International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research Volume 4, Issue 1, January-2013 1

ISSN 2229-5518

Partial discharge signal detection using ultra high

frequency method in high voltage power
equipments: a review
MM Yaacob, MA AlSaedi*, Abdullah Al Gizi, N Zareen

Abstract— Partial discharge (PD) can be detected using ultra high frequency (UHF) method to increase the detection threshold and to improve the
performance of on-line measurement of PD in noise environment. The PD emitted energy as electromagnetic emission, acoustic emission and ozone
and nitrous oxide gases. We can use this emitted energy to detected PD signal. The best method to detect PD in gas insulate substation, power cable
and transformer is by using UHF electromagnetic wave. UHF method have advantages such as high sensitivity, a good signal –to- noise ratio
(SNR). On the other hand, there are still some issues to be solved in the UHF methods, such as a clear understanding of the propagation characteristics
of electromagnetic waves arising from the structure of the equipment, optimization of antenna design and calibration of charge. Furthermore, in on-site
measurements and laboratory experiments it has been that UHF method gives avery moderate signal attenuations. In this paper, a review on UHF PD
sensor connected at extra high voltage-termination of cables, UHF PD signals in a 132 kV gas insulated substation (GIS) transformer are
described. Results from the measurement show that this method can give the precise value of PD signal.
Index Terms—partial discharge, ultra-high frequency method, gas insulation substation, transformer and power cable

—————————— Æ ——————————

1 INTRODUCTION

H IGH voltage equipments are considered as one of the

essential elements in electrical network. Any failure in
these equipments directly reduces network reliability
such as

and increases maintenance costs [1]. PD detection is a tech- wide detection range, high sensitivity and reduce external
nique widely used for high voltage equipment insulation con- disturbance [4,5,6]. UHF method to detect of PD is very impor-
dition monitoring and assessment. In such applications, an tant in the application of GIS because utilities and manufac-
understanding of PD mechanisms, characteristics and devel- turers recognize the suitability of this sensitivity method for
opment processes is important[2]. The insulation system has monitoring of insulation safety [7,8,9,10]. The major reason to
high risk for dielectric stability when PD occurs. Therefore, the success of UHF method in GIS is the PD current pulse has
measurement of PD is important to prevent high-voltage short rise time (<100 ps) in SF6 [11,12]. PD signal can be de-
equipment from damage. PD is an electrical discharge or tected by using UHF sensor installed at the drain/ oil valve.
spark that bridge small part of insulating between two con- For on-line measurements disc shaped and cone shaped sen-
ducting electrodes. PD can occur when electric field strength sors are used but measurement conducted in the laboratory
exceeds the breakdown strength of insulation, and can lead to uses cone shaped, disc shaped and monopole sensors. The
flashover. The measuring techniques of PD detection are using transformer has conventional research on advance detection of
different physical properties of phenomena such as electro- PD, The method in transformer has active research been car-
magnetic emission (in form of radio wave, light and heat), ried out in UHF method application [13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20].
acoustic emission (in audible and ultra sonic rages), ozone and PD detection using UHF method have some advantages such
nitrous oxide gases [3]. The ultra-high frequency (UHF) gen- as low noise levels due to shielding effect of the transformer
erated by PD can be detected by using sensors [2]. The range and very low signal attenuation. UHF method can also avoid
of frequency between 300MHz-3GHz can be called as UHF loc al interference due to the frequency band is under 100
range. The UHF signal generated by PD occurred within time- MHz while the band of UHF method is between 300 MHz-
scale of nanosecond (ns). PD signals detected can be used as 1500Hz. UHF method also has immunity of external noise due
diagnosis of insulation condition for transformer and GIS. PD to UHF sensor is connected inside the transformer. The con-
detection method by using UHF in GIS has some advantage nection between UHF sensor and power transformer is non-
electrical, so that UHF method is reliable for power secondary
————————————————
‚ This work was supported in part by the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia,
and safe.

