7th Mediterranean Conference and Exhibition on Power Generation, Transmission, Distribution and Energy Conversion 7-10 November 2010,

Agia Napa, Cyprus (Paper No. MED10/143)

Setup and preliminary results of a Pilot On-line cable PD monitoring system on an 11 kV Switchboard using capacitive couplers
Demetres Evagorou, Andreas Kyprianou, Andreas Stavrou, Venizelos Efthymiou, Paul L. Lewin and George E. Georghiou
use of Ultra High Frequency (UHF) sensors, capable of detecting PD signals of bandwidth up to the GHz range, provides a better insight into the PD characteristics. Advances in signal processing techniques and computing power have allowed the gathering of PD data from cables under their normal operating conditions and have enabled the development of new features for PD identification. The University of Cyprus, in collaboration with the local Electricity Utility, have implemented such a system for monitoring the PD activity of predetermined cables, by the use of High Frequency Current Transformers (HFCT) sensors clamped around the earthing strap in distribution substations. The use of these UHF sensors for online measurements suffers from reduced sensitivity due to the fact that the sensor is clamped around the earth wire. A far more sensitive sensor for detecting PD activity is the capacitive coupler which is directly installed on the cable. Furthermore it has a higher frequency response allowing the presence of higher frequency content which can be useful in discriminating between PD of different origin but close to the source. Its main drawback is that it is an invasive method requiring an interruption in order to be installed and has to be installed at a particular location and therefore it is not portable. This work is the first step of a series of milestones that will lead to the implementation of a nearly real-time, on-line PD measurement system with capacitive couplers as the sensors. The main objective of this system is to provide measurements from the preinstalled locations that will be utilised to extract trending information about the PD over time, and relate this information to the severity of the PD on the insulation. The installation procedure of the capacitive sensors as well as some preliminary measurements from the permanently installed capacitive couplers is being presented here. Also the less noisy nature of the installation of a capacitive coupler per phase per bus bar section has been shown compared to the High Frequency Current Transformer (HFCT) coupled on the common earthing of all phases and the whole bus bar. II. PD SENSING METHODS Electrical breakdown in air causes an extremely brief (lasting only fractions of a nanosecond) electric current to flow through the air pocket. The measurement of a partial discharge is, in fact, the measurement of these breakdown currents. PD activity generates both physical phenomena and

Abstract-- In todays competitive power transmission and distribution (T&D) industry the need for predictive and scheduled maintenance of the infrastructure has become a vital necessity. On-line condition monitoring of underground cables and switchboards for the dominant failure mechanism of Partial Discharge (PD) has been in use for some time now. It has been shown that on-line measurements for monitoring the activity and the degradation severity of the PD can not be calibrated in terms of their charge (pC). Although the direct interpretation of the measured voltage gives some indication, for more profound results specific locations have to be monitored over time to record the evolution of the amplitude and/or phase shift (trending). For these reasons a pilot on-line cable monitoring system is currently being implemented in a substation of the Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC) on selected breakers of the 11 kV switchboard. This system will alleviate the need for the physical presence of expert personnel on site, as measurements from sensors that will be non-invasively installed will automatically be recorded and processed on a continuous basis thus allowing potential dangerous PD events to be captured. Furthermore, the proposed system will implement permanent capacitive couplers that offer better sensitivity compared to other sensors. In this paper the setup and calibration of these sensors, together with some preliminary results will be presented. Index TermsPartial Discharges, Monitoring, Capacitive Couplers. On-line Condition

