IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 15, NO.
2, APRIL 2000
Model-Aided DiagnosisA New Method
for Online Condition Assessment of High
Voltage Circuit Breakers
Michael Stanek and Klaus Frhlich, Senior Member, IEEE
AbstractIn recent years, online condition assessment of high
voltage equipment is increasingly asked for by power utilities.
However, most systems on the market today are merely monitoring
solutions with hardly any diagnostic capabilities. This report
reviews the basic principles for condition diagnosis from the field
of artificial intelligence and introduces a novel strategy, named
Model-Aided Diagnosis (MAiD). It was initially developed for
condition assessment of high voltage circuit breakers but is also
suitable for other technical devices. Theoretical considerations
as well as practical results show that MAiD is a useful strategy
for condition assessment. In addition, with its low hardware
requirements it allows online condition diagnosis of high voltage
circuit breakers locally by a low-cost monitoring device.
Index TermsFault diagnosis, circuit breakers, modeling.
I. INTRODUCTION
URING the last decade, power utilities have displayed in-
D creasing interest in ways to extend the life-cycle time of
their high voltage equipment. The most discussed approach is
condition monitoring and diagnosis in order to find developing
faults of the equipment at an early stage, or at least to identify
the nature of a suddenly occurred problem from measured data.
The findings of the second international enquiry on the reli-
ability of high voltage circuit breakers [1] by CIGRE working
group 13.06 indicate that almost half the major and minor faults
occurring are located in the operating mechanism. Hence, the
greatest emphasis on condition monitoring and diagnosis should
be placed on this component. This recommendation was also
followed in the present work.
During recent years, several devices for condition assessment
of high voltage circuit breakers have been introduced (see e.g.
[2]) by circuit breaker manufacturers and also by independent
companies. However, close examination of these devices reveals
that these are plain monitoring solutions i.e. they record sensor
data and perform boundary checks and similar operations on
them. In most cases, the operator is left to drawing his own con-
clusions on the cause and nature of the fault, based upon the
numbers presented by the monitoring device.
In the field of artificial intelligence (AI), much effort has been
devoted to condition diagnosis [3], which may also be applied to
high voltage circuit breakers. Its purpose is to assist substation
Manuscript received January 26, 1999. This work was supported by ABB
High Voltage Technologies Ltd., Switzerland, and ABB Power T&D Company
Inc., Greensburg PA.
The authors are with the High Voltage Laboratory, Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland.
Publisher Item Identifier S 0885-8977(00)03476-2.
08858977/00$10.00 2000 IEEE
585
personnel in identifying a problem by analyzing the monitored
data in much the same way a human expert would. This can
help to reduce outage times of equipment or even prevent major
failures by pre-warning of developing problems before they be-
come serious.
This report presents a novel method for condition diagnosis of
high voltage circuit breakers. It was developed with the prospect
of implementation on a computer with low computational power
in mind. Therefore, it can easily be incorporated into a dedicated
local monitoring device or into an intelligent substation control
system.
II. REVIEW OF PRINCIPLES FOR CONDITION DIAGNOSIS
As defined in [4], diagnosis is the process of determining
the nature of a fault or malfunction, based on a set of symp-
toms. Input data (the symptoms) are interpreted and the under-
lying cause of these symptoms is the output. In practical ap-
plication on a high voltage circuit breaker it is to identify the
faulted component(s) and the kind of fault in the breaker from
the data provided by its sensors.Note that in this context the
word sensor is used in a broad sense to include such elements
as voltage or current transformers and limit switches.
Three basic strategies for assessing the condition of a system
under observation are known, namely
rule-based diagnosis,
model-based diagnosis,
case-based diagnosis.
Since they are the basis for the decision to develop a new
approach they will be introduced briefly with their respective
strengths and shortcomings. For details the interested reader is
referred to literature on expert systems [4] and artificial intelli-
gence [3].
A. Rule-Based Diagnosis
Rule-based diagnosis is based on a set of heuristic relation-
ships between symptoms and causes which form the knowledge
base for the diagnostic process. These relationships are called
rules. In condition assessment, a diagnosis is found when all
rules pertaining to it are fulfilled.
Strengths: The knowledge base can be entered fairly
straightforward by a human expert to reflect his or her ex-
perience. It is very efficient in terms of required computer
performance and computation time. Small changes to the
knowledge base can be implemented fairly easily.
