Transformer Health Management Based on Self-Powered RFID Sensor and Multiple Kernel RVM

Health management for transformer in service is of great significance to the reliable operation of power system. This paper presents a cost-efficient transformer condition prognosis methodology. First, a power management circuit is designed to guarantee the stable performance of self-powered RFID sensor. Moreover, the sensor data storage mechanism is modified by embedding the sensor data into the ID information of RFID sensor to realize less response time and lower power consumption compared with the traditional approach. Second, a denoising method based on band restricted empirical mode decomposition and a fuzzy threshold is introduced to extract noise-free vibration signal from the measured raw signal. Third, the multiple kernel relevance vector machine (MKRVM) is imported to predict the future condition of transformer. The kernels of MKRVM keep diversity for higher prediction accuracy by using the heterogeneous kernel learning approach. Moreover, the double chain quantum genetic algorithm is employed as optimization tool to find the optimal sparse weights of basic kernel functions in MKRVM. The experimental results indicate that the modified RFID sensor can stably operate even when the load of the transformer is abruptly decreased to zero. The response time and power consumption of RFID sensor are markedly decreased by using the improved sensor data storage mechanism. Furthermore, the prediction experiment results demonstrate that the proposed approach is effective in term of health monitoring for transformer.