Model-aided diagnosis-a new method for online condition assessment of high voltage circuit breakers

In 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.