I. INTRODUCTION PD defined as an electrical discharge that partially bridges the insulation, is considered the precursor of insulation failure. Detecting and analysing the time evolution of such an event can provide valuable information about the integrity of the insulation system. In detecting these PDs, the
The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support of the Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation (grant number TEXNO/MHXAN/0308). D. Evagorou and G.E. Georghiou are with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, School of Engineering University of Cyprus P.O. Box 20537 Nicosia, 1678, CYPRUS, (Tel: +35722892272, email: eep5de01@ucy.ac.cy) A. Kyprianou is with the Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, School of Engineering, University of Cyprus, PO Box 20537, Nicosia 1678, CYPRUS A. Stavrou and V. Efthymiou are with the Electricity Authority of Cyprus, Nicosia, 1399, CYPRUS P.L. Lewin is with The Tony Davies High Voltage Laboratory, School of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK

chemical changes within the dielectric material, causing the transmission of acoustic, electrical and optical energy, which can be detected and analysed using appropriate sensors. Data acquisition for PD detection in cable systems and their accessories usually involves non-conventional electrical coupling techniques including coaxial cable sensors [1]; inductive high frequency current transformers either around the cable itself [2] or at the earth connection [3]; directional couplers [4]; and foil electrodes on cable joints [5]; as well as acoustic emission (AE) techniques [6]. Values obtained from these emissions are very small, typically signal magnitudes are often close to background noise levels and in the case of optical and chemical methods their detection suffers from a low sensitivity [7].

mm (0.25 inch) thickness of epoxy mica paper. As the capacitors will be used on bus bars of the 11 kV switchgear they were chosen so as to withstand voltages of 16 kV. B. Installation The installation plan was to monitor the bus bars of the 11 kV switchgear at nine different feeders of a substation belonging to the EAC. As the substation has one bus bar per phase in order to monitor the predetermined locations a total of 27 sensors (9 pairs of 3) had to be installed. In order to install the capacitive sensors, the section of the bus bar between the switchgear that the sensors were to be installed and the two neighboring switchgears at either side had to be deenergised. In order for this work to be done without a loss of electricity delivery on the consumers side the load carried by this switchgear had to be routed through alternative routes.

Fig. 1. Plot of measurement using an HFCT compared with a measurement detection of the capacitive coupler is profound.

From the above methods the electrical methods have been the far most widely used for sensing PD. The use of the so called Very High Frequency (VHF) sensors offers advantages in noise separation and PD site location [8]. Moreover these type of sensors are more well suited to online measurements compared with the conventional electrical PD detection (in accordance to IEC 60270 [9]). An advantage of this type of sensors includes the exploitation of the bandwidth of these sensors to be able to extract time characteristics of individual pulses. The use of an HFCT sensor installed around the earthing wire of the equipment under test has been the most widely adopted method due to its ease of installation. However the use of a capacitive coupler offers the advantage that has more sensitivity due to its proximity to the installed breaker and from a capacitive coupler. The improved sensitivity can be used to detect the location of the PD when installed in a directional topology. Fig. 1 shows measurements from the installed capacitive sensors compared to the same measurement from a HFCT. III. CAPACITIVE COUPLERS A. Type of Couplers Epoxy Mica Capacitors (EMC) from Iris Power [10] have been purchased. They have become the industry's choice due to their reliability and relative ease of installation. EMCs are safe for use in operating equipment because they have excellent electrical properties due to an 80 mm (3 inch) layer of epoxy impregnated mica splitting as the main dielectric. In comparison, a typical 13.8 kV stator coil has only about 3

Fig. 2. Installed EMC couplers on the three phases bus bars of a particular 11 KV switchgear.

After the cable had been deenergised a team from the EAC preceded with the installation of the sensors as per the manufacturers instructions under the supervision of their engineer. A typical installation on the bus bars is shown in Fig. 2. The low voltage side of the capacitive coupler was connected through a coaxial cable to a termination box (Fig. 3) where all the capacitive couplers were terminated at. In this termination box the measuring unit is connected to take the measurements. C. Calibration Once the sensors were installed the delay introduced by the coaxial cable link between the capacitive coupler and the termination box was calculated. A pulse generator capable of generating pulses of the order of microseconds (1 x 10-6 s) was connected to the high voltage end of the capacitive coupler. Then a coaxial cable of the same length was connected directly to the pulse generator and a second one through the termination box of the respective coupler. The two pulses were connected on two different channels of an oscilloscope and their difference was recorded. This difference was recorded for each phase and each coupler and can be used to remove any delay introduced from the coaxial cable between the sensor and the termination, if a need arises

to locate a PD pulse.

