simultaneously on eight channels. Fig. 1 shows the
acquisition unit of this system, which was firstly in troduced in 2001 [3].

Fig. 2 Eight-channel parallel PD acquisition, S/W panel.

center display area either shows a strip-chart of the

recorded values or a table of the triggered values. The
strip-chart and the table with selected (triggered) va lues is then part of the test report generated.
Having all values recorded automatically in parallel
while using three phase induced voltage configuration dramatically reduces the testing time and related
efforts, if compared with single phase testing and
traditional recording of the readings.
PD ACCEPTANCE TEST FAILED EARLY
CONCLUSIONS
Fig. 1 Eight-channel parallel PD acquisition, instrument.

The instrument's input channels are connected to

measurement impedances (quadrupoles), which are
using the capacitance of the condenser bushing as
coupling capacitor. Alternatively, coupling capacitors
with built-in quadrupole can be used at bushings
having no measurement tap.
For calibrating the overall setup, a charge impulse
calibrator is connected to the high voltage electrode
of the first bushing. While this channel is being calibrated, the software additionally takes the readings of
the other channels monitoring the calibration signal
appearing there. Thus, having done this calibration
for all channels, as a side effect, the cross-coupling
matrix is being taken as well.
To calibrate the RIV measurement, a calibrated signal
source is connected to the high voltage electrode.
According to NEMA 107 and IEEE C57.12.90-1980,
the voltage drop caused by the transformer loading
the signal source is monitored using one channel (Ch.
8), while the resulting reading at the measurement tap
is then calibrated to the value found at the high voltage electrode. Thus, the correction factor is maintained by the software and the RIV meter shows the
corrected value.
During the acceptance test the readings of all eight
channels for partial discharge (pC), RIV (V), volt age (kV), and frequency (Hz) are refreshed in parallel
and shown on the acceptance test panel (Fig. 2). The

In case the agreed acceptance level of partial discharge activity is exceeded, the source, nature, and
location of the partial discharge activity must be
evaluated.
The very first measure to learn about the location is
to compare the ratio of the levels detected at the different taps against the ratio found during the calibration and as recorded with the cross-coupling matrix
[2]. If the ratio compares well with the calibration
ratio, the location of the partial discharge activity
will be close to this tap.
Simply comparing the magnitudes and ratio, while
considering the transformer's winding scheme, will
also give early indications in case of discharge between high voltage and low voltage windings, such as
found at or within barriers, for instance.
ANALYSIS IN PHASE DOMAIN
However, besides simply comparing levels and ratio,
the analysis of the amplitude-phase-height distrib ution or -q-n pattern provides additionally an unde rstanding of the interfaces being involved with the
partial discharge activity. Furthermore, analyzing this
-q-n pattern offers information concerning the geometry of the area that produces the partial discharge
activity. Extensive research on the interpretation of
such partial discharge pattern was made since the
required instruments firstly became commercially
available in the early 90ies [4].

Fig. 3 Discharge pattern of large spherical cavities (voids).

Fig. 5 Non-symmetrical field, point-plane-discharge.

As an example, Fig. 3 shows partial discharge activity of several gas inclusions in epoxy resin, as it can
happen in case air bubbles are trapped in epoxy glue.
Similar pattern can be observed in case vacuum is not
correctly pulled and the transformer is not suff iciently processed when filling the tank with oil.
In case a partial discharge pattern is symmetrically in
its phase distribution for the positive and the negative
half cycle, as with Fig. 3, the partial discharge source
is also symmetrically within the insulation system.
Here, the discharge process is independent of the po larity and, hence, the pattern reflects this polarity
independence.