586
Shortcomings: Rules are mostly heuristic in nature
(shallow knowledge) and lack a deeper understanding of the
principles governing the operation of the system. A human
expert needs to design the rules, which is a tedious process and
carries the possibility of introducing errors into the knowledge
base. It is almost impossible to handle missing or unexpected
data as well as unforeseen problems. The method is not flexible
in creating a knowledge base for a new or enhanced system
(different type of circuit breaker) from an existing one. In many
cases, diagnosing faulty sensors requires a large additional
number of rules, increasing the complexity of the knowledge
base.
B. Model-Based Diagnosis
Model-based diagnosis uses a computer model which con-
tains the structure as well as the parameters of the device, im-
plicitly comprising the physical principles which govern its op-
eration and possible malfunctions. The diagnostic engine runs
the model base and automatically finds all diagnoses that can
explain or at least are consistent with the observed anomaly.
Strengths: The model contains deep knowledge i.e. it is
based on the laws of physics governing the operation of the de-
vice. Simulation permits access to hidden quantities (not ac-
cessible for direct measurement). The model base can be modi-
fied for use on a different device fairly easily. No previous field
experience is necessary, making this a suitable technique for
novel devices. Previously unforeseen or multiple faults can be
detected provided they can be explained through the model. A
faulty sensor can be detected as easily as a fault in the system
itself.
Shortcomings: The initial effort for creating and adjusting
the model is substantial. Computing the diagnosis requires
high computer power. Structural changes in the device (e.g. a
bridge fault between two adjacent wires) are almost impossible
to identify.
C. Case-Based Diagnosis
Case-based diagnosis uses an explicit database of past prob-
lems with their symptoms in order to find a solution for a new
problem situation. As opposed to the rule-based and model-
based approaches, the knowledge base for case-based diagnosis
does not need to be assembled explicitly by a human expert,
rather it is generated automatically by analyzing actual cases
from the past and generalizing them for future use. A diagnosis
is found by retrieving the best matching case from the knowl-
edge base, modifying it if necessary, and applying it to the new
problem situation. The result can be stored as a new case for fu-
ture use.
Strengths: The knowledge base is generated automatically,
reducing the overhead and error probability of implementation.
The system learns with every incident. The knowledge base
is always consistent and correct. A faulty sensor can be detected
as easily as a fault in the system itself.
Shortcomings: Since a history of fault cases is required to fill
the knowledge base, this approach is hardly suitable for novel
systems. Cases contain no deep knowledge. The initial effort
for designing the system (storing, retrieving, and matching of
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 15, NO. 2, APRIL 2000
cases) is still substantial, so far no universally applicable auto-
mated methods have been proposed.
D. Application to High Voltage Circuit BreakersTodays
Situation
Following the evaluation of the three basic diagnosis strate-
gies listed above it was determined that the model-based ap-
proach is the best suitable one for condition diagnosis of high
voltage circuit breakers. However, a market study revealed that
the presently available software packages for model-based di-
agnosis are not suitable for this purpose, for several reasons:
System requirements: The model-based systems under con-
sideration require a UNIX workstation to run, one for each cir-
cuit breaker.
Price: In addition to the necessary computer platform the
model-based diagnosis software must be purchased, one license
for each installation, which is often more than a thousand US$
for a single run-time version.
Data Transmission: For a centralized workstation-based
monitoring system as described above, all the sensor data
need to be transmitted to the substation computer for evalu-
ation. However, substations are not generally furnished with
high-speed data links between switchgear and the station house,
the standard is very often still conventional wiring. Hence, it
would be more useful to perform the monitoring and diagnosis
task locally at the breaker, by a specialized device, and only
report problems to the substation personnel. The previous
arguments make it clear, though, that this is not a feasible
solution with the systems available on the market today.
Therefore, the remaining options were either to use a strategy
different from the model-based one or to find a new approach to
using it. The latter way was chosen and the result is described
in the next section.
III. MODEL-AIDED DIAGNOSIS AS A NEW METHOD FOR
CONDITION ASSESSMENT
The approach for diagnosis introduced in this report is a
novel combination of the case-based and model-based diag-
nosis strategies, in order to retain certain important advantages
of both. This is achieved by evaluating the model off-line line
to simulate the anticipated fault modes of the circuit breaker. A
search module, which can be rather simple, uses the resulting
fault cases to find the most likely diagnosis. This approach is
called Model-Aided Diagnosis (MAiD); it is described in detail
below.
A. Basic Concept
Model-aided diagnosis is based on a functional computer
model of the system under observation. This model can
accurately simulate the systems behavior under normal and
fault conditions. When it is fed with the internal and external
operating conditions it will yield the same data that would be
measured by the sensors under these conditions.