Fig. 5. Phase synchronised on-line measurement on the red phase of the bus bars of a particular switchgear.

Fig. 3. Termination box of the BNC cable connecting to the low voltage side of the EMC couplers.

From Fig.4 it can be seen that a delay of 69 ns has been introduced by the BNC. If this had not been calculated and a need to locate a PD in this switchgear arose then for an average discharge speed along a cable of 80 m/s it would have resulted in an error of around 5.5 metres.

Fig. 6. Single pulse on-line measurement on the red phase of the bus bars of a particular switchgear.

V. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Fig. 4. Calibration of a capacitive coupler to find the delay introduced by the BNC cable connecting the coupler to the termination box.

The authors gratefully acknowledge the contributions of the team from the EAC for their work on installing the couplers. VI. REFERENCES
[1] C. G. Henningsen, K. Polster, B. A. Fruth, and D. W. Gross, Experience with an on-line monitoring system for 400 kv xlpe cable, in IEEE Proceedings on Transmission and Distribution Conference, 1996., September 1996, pp. 515520, tDC.1996.547564. N. H. Ahmed and N. N. Srinivas, On-line partial discharge detection in cables, Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation, IEEE Transactions on, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 181188, April 1998, digital Object Identifier 10.1109/94.671927. F. H. G. Ltd, Cabletrend-continuous monitor for pd in power cables. R. Plath, U. Herrmann, K. Polster, J. Spiegelberg, and P. Coors, After laying tests of 400 kv xlpe cable systems for bewag berlin, High Voltage Engineering, 1999. Eleventh International Symposium on (Conf. Publ. No. 467), vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 276279, August 1999, digital Object Identifier 00818291. H. Ota, M. Ichihara, N. Miyamoto, S. Kitai, Y. Maruyama, M. Fukasawa, and H. Takehana, Application of advanced after-laying test to long-distance 275 kv xlpe cable lines, Power Delivery, IEEE Transactions on, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 567579, April 1995, digital Object Identifier 10.1109/61.400876. Y. Tian, P. Lewin, A. Davies, and G. Hathaway, Acoustic emission techniques for partial discharge detection within cable insulation, in Dielectric Materials, Measurements and Applications, 2000. Eighth

In addition the above calibration is another form of verification of the integrity of the installation. At a speed of 0.2 m/ns for an RG58 coaxial cable the length of the cable can be calculated as 13.8 metres for the example in Fig. 4. This can be compared to the actual length of the cable to verify that the two lengths do not differ substantially. IV. PRELIMINARY RESULTS Measurements from the installed capacitive couplers were taken soon after the installation of the couplers. Fig. 5 and Fig. 6 show such measurements from a coupler which points to a potential presence of PD. The couplers have already been connected to a custom designed on-line system and they will be monitored to detect the trending in the amplitude of the readings and subsequently processed by an automatic PD pattern recognition system to identify PD of different sources. This PD source identification algorithm will include and develop work done by the University of Cyprus [11][12] and its collaborators [13][14].