that the interfaces contributing to the discharge show

different amounts of free electrons to be accelerated
in the electrical field. Within transformers, such nonsymmetrical pattern mostly indicate conductor-bound
discharge activities.
One specialty of the oil-paper insulation system is
that often the partial discharge pattern changes over
time. Given a discharge activity caused by a sharp
point or edge of a paper insulated conductor. Initially,
the -q-n pattern will show the typical properties of
the conductor-bound discharge. However, as the discharge activity continues and as this activity produces
gases, the partial discharge pattern changes. After a
while it is more and more dominated by the effects of
the produced gasses trapped within the paper layers.
Thus, the pattern will change increasingly into a
symmetrical pattern of the paper layer delamination.
Since moreover the diffusion of these gasses trapped
between paper layers takes time, the partial discharge
pattern will only return to the initial pattern after a
sufficiently long time of recovery.
Therefore, it is essential for the analysis of the partial
discharge pattern to acquire and store the pattern as
soon as it is detected. While in acceptance test mode,
the ICM sys8 detector allows background acquiring
and storing -q-n pattern detected on any of the eight
channels.
Typically, partial discharge pattern most strongly
reflect the properties of the discharging area closely
above the inception voltage. Here, the statistical
properties of the availability of free electrons have
the highest impact on the appearance of the discharge
activity.

Fig. 4 PD pattern of cavities at a semi-conductive interface.

With the pattern shown with Fig 4, the situation is

different. Here, the pattern of the positive half cycle
shows the same statistical distribution caused by the
low availability of the initial electron to provide the
start electron of the discharge (electron) avalanche.
However, the pattern in the negative half cycle shows
a different behavior with lower amplitude and higher
frequency of occurrence (count rate). The cause for
this higher availability of starting electrons is that the
gas inclusions (voids) are attached to a semiconductive layer. Thus, here the starting electron
becomes available whenever the critical field is
reached.
Generally, non-symmetrical partial discharge pattern
indicate either a strongly non-symmetrical electrical
field, as with point plane configurations (Fig. 5), or

CHANGING THE EXCITATION MODE

The standard connection for partial discharge acceptance testing is the three phase induced voltage con figuration. However, in case of internal discharge,
this may also occur between phases. Especially, if the
discharge activity shows up with an unusual phase
position, it is advisable to change to a single phase
excitation on the phase showing the highest partial
discharge magnitude and the most 'reasonable' phase
position.

Figure 6 Three-phase excitation: phase-shifted PD pattern.

In case the phase position as well as the inception

voltage is identical for both configurations, the discharge activity is a phase-to-ground activity.
If the pattern show differences in phase and inception
voltage, the discharging area is located between two
different phases.

Figure 8 Single-phase excitation of a transformer (YNd).

high voltage bushings are grounded and, thus, lifting

the neutral to 1/3 UN (Fig. 8). This configuration
gives further information especially concerning the
location along the (high voltage) winding. If the
phase-to-ground inception voltage at the bushing is
similar to the standard single phase (and three phase)
excitation, the discharge activity is at or close to the
bushing. Depending on the transformer's configuration and ratio, the location can be estimated by the
changed inception voltage.
Finally, applied voltage testing helps to identify discharge locations at barriers of the low voltage win d ing, for instance.
ANALYSIS IN TIME DOMAIN

Figure 7 Single-phase excitation: correct phase position

Fig. 6 shows a partial discharge activity captured in

three phase excitation mode, whereas the pattern
shown with Fig. 7 was acquired under single phase
excitation.. Shifting one pattern to be inline with the
other determines the phase shift. Based on this phase
shift and considering the transformer winding scheme
as well as the ratio between the different windings,
the phase position of the phase-to-phase internal
electrical field is calculated. It is then very likely that
the discharge is under a differential field that corresponds with the phase shift. With Fig. 6 the red sine
wave fits the conditions found. In that case it was a
discharge activity between high voltage phase C and
tertiary phase B.
This principle works well for almost all typical grid
transformers. Only with generator transformers hav ing a much higher ratio, the influence of the high
voltage becomes increasingly dominant and, hence,
hides the influence of the phase-to-phase configuration on the phase shift.
The second excitation mode for single phase induced
voltage testing is with elevated neutral. Here, two

Partial discharge signals traveling large power transformer face reflection and attenuation. Further, since
a power transformer is a large object if comparing the
available signal bandwidth and the signal speed, the
influence of the travel time can observed and used for
analysis.
Signals being generated close to the bushing tap produce an impulse with a short rise time and not much
ringing. Likewise, pulses travel a cleat-bar cable
having no impedance change along the way to the tap
will show such clear behavior. Using a digital oscilloscope connected to selected taps, as identified during phase-resolved testing, allows analyzing this
effect.