From the sensor data, meaningful quantities for assessing
the condition of the system are extracted. These are called
features. The set of all features at a given time is called system
status. In addition, the confidence of the diagnosis can be
STANEK AND FRHLICH: MODEL-AIDED DIAGNOSIS
Fig. 1. Algorithm for Model-Aided Diagnosis.
increased by compensating for dependencies of the features on
environmental influences such as temperature prior to further
processing.
The basic strategy for MAiD is two-fold. First the computer
model is used to simulate all possible faults; the results are
stored in a database. This database is used on-line for finding
the most likely diagnosis when a deviation from normal opera-
tion has been detected. Fig. 1 gives the algorithm of MAiD in
form of a structogram. For details the interested reader is re-
ferred to [5], where each step is covered in depth.
B. Discussion
MAiD is a powerful combination of the model-based and
case-based approaches to condition diagnosis. Originally devel-
oped for diagnosing high voltage circuit breakers, it can be used
for condition assessment of most kinds of technical equipment,
as long as a model of the device exists, with moderate expendi-
ture.
Part I (Preparation) of MAiD is essentially the model-based
part. The computer model is used to conduct experiments by
simulating various operating conditions. The results are used to
build a knowledge base for the case-based second part (Diag-
nosis), where the best matching case is looked up to produce a
diagnosis for the current condition.
Strengths: Much like true model-based diagnosis, MAiD
permits access to quantities that are not or cannot be measured
in the system, helping to really pinpoint the location and kind
of the problem.
587
MAiD can be used for novel types of equipment (HVCBs)
even before any operational experience has been gained since
all conceivable faults can be simulated beforehand. Thus, a pow-
erful system for condition monitoring and diagnosis can be sup-
plied with the device from its first installation.
Since the actual diagnosis (Part 2 of the algorithm) requires
no more than finding the best matching case in a pre-defined
database, it can be executed on a low-performance computer
or monitoring device. Or, for even lower computing demands
on the peripheral hardware, only the feature extraction can be
performed locally and the actual diagnosis is performed by a
central diagnosis computer which holds the databases of several
pieces of equipment.
Adaptation to similar types of equipment can be performed
fairly easily by modifying the model operating parameters to
suit the new application. After that, all that needs to be done is
generating a new database and installing it onto the diagnostic
computer. Since the database is generated automatically, the in-
formation contained therein is always consistent and complete.
If a fault not originally considered is encountered later it can
easily be added to the database if desired and if the diagnosis
software permits this option. In order to maintain consistency
with other installations, though, the recommended procedure is
to incorporate this fault into the fault list, generate a new data-
base, and install it on the diagnosis system.
Shortcomings: MAiD works best for analysis of transient
events; for continuous supervision, it is necessary to define
events for conducting the diagnosis, either periodically or from
certain changes in system operation. This is due to the fact that
simulation of the operating condition needs to be conducted be-
forehand, and the simulation can only run for a finite duration.
However, careful pre- and post-processing of the sensor and
simulation data as well as selection of the features for diagnosis
can to a large extent mitigate this limitation.
If the occurrence of more than one fault at the same time shall
be taken into account the database can grow very large quickly,
increasing the storage requirements on the diagnostic system.
In calculating the necessary memory size it must be considered
that the number of simulated cases N is
N = E 1 S; (1)
E ... number of elements in the list from Part I Step 1,
S ... number of operating states e.g. closing or opening the
breaker, CB on-line or not, etc.
IV. APPLICATION TO HIGH VOLTAGE CIRCUIT BREAKERS
As mentioned before, the initial application for model-aided
diagnosis is on high voltage circuit breakers. A live tank breaker
with spring-hydraulic mechanism was selected for a first test
implementation, for two reasons: First, it is a well-established
product with thousands of installations worldwide. Second, one
single-phase exemplar of this breaker type, was available to the
author for functional analysis and measurements.
A. Computer Model
The circuit breaker employed is an SF6 -insulated self-blast
high voltage ac circuit breaker with two interrupters on one
588 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 15, NO. 2, APRIL 2000

Fig. 2. Simulink model of high voltage circuit breaker. PT = Potential Transformer, CT = Current Transformer, R = resistance. Other abbreviations on port names
refer to the origin or destination block of the signal, e.g. TC = Trip Coil.

column, in T shape, per phase. It is operated by an hydraulic TABLE I

DIAGNOSTIC FEATURES FOR TEST IMPLEMENTATION
mechanical drive where the mechanical energy for the opera-
tions is provided by a plate spring assembly. Energization of a
control coil actuates a change-over valve which in turn applies
or removes the system pressure to/from the main piston head,
causing it to move from OPEN to CLOSED position or vice
versa. The oil volume lost from the high pressure storage is re-
placed by a hydraulic pump, which is controlled by the position
of the spring column via a limit switch.
