There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality.

Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

I and i

The term partial discharge (PD) refers to a partial bridging of insulating material between electrodes that sustain an electric field in high-voltage (HV) systems. Long-term PD activity can lead to catastrophic failures of HV systems resulting in economic, energy and even human life losses. Such failures and losses can be avoided by continuously monitoring PD activity. Existing techniques used for PD localization including time of arrival (TOA) and time difference of arrival (TDOA), are complicated and expensive because they require time synchronization. In this paper, a novel received signal strength (RSS) based localization algorithm is proposed. The reason that RSS is favoured in this research is that it does not require clock synchronization and it only requires the energy of the received signal rather than the PD pulse itself. A comparison was made between RSS based algorithms including a proposed algorithm, the ratio and search and the least squares algorithm to locate a PD source for nine different positions. The performance of the algorithms was evaluated by using two field scenarios based on seven and eight receiving nodes, respectively. The mean localization error calculated for two-field-trial scenarios show, respectively, 1.80 m and 1.76 m for the proposed algorithm for all nine positions, which is the lowest of the three algorithms.

/pdf/an-efficient-algorithm-for-partial-discharge-localization-in-4afi500nkf.pdf

An Efficient Algorithm for Partial Discharge Localization in High-Voltage Systems Using Received Signal Strength

The present study addresses the calibration of four types of partial discharge (PD) emulators used in the development of a PD Wireless Sensor Network (WSN). Three PD emulators have been constructed: a floating-electrode emulator, and two internal PD emulators. Both DC and AC high-voltage power supplies are used to initiate PD, which is measured using concurrent free-space radiometry (FSR) and a galvanic contact method based on the IEC 60270 standard. The emulators have been measured and simulated, and a good agreement has been found for the radiated fields. A new method of estimating the absolute PD activity level from radiometric measurements is proposed.

/pdf/calibration-of-free-space-radiometric-partial-discharge-2r82fkkpo5.pdf

Calibration of free-space radiometric partial discharge measurements

Monitoring of partial discharge (PD) activity within high-voltage electrical environments is increasingly used for the assessment of insulation condition. Traditional measurement techniques employ technologies that either require off-line installation or have high power consumption and are hence costly. A wireless sensor network is proposed that utilizes only received signal strength to locate areas of PD activity within a high-voltage electricity substation. The network comprises low-power and low-cost radiometric sensor nodes which receive the radiation propagated from a source of PD. Results are reported from several empirical tests performed within a large indoor environment and a substation environment using a network of nine sensor nodes. A portable PD source emulator was placed at multiple locations within the network. Signal strength measured by the nodes is reported via WirelessHART to a data collection hub where it is processed using a location algorithm. The results obtained place the measured location within 2 m of the actual source location.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/2017RS006507

Wireless Sensor Network for Radiometric Detection and Assessment of Partial Discharge in High‐Voltage Equipment

Effective Partial Discharge (PD) localization can detect the insulation problems of the power equipment in a substation and improve the reliability of power systems. Typical Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) PD localization methods are mainly based on time difference information, which need a high sampling rate system. This paper proposes a novel PD localization method based on a received signal strength indicator (RSSI) fingerprint to quickly locate the power equipment with potential insulation defects. The proposed method consists of two stages. In the offline stage, the RSSI fingerprint data of the detection area is measured by a wireless UHF sensor array and processed by a clustering algorithm to reduce the PD interference and abnormal RSSI values. In the online stage, when PD happens, the RSSI fingerprint of PD is measured via the input of pattern recognition for PD localization. To achieve an accurate localization, the pattern recognition process is divided into two steps: a preliminary localization is implemented by cluster recognition to reduce the localization region, and the compressed sensing algorithm is used for accurate PD localization. A field test in a substation indicates that the mean localization error of the proposed method is 1.25 m, and 89.6% localization errors are less than 3 m.

A Novel Partial Discharge Localization Method in Substation Based on a Wireless UHF Sensor Array

A wireless sensor network (WSN) with the potential to monitor and locate partial discharge (PD) in high-voltage electricity substations using only received signal strength (RSS) is proposed. The advantages of an RSS-based operating principle over more traditional methods (e.g., time-of-arrival and time-difference-of-arrival) are described. Laboratory measurements of PD that emulate the operation of a PD WSN are presented. The hardware architecture of a prototype PD WSN is described and the particular challenges of an RSS-based location approach in an environment with an unknown, and spatially varying, path-loss index are discussed. It is concluded that an RSS-based PD WSN is a plausible solution for the monitoring of insulation integrity in electricity substations.

Alexandre Mopty

Papers

Radiometric wireless sensor network monitoring of partial discharge sources in electrical substations