RF-Based Partial Discharge Early Warning System for Air-Insulated Substations

Partial discharges (PDs) generate wideband radio-frequency interference which can be used for noninvasive monitoring of discharges. This paper presents a novel method based on this principle for PD monitoring of substations. The significant advantage of this method lies in the ability to detect PD sources in energized equipment anywhere within a substation compound during normal operating conditions. The results obtained from the prototypes installed in the U.K. and U.S. substations are reported. Results include correlation with apparent charge and daily recordings obtained before, during, and after the failure of a 132-kV current transformer and 69-kV voltage transformer.