Low power radiometric partial discharge sensor using composite transistor-reset integrator

The measurement of partial discharge provides a means of monitoring insulation health in high-voltage equipment. Traditional partial discharge measurements require separate installation for each item of plant to physically connect sensors with specific items. Wireless measurement methods provide an attractive and scalable alternative. Existing wireless monitoring technologies which use time-difference-of-arrival of a partial discharge signal at multiple, spatially separated, sensors place high demands on power consumption and cost due to a requirement for rapid sampling. A recently proposed partial discharge monitoring system using a wireless sensor network and measuring received signal strength only, has potential cost and scalability advantages. An incoherent wireless sensor incorporating a transistor-reset integrator has been developed that reduces the measurement bandwidth of the PD events and alleviates the need for high-speed sampling. It is based on composite amplifier techniques to reduce the power requirements by a factor of approximately four without compromising precision. The accuracy of the proposed sensor is compared to that obtained using a high-speed digital sampling oscilloscope. Received energies were measured over a 10 m distance in 1 m increments and produced an error within 1 dB beyond 4 m and 3.2 dB at shorter distances, resulting in a measurement accuracy within 1 m.