Figure 9 Discharge activity viewed in time domain.

Fig. 9 shows a partial discharge signal taken at two

different bushing taps. The upper trace shows a signal
found at the bushing of the tertiary winding. The sig nal is clear with not much ringing. The lower trace
shows initially a sharp impulse followed by a delayed
signal with oscillations. This together indicates that
the first impulse with the lower trace is radiated (and
received), while the delayed response travels the
winding. Thus, the discharge site is facing the high
voltage lead of the lower trace and it is closely lo cated to this tap. In contrast, the signal of the upper
trace has to travel a further distance, but the signal
properties indicate that the discharge activity is very
likely bound to this conductor.
ANALYSIS IN FREQUENCY DOMAIN
Having the phase relation, signals viewed in frequency domain translate into time domain and vice
versa. Using a spectrum analyzer connected to a
bushing tap offers analyzing the partial discharge
signal in frequency domain.
At its origin, the electron avalanche under nitrogen
atmosphere has a rise time of approximately 1ns.
Thus, the signal bandwidth at its origin is about
400MHz. While traveling the transformer the higher
frequency a predominantly attenuated. Thus, the loss
of high frequency content is a measure of the depth
of the location within the winding.
Hence, some simple rules apply. In case the partial
discharge signal has an even amplitude spectrum up
to 10 or 20MHz, it is very likely closely located to
the bushing tap or within the bushing. If the signal
has to travel larger portions of a transformer winding,
the higher frequencies are increasingly attenuated.

Figure 10 Discharge activity in frequency domain.

Fig. 10 is showing such example of a predominant

low frequency content. Likewise, if the low frequencies are missing, but the high frequency content is
evenly distributed, the location is close to this bushing tap, but radiated and not conducted, since the
efficiency of this 'wireless' transmission increases
with the frequency.
Moreover, interpretation strategies as known from the
frequency response analysis (FRA) can be applied,
since the partial discharge at its origin offers a constant amplitude spectra.

Fig. 11 Frequency response of PD vs. injected charge

Thus, scanning sufficiently slowly the frequency

range will unveil the properties of the path the signal
has traveled to coupling point used.
However, since a reasonable bandwidth is needed to
correctly process the partial discharge pulses, the
detected frequency response differs from the FRA
results. Thus, poles and resonance points are less
dominant and appear smoothened, as the signal energy above and below the pole contributes as well.
Based on this effect, measurements can be taken to
compare the frequency response of the partial discharge versus the response of an impulse calibration
signal injected at the assumed position of the partial
discharge, once the oil has been drained and some
areas become accessible. However, by removing the,
the capacitive components of the entire network do
change, while causing a shift into higher frequencies.
Fig. 11 shows an example of such comparison. The
upper red trace shows the acquired frequency response of an internal partial discharge source, while
the lower blue trace concerns the signal detected
when injecting charge impulses using a calibrator and
some aluminum foil wrapped around an internal conductor at the assumed location. Considering the fr equency shift caused by the change of the dielectric
constant (r ), when draining the oil, both traces offer
a good match up to 4MHz. The black trace with Fig.
11 shows the noise floor.
The upper graph shows the phase-resolved PD signal
as it was acquired at 1.7MHz (blue cursor line of the
lower graph) using a spectrum analyzer (R&S, type
FSL) controlled by the ICM spec software.
ACOUSTIC DETECTION
Besides showing an electrical signal, partial discharge
activity is also producing an acoustic signal. However,
the acoustic signal undergoes a much stronger attenuation with a transformer than the corresponding electrical
signal. Thus, the number and the location of the acoustic
sensors used to capture the signals is critical.