‚ MM Yaacob is with the Institute of High Voltage and High Current

under MOHE Scheme, GUP Grant No. 01H80

‚ Malik Abdulrazzaq Al-Saedi is with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering,

Faculty of Electrical Engineering ,Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
2 UHF SENSORS FOR LABORATORY TESTS
‚ Corresponding author. Tel.: +61-07- 5535695; fax: +61-07- 5578150.
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, and Johor, Malaysia
UHF technique has some application in high-voltage equip-
ments such as GIS, power transformer and cable. Recently the
‚ Abdullah J. H. Al Gizi is with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Un-
E-mail address: [email protected]
application of UHF for PD detection in power transformer has
iversiti Teknologi Malaysia, and Johor, Malaysia been increasing area of interest with a more precise results
‚
E-mail address: [email protected]
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 International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research Volume 4, Issue 1, January-2013 2
ISSN 2229-5518

[21,22]. Locating and detecting of PD in power transformer is

vital both in industries and utilities to avoid damage of high-
voltage equipments [23,24]. In the laboratory, application of
UHF sensors can give excellent results due to minimum of
noise generated as compared to on-site measurement.
Some examples of UHF PD sensors in high-voltage equip-
ments for laboratory tests and on-site PD are showed. Fig.1
shows UHF sensor to detect PD in GIS. This type of sensor has
well been proven not only for laboratory test but also for on-
Fig. 4 Inductive UHF sensor for power cable termination [25].
site PD. The main advantage of the sensor has detection sensi-
tivity very low as few apparent charges. Fig. 2 shows UHF
sensor for PD detection in a cable joint, this type of sensor
known direction coupler UHF sensor. The sensor has advan- 3 APPLICATION OF UHF TECHNIQUE IN HIGH-
tageously applicable for checking the right assembling work in VOLTAGE EQUIPMENT
power cable accessories. Fig. 3 shows UHF sensor for power 3.1UHF PD Detection in Power Cable:
transformer for usage DN 50/ DN80 gate valve. The sensor can
give alternative possibility to measure PD signal, this method
While the cable is in normal operation, the constraint
known bushing-tap for galvanic connected decoupling. Fig.4
allowing sensitive measurements on plug-in cable connectors
shows inductive UHF sensor for power cable termination. The
can be overcomed by using on-line UHF test technique. The
sensor can give very low detection sensitivity as few PC
principle of UHF diagnosing on plug-in cable termination is
shown in Fig.5. The capacitive sensor (electric component) and
inductive sensors (magnetic component) detected transient
electromagnetic field emitted by PD. The capacitive sensor is
cupper disc with diameter 2 cm. The inductive sensor is two
winding coil. The pulses emitted by PD are pre-amplified,
filtered and processed with a computer-based oscilloscope.

Fig. 1 UHF sensor adapted to a GIS grounding bar [25]

Fig.5 Plug-in cable termination and principle of the UHF PD

Diagnostics [3]

The results of PD tests are not qualified due to SNR. This is

major caused via limitation of measurement frequency less
than 500 kHz. We can improve SNR by increasing the mea-
surement frequency more than 500 kHz and by selecting either
Fig. 2 Directional coupler implemented in a cable joint [25]
ultra wide band signal. When the signals travel inside the long
power cable, it seems obvious that this technology works se-
lectively due to strong attenuation of PD pulses within a high-
frequency spectrum. Therefore, UHF technique is a perfect
method to check accessories of power cable such as termina-
tions and joints. The acceptance level of PD in power cable the
apparent charge must be less than 10 pc.

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Fig. 3 Oil valve sensor for power transformer reactor e.g. a) for
usage on DN 50 gate valve b) for DN 80 gate valve [25]
International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research Volume 4, Issue 1, January-2013 3
ISSN 2229-5518

Fig.7 Transmission coefficient tTEu of the TEM-modofor a

dielectric spacer disc (thickness is 5 cm, Er = 6.5[31].

Fig.6 PD tests circuit acc non-conventional measurement me- Fig.7 Transmission coefficient tTEu of the TEM-modofor a di-
thod. UHF PD sensor connected at high voltage-and-extra high electric spacer disc (thickness is 5 cm, Er = 6.5[31].
voltage-termination [26].

Figure 6 shows schematic diagram of the UHF PD measure-

ment system in power cable. The system consists of UHF PD
sensor, pre-amplifier and PD measurement. The UHF PD sen-
sor is connected to GIS-cable termination and the output of
this sensor is connected to high-pass filter by coaxial cable to
limit range frequency within 300 MHz. It is also connected to a
pre-amplifier to increase the SNR. The output of a pre-
amplifier connected to PD measurement to PD pulse
processing.
3.2UHF PD Detection in GIS:
PD pulse current has short rise time less than a nanosecond
(ns) in SF6 gas which is used used as insulating gas. The fre-
quency component in UHF band is available in electromagnet-
ic wave generated by PD signal. In the GIS tank, the electro- Fig. 8 Transmission coefficients fTE and rmffor a dielectric
spacer disc (thickness is 5 cm, E, = 6.5)[31].
magnetic wave emitted by PD signal can propagate over long
distance with very less attenuation so that UHF signals can be
detected by using antenna or sensor. There is no influence of Fig. 9 shows typical measurement arrangements. The sys-
different noise arising from broadcast wave or telecommuni- tem consists of UHF field probe sensor, pre-amplifier, digitizer
cation signals with very high frequency. UHF method of PD and personal computer. We can see the signal coming from a
signals has quick response, which detected SF6 decomposition sensor; goes go to a pre-amplifier with 25dB gain and band-
species. In GIS, risk assessment of breakdown is easy to de- width 1GHz. The maximum record 20ns caught using digi-
termine due to information on PD phenomena in SF6 gas [27]. tizer, where in each arrangement the first UHF signal was col-
There is another method to improve the accuracy of PD locali-
lected via five recorded by the trigger delay (20ns in each
zation and enhance the maintenance efficiency in GIS based
step).
on UHF combined with acoustic technique[28].

