Diagnostic potential of free-space radiometric partial discharge measurements

The work reported in this paper addresses the calibration of four types of partial discharge (PD) emulator required for the development of a PD Wireless Sensor Network (WSN). Three partial discharge (PD) emulators have been constructed: a floating-electrode emulator, and two internal PD emulators. Both DC and AC HV power supplies are used to initiate PD which is measured using concurrent free-space radiometry (FSR) and a galvanic contact method based on the IEC 60270 standard. A new method of estimating absolute PD activity level from a radiometric measurement is proposed.