Triangulation
For locating acoustic impulse signals in a confined
space the so-called triangulation is a common pra ctice. The basic principle is to have for instance three
sensors mounted on three neighboring faces of a cubical tank. Based on the different arrival of the signals the location is determined.
However, in order to function smoothly, this princ iple requires two main conditions being met:
1.

2.

The object is consisting of solid material or the

liquid filled tank must be internally homogeneous.
In case of a liquid filled tank the wall shall be a
comparably thin membrane.

Regrettably, both conditions are not met with realworld large power transformers [7]. Internally, surely
not being homogeneous, the structures of a power
transformer offer strongly varying attenuation and
travel speed. Likewise, instead of being membranes,
the tank walls are made of thick steel allowing the
acoustic emission to travel along the wall and thus
producing misleading results concerning the direction
and location of the source. Further, the tank walls are
often reinforced in their structure, which produces
additional reflections.

Fig. 12 Piezo-electric sensors on a transformer tank.

Fig. 12 shows three acoustic sensors positioned on a

transformer tank wall. Here, the welded fins to rein force the tank wall cause the signal to bounce back
and forth. With this setup, the lower sensor (A) is
used for excitation with a charge impulse calibrator,
while sensors B and C act as receiver. The acoustic
signal detected with the right sensor (B) shows the
effect of the reflected signal at the fins (Fig. 13, upper trace), while the upper sensor (C) gives a clear
signal directly received (Fig. 13, lower trace).
Differently, however, is the situation in case of impulse testing. Here, the acoustic signal amplitude to
be detected is much higher and, thus, the influence of
the attenuation not that critical, while the dynamic
range is more demanding. Generally, finding an effective positioning for the sensors is essential for a

Fig. 13 Acoustic signals traveling different ways.

successful location. With impulse testing, emphasis is

put on finding sensor positions having an (internally)
unobstructed view on larger parts of the critical areas
of the winding. However, usually, a larger number of
sensors must be used to achieve a good coverage.
Generally, mostly because of the strong attenuation,
it is very time consuming and comparably ineffective
searching an entire transformer using acoustic sensors.
Comparing Electrical and Acoustic Signals
In case of testing under AC excitation, the comparison between electrical and acoustic signals offers a
more effective approach than the triangulation.
Having the potential location of the partial discharge
activity reasonably narrowed down using the procedures and techniques for the electrical partial discharge detection as discussed earlier, placing only
few acoustic sensors in the 'right' position is by far
less time consuming.
In principle two techniques can be used to compare
the electrically and the acoustically captured signals.
Firstly, using a special pre-amplifier (RPA1D) allows
connecting an acoustic sensor to the eight-channel
partial discharge detector (ICM sys8) and, hence,
acquire a -q-n pattern of the acoustically acquired
signal. Besides boosting the acoustic sensor's output,
the pre-amplifier RPA1D provides also the supply
power for the sensor (15V/28V), which greatly simplifies the application as well as strongly improves
the electro magnetic immunity.
Since the speed of the acoustic signal in transformer
oil is about 1370 ms -1, already relatively short distances cause a clear phase shift of the partial discharge pattern. The upper graph of Fig. 14 shows the
-q-n pattern acquired electrically at a bushing tap,
while the lower graph shows the corresponding pattern detected with the acoustic sensors. The test
power frequency is 250Hz, thus, the observed phase
shift translates into 0.65ms and, hence, a distance
between sensor and source of about 100cm.
Secondly, especially, in case the discharge activity
has a smaller magnitude, using a small digital oscillo-