The main reason for attenuation of wave in GIS is power dis-

sipation in metallic enclosure. Very low attenuation coefficient
of 2dB/ km is present with theoretical result values of about 1-
2dB/ Km [29,30]. As an example we can take a flat disc to
study the effect of a spacer in GIS. It can compute the reflec-
tion lossless dielectric disc by using model of a transmission
line. To compute transmission coefficient of Transversal Elec-
tric Magnetic mode (TEM) is shown in Fig.7 and to compare a
coefficient of Transversal Electric (TE), Transversal Magnet-
ic(TM) mode in transmission line with cut-off frequency about
500MHz are shown in Fig.8. We can see transmission coeffi- Fig.9 Measurement equipment and a typical GIS test cham-
cient approach zero for both TM and TE mode in some fre- ber[32].
quency band that showing for every mode available series
frequencies are not attenuate.

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International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research Volume 4, Issue 1, January-2013 4
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3.3 UHF PD Detection in Transformer:

UHF PD detection in transformer has been widely used.

Some of the advantages of using UHF technique in transfor-
mer is low noise level due to shielding, low signal attenuation
of oil insulation and sensitive measurement with noise on-site
condition due to complete structures.

The laboratory set up of PD measurement in transformer

consists of half closed metallic tank with dimensions (1.0 m,
0.5 m, 0.5 m ) with a needle sphere PD source, with two simi-
lar disc – sensors. The bandwidth of transient record was 3
GHz and no additional amplification is used. Furthermore, Fig. 12 UHF PD signals of a needle-sphere PD-source in oil up to
3GHz[3].
there is a metallic wall inside closed half tank to divide tank
into two sections, every section has one sensor as shown in the
Fig.(10,11). It is also called as “ 2-path-arrangement”. We can
analyze different types of structures and materials in the “ 2- Figure 13 shows typical UHF monitoring system. The sys-
path-arrangements” . In oil-oil test the pulse energy attenua- tem consists of UHF sensor, amplifier, detector, data acquisi-
tion was 4.27% -0.19 dB with apparent charge 1.8-3.7 pc. While tion and computer. The UHF sensor is inserted inside the tank
in solid insulation materials the apparent charge is 2.7 pc. of the transformer. The output signal of UHF sensor is con-
Fig.12 shows comparison between attenuated and unatte- nected to the amplifier which will be filtered and detected.
nuated signals. Finally, the signal data will be monitored and stored in a
computer. Patterns of these data can be recognized by using
intelligent software [33].

Fig. 10 UHF PD spectrum of a rod-plane PD source (apparent

charge285 pc) with some dominant cavity resonances [3].

Fig.13 Principles of a typical UHF PD monitoring system[33].

4 CONCLUSION
This article deals with UHF PD measurement in high-
voltage equipment such as cable, GIS and transformer. UHF
method of PD measurement can be used to perform diagnosis
of insulation of the effective power apparatus. The laboratory
experiment and on-line UHF measurements gave a low-noise
level with a very high sensitivity. Due to this reasons, this me-
thod of PD detection and measurement can be considered as
Fig. 11 Schematics of the 2-path test setup: top view of the two
sided experimental setup with half-closed test tank (1.0x0.5x0.5) future technique which will give a more precise PD values.
m3, two disc-sensors and needle-sphere [3].

Acknowledgements
The author gratefully acknowledges the Faculty of Electrical
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International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research Volume 4, Issue 1, January-2013 5
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Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia for giving the Measurement in the Ultra High Frequency (UHF) Range.
support in this work. IEEE Trans-actions on Dielectrics and Electrical
Insulation 2008. 15: p. 1544 – 1552.
14. Markalous S, T.S., Fuser K. , Improvement of acoustic
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