Incipient Electric Circuit Failure Detection and Outage Prevention Using Advanced Electrical Waveform Monitoring: Field Experience

Safe, reliable electric power is critically important in industrial facilities, including field production facilities and plants. The electric circuit protection and monitoring systems currently in use do not detect incipient faults or predict apparatus failures. Two decades of research demonstrate that early stages of apparatus, device, and cable failures can, in some cases, be detected electrically, enabling repairs and avoidance of faults and outages. The authors have developed a technology, which has become known as
distribution fault anticipation
(
DFA
), that uses continuous monitoring to provide real-time situational awareness of circuit activity. The DFA system monitors voltage and current signals to detect circuit abnormalities and failures and utilizes intelligent algorithms to classify circuit events, including incipient failure signatures. This article provides examples of failing devices that were successfully detected in early stages. DFA technology was originally developed in cooperation with utility companies but is applicable to any power distribution circuit and has begun trials in an industrial setting.