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4 International Conference on (IEE Conf. Publ. No. 473), September 2000, pp. 503508, digital Object Identifier 00888169. I. J. Kemp, Developments in partial discharge plant-monitoring technology, in Proceedings of International Conference on Partial Discharge, 1993, pp. 5255. P. Morshuis, Assessment of dielectric degradation by ultrawide band pd detection, IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation, vol. 2, no. 5, pp. 744 760, 1995. IEC 60270 Partial Discharge Measurements. International Electrotechnical Commission, 2000. www.irispower.com D. Evagorou, A. Kyprianou, P.L. Lewin, A. Stavrou, V. Efthymiou, Venizelos, and G.E. Georghiou, "Classification of Partial Discharge Signals using Probabilistic Neural Network," Solid Dielectrics, 2007. ICSD '07. IEEE International Conference on , vol., no., pp.609-615, 8-13 July 2007. D. Evagorou, A. Kyprianou, P.L. Lewin, A. Stavrou, V. Efthymiou, Venizelos, A.C. Metaxas, and G.E. Georghiou, "Feature extraction of partial discharge signals using the wavelet packet transform and classification with a probabilistic neural network," Science, Measurement & Technology, IET , vol.4, no.3, pp.177-192, May 2010 L. Hao, P.L. Lewin, and S.G. Swingler, , "Identification of multiple partial discharge sources," Condition Monitoring and Diagnosis, 2008. CMD 2008. International Conference on , vol., no., pp.118121, 21-24 April 2008 L. Hao, and P.L. Lewin , "Partial discharge source discrimination using a support vector machine," Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation, IEEE Transactions on , vol.17, no.1, pp.189-197, February 2010. His research interests include the theoretical and experimental characterization of mechanical non-linear systems with a view of applying them to problems of structural modification; development of linear and non-linear techniques based on control concepts; and research at the interface of applied mathematics, statistics and engineering as it is shaped by theories of large deviations, information and communication theory, wavelets, time-frequency distributions, computational algebra and harmonic analysis. Paul L. Lewin is a Reader in the Electrical Power Engineering Research Group, having originally joined the academic staff of the Department of Electrical Engineering in 1989. His research interests are concerned with applied signal processing and control. Within the high voltage area this includes condition monitoring of HV cables and plant, surface charge measurement, and HV insulation/dielectric materials. In the area of automation he is particularly interested in the practical application of repetitive control and iterative learning control. Andreas Stavrou received his BSc and MSc degrees from Leningrad State Technical University, USSR in 1988 and 1990 respectively and his PhD degree from Aberdeen University, Scotland in 1995. He joined the Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC), South East Area in 1996. He is currently in the Transmission Substations Construction and Maintenance department in the South East Area, he is involved in the Installation, testing commissioning and maintenance of high and medium voltage switchgear, transformers, protection relays and SCADA. His research interests are concerned with condition monitoring issues of cables and electrical machines and also with power electronics renewable energy sources integration and power quality. Venizelos Efthymiou received his BSc in Electrical Engineering & Electronics, MSc in Power Systems, and PhD in Transmission Lines & Transformers from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, in 1975, 1976 and 1979 respectively. He joined the Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC) in 1979 where he is currently employed. He has been involved in major projects in the EAC and he has several publications in refereed journals and conferences in the field of power transmission. Dr Efthymiou is currently the Head of Networks in the Electricity Authority of Cyprus. George E. Georghiou is currently an Assistant Professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Cyprus. Prior to this, he was a Lecturer and the undergraduate course leader in Electrical Engineering at the University of Southampton, Department of Electronics and Computer Science and a Research Advisor for the Electricity Utilisation Group, University of Cambridge. Having graduated from the University of Cambridge with a BA (1995), MEng (1996) and a PhD (1999), Dr Georghiou continued his work at the University of Cambridge in the capacity of a Fellow at Emmanuel College for a further three years (1999-2002). His research interests lie predominantly in the field of Renewable Sources of Energy, grid integration and the utilization of electromagnetic fields and plasma processes.

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VII. BIOGRAPHIES
Demetres Evagorou received his BEng in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, and his MSc in Communications and Signal Processing from Imperial College in 2000 and 2001 respectively. He worked for four years as a systems analyst engineer and he is currently a PhD Student at the University of Cyprus, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. His research interests include PD condition monitoring in cable networks and signal processing techniques in general. Andreas Kyprianou is currently an Assistant Professor at the Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, University of Cyprus. Dr Kyprianou received his BSc in Mechanical and Process Engineering from the University of Sheffield in 1996 and his PhD in 1999 from the same university followed by the completion of an MSc course in Mathematics and the Foundations of Computer Science of University of Oxford in 2000. During the academic year 2000-2001 he worked as a research associate at the Department of Public and Business Administration of the University of Cyprus, on bankruptcy prediction using neural networks. In October 2001 he joined the University of Liverpool to undertake research in structural modification and inverse problems and he worked there until September 2003 when he joined the academic staff of the University of Cyprus.