~0.65ms

Both methods apply well to finding partial discharge

activity that is limited to a confined area. If the area
showing the discharge activity is more distributed
for instance in case of larger delaminations in barriers
the averaging has an unwanted side effect. Here,
the discharge sound signal arriving from different
locations cancel each other and the resulting ave raged signal does not show any activity at all.
Thus, as a general precaution both methods shall be
applied in parallel to avoid such unwanted cancellation.
Practical experience show that this method with na rrowing down the potential location with the electrical
partial discharge detection and a subsequent optimization with repositioning the sensor is by far superior
to a multi-sensor triangulation approach.
ON-SITE TESTING

Fig. 14 Phase shift between electrical and acoustic pattern.

scope with averaging function increases additionally

the sensitivity. Practically, the oscilloscope's channels are T-connected to the signal cables coming
from the pre-amplifiers serving the acoustic sensors
and the pre-amplifier that is connected to the quadrupole, respectively. Fig. 15 shows a screenshot of
the oscilloscope. The upper trace shows the electrical
signal that provides the trigger - this makes sure that
purely mechanically induced sound is not considered.
The two lower traces show then the correlated acoustical signal captured with two acoustic sensors. Here,
the signal arrives using different routes. Generally,
signals traveling the steel tank have the highest speed
(up to 6000ms -1) and, thus, arriving the earliest, if the
sensor is not facing the area that produces the partial
discharge.

Partial discharge field measurements of large power

transformer are not that strongly hampered by exte rnal interference, if compared with other substation
equipment. If disconnected from the grid, the tank
provides acceptable shielding, while, however, the
bushings act as antennas, which are picking up exte rnal noise signals.
Providing the independent three phase power supply
for on-site induced voltage testing is the most demanding part with such field tests. In the past, this
required modified or specially designed diesel po wered generators supplying induced voltage via a stepup transformer [5]. More recently, mobile three-phase
electronic power sources became available to provide
the supply at the required elevated power frequencies
(150-300Hz). Of course, filtering of the supply volt age is needed to avoid the switching impulses of the
electronic supply or of the generator's excitation to
ha mper the partial discharge measurements.
Thus, the entire range of testing procedures as described for test room environments applies nowadays
to on-site testing in the substation as well. Generally,
the costs of decommissioning and transporting the
transformer back to the manufacturer or to a suitable
test room must be weighted against the ambiguities of
bringing test equipment on site and, in case, to envisage an on-site repair and the related problems.
If carefully prepared, even on-site acceptance testing
becomes possible to validate the quality of on-site
repair, in case.
CONTINUOUS ON-LINE MONITORING

Fig. 15 Correlating electrical and acoustical PD signals.

Generally, the oil-paper insulation of a power transformer is a 'forgiving' insulation system, i.e. it can
tolerate partial discharge for a while. Partial discharge activity, on the other hand is an indicator for
on-going degradation of the overall insulation system. Thus, partial discharge monitoring is one option
to choose of, if it come to transformer monitoring.
Typically, bushing coupler units suited for permanent
installation are mounted to the test tap of the con-