These functions were implemented in Simulink (a tool for
dynamic system simulation for MATLAB) to form the circuit
breaker model. All components were modeled individually and
finally assembled into the complete system. Sinceaccording
to the CIGRE study [1]the drive mechanism is the most fault-
prone part of an HVCB, the highest effort went into modeling
this component with all its relevant elements.
The complete model is shown in Fig. 2. No detailed descrip-
tion can be given here, rather its purpose is to give the reader an
impression of the complexity involved.
This model can simulate the function of the circuit breaker
and each component, which is the important part for diagnosis,
rather than the physical structure. It is called and evaluated by
means of several MATLAB functions.

B. Test Implementation
For simulating various faults and operating conditions in the
circuit breaker, a number of parameters can be changed in the
computer model. When changed from their default values, in
most cases this results in a fault; the diagnosis attempts to
find out which input parameter was changed in what manner.
The diagnostic features were selected such that even
without special training they would be meaningful to operating
STANEK AND FRHLICH: MODEL-AIDED DIAGNOSIS 589

Fig. 3. Diagnosis report from test implementation, with reduced hydraulic flow cross-section (cf. Fig. 5, curves b). The default and estimated values in the upper
section of the window refer to the parameter which caused the fault. The lower section contains a complete list of features (scrollable) with their normal and
measured values and the corresponding values of the best matching case from the database.

Fig. 4. Excerpt from circuit breaker model, containing those components and
quantities which directly influence the piston position.

personnel. The specific list of features used in this test im-
plementation is presented in Table I. They can be derived
easily from the measured quantities. In addition, most of the
required sensors are standard equipment of new circuit breaker
monitoring devices or even the circuit breakers them selves.
A simple user interface was also created in MATLAB, which
presents the most likely diagnosis together with a confidence
value contains list of features (Fig. 3). This list contains the
default, measured and estimated values of each feature, thus
making the diagnostic process more transparent to the users.
Fig. 5. Simulated (dotted lines) and measured (solid lines) travel curves for
circuit breaker opening; (a) no fault, (b) reduced hydraulic flow cross-section.
C. Example
The process of condition assessment by model-aided diag-
nosis shall be illustrated by an example. Consider the model
segment depicted in Fig. 4, which generates the position of the
main piston at simulation time. Parameters directly influencing
its operation are, among others, the initial position and the hy-
draulic damping.
590
During the preparation part of MAiD, simulations were con-
ducted for both closing and opening the circuit breaker, with
three different values for the damping parameter, which has a
default value of 1. Simulation of a normal opening operation
from initial position = 1 (fully closed) resulted in the travel curve
shown by the dotted line (a) in Fig. 5. From this curve, the fea-
tures contained in the Normal column in the user interface
(Fig. 3) were extracted. Another simulation with the hydraulic
damping parameter set to 5 produced the dotted line (b) with the
features contained in the Matched column. Both sets of fea-
tures were stored in the database.
When the real circuit breaker was operated in normal condi-
tion, a travel curve according to the solid line (a) in Fig. 5 was
recorded. Its features are rather close to those from the no-fault
simulation. Then the hydraulic flow cross-section for opening
was reduced by an arbitrary amount. The travel curve from the
next opening operation is shown by the solid line (b); its features
are shown in the Measured column. Calculating the distance
from all stored simulated cases, the best match was found to be
the one discussed above (hydraulic damping = 5). Hence, the
according diagnosis was reported to the user.
D. Practical Results
The parameters of the computer model were manually ad-
justed to match the particular circuit breaker under observation.
With that, the diagnostic database was created and used on the
high voltage circuit breaker described above.
The following quantities were measured on the circuit
breaker: close and trip coil energization (before the auxiliary
contacts), close and trip coil voltage (after the auxiliary con-
tacts), close and trip coil current, linkage travel, motor voltage,
motor current. These quantities were recorded by means of a
PC-based monitoring system and evaluated off-line at a later
time. No spring travel sensor was available, hence the spring
position after each operation was estimated and manually
entered by the operator. It is believed that monitoring this
quantity directly would have further increased the diagnostic
confidence.
Several abnormal operating conditions were applied to the
circuit breaker, namely,
1) the hydraulic flow cross-section was reduced, causing a
low opening speed (Fig. 5);
2) a differently aligned pump motor switch was used for con-
trolling the motor, resulting in low spring charge;
3) the control voltage for opening or closing the breaker was
changed from 110 to 80 V or 130 V, respectively.