denser bushings. For practical reasons, the test tap is

firstly equipped with a bushing adapter to physically
connect to the bushing tap and to provide the required
over-voltage protection, which keeps the bushing in a
safe operation mode. The N-connector output of the
bushing adapter is then connected to the bushing
coupler unit, which provides the high-frequency sig nals superimposed with the AC signal derived from a
divider capacitor and as well on a second connector
the mere AC signal for plain bushing monitoring
(tan delta, voltage).
Even if partial discharge monitoring is not planned in
the first place, installing these bushing couplers offers convenient partial discharge measurements wit hout the need taking the transformer out of service for
attempting a periodic check.
The dissolved-gas-analysis (DGA) is limited to the
components that communicate with the main oil reservoir. Thus, discharge activity within the bushing
are not covered by DGA, since bushing have a separated oil reservoir. On-line DGA, on the other hand,
if covering multiple gasses offer also additional in formation covering oil and paper aging, for instance.
Thus, on-line partial discharge monitoring is a good
complement to on-line DGA both in terms of cove rage and validation.
The continuous partial discharge monitoring can be
either installed as an independent monitoring system
or as a sub-module to a supervising monitoring system using several of such sub-modules including dissolved-gas-analysis (DGA), for example. Here, the
instrument is provided with software interfaces allowing the integration into the supervising monito ring system without the need of dealing in-depth with
instrument related issues.
In case of independent partial discharge monitoring,
the monitoring instrument ( ICM monitor) can further
integrate and monitor additional parameters (power,
temperatures, etc.), if available as 4-20mA signals.
The instruments offer a multitude of communication
possibilities. Besides using traditional analog modems, the units allow communicating via fiber optic
TCP/IP, WLAN, as well as traditional 10baseT.
Typically, a local computer in the substation acts as
server to talk to the instruments and to locally store
the trending data and alarm history. Fig. 16 shows the
structure of such local substation configuration.
Transformers
Couplers
ICMmonitor
TCP/IP Intranet
Local PC:
ICMmon S/W

Site 1

SUMMARY
Large power transformers are having a complex internal
life that is mostly hidden by the tank. Thus, analyzing
and locating internal partial discharge activity is a demanding task. Combining traditional methods with
modern measurement technique offers collecting the
results and information needed to support the required
decisions. However, in-depth knowledge of the internal
life of a transformer as well as of the high frequency
properties and the acoustic behavior of the components
is essential for the adequate interpretation of the results
Using modern signal processing techniques has
greatly improved traditional testing methods for accessing the health of large power transformers.

References
[1] IEEE C57.113-1991 "IEEE Recommended Practice for Partial Discharge Measurement in LiquidFilled Power Transformers and Shunt Reactors".
[2] Gross, D., Soeller, M. "Partial Discharge Diagnosis on large Power Transformers," ISEI 2004
Conference, Indianapolis, IN, September 19-22,
2004, 04CH37561C, pp. 186-191.
[3] Gross, D., Soeller, M., "Partial Discharge Acceptance Testing and Monitoring on Power
Transformers," ETG Fachtagung, Diagnostik el.
Betriebsmittel, Berlin, Germany, February 26-27,
2002, ISBN 3-8007-2671-8, pp. 213-216.
[4] Fruth, B., Gross, D. "Phase Resolving Partial
Discharge Pattern Acquisition and Spectrum
Analysis", Proc. of the ICPDAM, July 1994, Brisbane NSW, Australia, 94CH3311-8, pp. 578-581.
[5] Brunlich, R., Hssig, M., Fuhr, J., and Aschwanden, T. "Assessment of Insulation Condition of
Large Power Transformers by On-Site Electrical
Diagnostic Methods", ISEI International Symposium on Electrical Insulation, Anaheim, CA,
U.S.A., April 2-5, 2000.
[6] Carlson, ., Fuhr, J., Schemel, G., and Wegscheider, F. Testing Power Transformers. ABB
Business Area Power Transformers, 2003, ISBN
3-00-010400-3.
[7] Bengtsson, T, Kols, H., Jnsson, B., "Transformer
PD Diagnosis using Acoustic Emission Technique," Conf. Proc. of ISH, August 25-29, 1997,
Montral, Canada, Vol 4, pp. 115-119.
[8] IEC60270, High-voltage test techniques - Partial
discharge measurements, CEI/IEC 60270:2000.

Site 2

TCP/IP Intranet
Monitoring Center
ICMpilot S/W

Similar techniques, however, using other frequency

bands and sensors, are used to monitor other substation equipment, such as gas-insulated switchgear, for
instance.

Redundant Storage
FTP File Sharing

Fig. 16 Monitoring configuration for multiple substations.

Contact information:
Power Diagnostix Systems GmbH
Brsseler Ring 95a, 52074 Aachen
Tel.: +49 241 74927, Fax: +49 241 79521
Web Site: www.pdix.com