At first, one change was made at a time; later, up to three
changes were applied simultaneously. In every case, the ab-
normal condition (or one of them in case of multiple faults) was
correctly identified from the measured data. Obviously, the con-
fidence values were higher for the single fault cases than for the
multiple faults. In addition, the confidence was further increased
by quantizing the simulation results to match the resolution of
the measured data.
Fig. 3 shows the diagnosis for the fault case of reduced hy-
draulic flow cross-section (Fig. 5). The first row of fields in the
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 15, NO. 2, APRIL 2000
upper half of the window gives the circuit breaker operation
(open) and the connection status (disconnected from the net-
work). The remaining fields are the diagnosis results. Here it
has been found that the hydraulic damping of the main piston
was increased from its default value of 1 to approximately 5,
with a confidence or 35.4%. With the scrollable features list in
the lower part of the window, the user is enabled to follow the
reasoning that led to this diagnostic decision.
V. CONCLUSIONS AND OUTLOOK
Model-aided diagnosisthe novel strategy for condition di-
agnosis introduced in this reportis a useful method for con-
dition assessment of technical devices. Its feasibility has been
demonstrated on a real high voltage circuit breaker.
The benefits for the user of model-aided diagnosis include,
Determining the location and cause of a problem in a
technical system, possibly even before it becomes serious.
Thus the time for identifying the problem and with it the
outage time can be reduced. This also helps to reduce the
costs for operation and maintenance.
Access to quantities which are not accessible for direct
measurement, inside the system. This provides more de
tailed insight into the overall condition of the equipment.
Since model-aided diagnosis does not require high com-
puting power in each installation it can easily be integrated
into new or existing monitoring or EMS hardware. In this
manner, the capabilities of a condition monitoring system
can be enhanced significantly at hardly any increase in
cost per unit.
Further work on the concept of model-aided diagnosis should
include: self-adaptation of the model parameters to the specific
device to be diagnosed; finding the best methods for pre- and
post-processing of the sensor data; incorporation of trend anal-
ysis and extrapolation with diagnosis; interfacing a model-aided
diagnosis system with intelligent EMS.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would especially like to thank Mr. A.C. Carvalho
for his support and valuable discussions.
REFERENCES
[1] A.L.J. Janssen et al., A Summary of the Final Results and Conclusions
of the Second International Enquiry on the Reliability of High Voltage
Circuit Breakers, in CIGRE 1994 session, 1994, paper no. 13-202.
[2] J. Reason, Coming soon! Circuit breakers with on-line condition moni-
toring, McGraw-Hills Electrical World, vol. 209, no. 2, February 1995.
[3] G.F. Luger and W.A. Stubblefield, Artificial Intelligence: Structures and
Strategies for Complex Problem Solving, 3rd ed. Harlow: Addison
Wesley Longman, 1998.
[4] A.A. Hopgood, Knowledge-Based Systems for Engineers and Scien-
tists. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 1993.
[5] M. Stanek, M. Morari, and K. Frhlich, Model-Aided Diagnosis: An In-
expensive Combination of Model-Based and Case-Based Condition As-
sessment, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, 1999,
submitted for publication.
STANEK AND FRHLICH: MODEL-AIDED DIAGNOSIS
Michael Stanek was born in Vienna, Austria, in
1965. He studied electrical engineering at the Vienna
University of Technology, Austria, where he ob-
tained his Dipl.-Ing. degree in 1993. Presently he is
studying for his Ph.D. at the High Voltage Laboratory
of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich.
His research activities are focused on the intelligent
high voltage circuit breaker, in particular controlled
switching and on-line condition monitoring and
diagnosis. In 1998, Michael Stanek received the
Innovation Award of the Swiss Electrotechnical
Association for his work on a controlled switching device for high voltage
circuit breakers.
591
Klaus Frhlich was born in 1945 in Salzburg, Aus-
tria. He received a Master of Electrical Engineering
and a Ph.D. degree in technical science from the
Vienna University of Technology, Austria. After 11
years in Switchgear and High Voltage Technology
with BBC (later ABB) in Switzerland he became a
full professor at the Vienna University of Technology
in 1990. Since 1997 he has been a full professor
of High Voltage Technology at the Swiss Federal
Institute of Technology Zurich, Switzerland. Klaus
Frhlich is a senior member of IEEE, a member of
CIGRE Study Committee 13, and the convenor of CIGRE Working Group
13.07 (Controlled Switching).