Roya Nikjoo

Change in partial discharge activity as related to degradation level in oil-impregnated paper insulation: effect of high voltage impulses

High voltage (HV) transients in electrical power systems are mainly caused by lightning strikes and switching operations. The dielectric properties of a particular electrical insulation at the instant of interaction with a high voltage transient would determine a level of the degradation of an electrical insulation. This work investigates how high voltage impulses would change Phase Resolved Partial Discharge (PRPD) patterns in test samples consisting of a cavity deliberately introduced between the sheets of oil-impregnated paper used in power transformer bushings. It also investigates how the change in PRPD patterns is related to the degradation level of oil-impregnated paper. In order to accomplish these objectives, the experiments were set in such a way that the effect of HV impulses and an early stage PD activity at an elevated AC stress, HV impulses in combination with a prolonged PD activity at an elevated AC stress, and a prolonged PD activity alone at an elevated AC stress could be investigated separately. The experimental results presented in this paper indicate that HV impulses below the impulse breakdown stress following an early stage AC PD activity would not cause a significant change in PRPD patterns, and would not damage oil-impregnated paper to a level which can be noticed by a visual observation. On the other hand, a prolonged AC PD activity alone can cause the change in PRPD patterns, but cannot quickly damage the oil-impregnated paper as it would do when it is combined with HV impulses. However, the combination of both, HV impulses and a prolonged AC PD activity caused a high drop in the PD parameters (total PD charge and a repetition rate). The study found that the decrease of the PD parameters can be considered as a sign of severe degradation of oil-impregnated paper.

Dielectric response measurement of power transformer bushing by utilizing high voltage transients

Insulation has a significant role in most of power components failures. Therefore, proper diagnostics of insulation condition which can be done non-destructively and online in the field is of interest. In this paper, a new insulation diagnostic technique is proposed which utilizes natural transients in power system for online dielectric response measurement. In the proposed technique, lightning and switching impulses with wide range of frequency are used as stimuli for dielectric spectroscopy. Oil impregnated papers and condenser bushing are the objects under investigation and dielectric response of them is derived at those transients. Dielectric responses obtained by this method are verified by the responses measured by insulation diagnostic systems IDAX and LCR meter.

Comparison of phase resolved partial discharge patterns in small test samples, bushing specimen and aged transformer bushing

The transformer bushings are one of the key devices in electrical power networks. With time, the electrical insulations in the transformer bushings become aged. One effect of a long time ageing would be due to Partial Discharge (PD) defects. In this work, the phase resolved partial discharge (PRPD) pattern of the defects naturally present in an aged 36 kV Oil Impregnated Paper (OIP) bushing was compared with the PRPD patterns of defects deliberately introduced in simple test samples and in a bushing specimen. The results presented in this paper show that it might be possible to predict the type of the defects in aged transformer bushings through comparing measured PRPD patterns with PRPD patterns from defects deliberately introduced in simple test samples and in bushing specimens.

Effect of temperature on surface discharge in oil

In this paper surface discharge along the oil-pressboard interface was investigated. Surface discharges were measured both in time domain by means of an oscilloscope and as phase resolve patterns. The effect of temperature from 20 °C to 90 °C on surface discharge inception, extinction and surface flashover voltage were investigated. Trend of number and maximum magnitude of PD was compared for 20 °C and 90 °C over time. The effect of voltage rise and surface flashover on number and maximum magnitude of PD were investigated. The results show that PD inception voltage is lower for higher temperature but surface flashover voltage is higher for higher temperature. However for 90 °C the final damage due to surface discharge is much severe compared to 20 °C.

Effect of high voltage impulses on partial discharge activity in a cavity embedded in paper insulation

High voltage impulses in electrical power systems are mainly caused by lightning strikes and switching operations. The dielectric properties of a particular insulation at the instant of interaction with a high voltage impulse would determine the level of the degradation of the electrical insulation caused by the high voltage impulse. In this work, the effect of high voltage impulses on the partial discharge (PD) parameters was investigated. The investigation was done in test samples consisting of a cavity deliberately introduced between oil-impregnated papers used in power transformer bushings. The measurement results presented in this paper show that high voltage impulses can have a large impact on the behavior of the PD parameters if the test sample is aged by partial discharges, but a smaller impact when the test sample is unaged.

Effect of superimposed impulses on AC partial discharge characteristics of oil-impregnated paper

The effect of HV impulses on surface and cavity partial discharges (PD) of oil-impregnated paper (OIP) is investigated in this work, by subjecting specimens to impulse voltages superimposed on a continuous AC voltage. The superposition of transient and AC voltage is relevant to insulation systems in power-system equipment, which is exposed to transients such as lightning and switching impulses during its operation. For several different PD-generating defects in oil-impregnated paper, the PD behaviors before and after the impulse are compared. The influence of moisture content is studied by using OIP with moisture content <0.5%, 3.0% and 5.5%. The results show a distinctive behavior of PD due to the impulse for each defect and insulation condition, either by change in the PD rate and magnitude or by causing PD inception or extinction. Recordings of the voltage signals and associated PD measurements during and after the incidence of a high voltage transient are of potential use for condition assessment of the insulation of power transformers and their bushings, as a form of online diagnostics.

The effect of partial discharge by-products on the dielectric frequency response of oil-paper insulation comprising of a small cavity

This work investigates the effect of alternating current partial discharge (AC PD) byproducts on the dielectric frequency response (DFR) of oil-paper insulation comprising of a small cavity, in the frequency range of 1.0 mHz to 1.0 kHz. The investigations were done by utilizing experimental results in combination with a Finite Element Method (FEM) model. The results presented in this paper show that ageing by-products in the cavity (PD stressed volume) alone will not result into the change in DFR of oil-paper insulation. According to simulation results, the significant change in the DFR results is mainly caused by PD by-products (positive and negative charges, and electrons) which tend to conduct or diffuse into the bulk of oil-paper insulation. The change in a dissipation factor curve due to PD by-products was observed to occur mainly in the middle and low frequency regions. The results indicate that the dissipation factor curves in the middle and low frequency regions depend on the level of PD by-products in oil and paper, respectively.

Dielectric response of aged transformer bushings utilizing power system transients

The reliability of power transformer bushings is of great importance. Failures may lead to severe consequences. Frequent diagnostics by off-line methods is not feasible as the interruption is costly. Therefore it is of interest to have the possibility to perform on-line diagnostics. Transformer bushings can become aged during their operation periods. Several phenomena such as partial discharges, thermal effects and humidity may change the strength of the insulation in power transformer bushings. There are several methods which provide diagnostics of such components, but some of them can only be done offline in maintenance periods and some online methods would lack useful information about the insulation characteristics. In this paper, a new method is investigated, which uses natural transients such as switching and lightning impulses as stimuli to get the on-line dielectric response of the insulation system. Also, laboratory investigations are reported on three in-service aged 132 kV power-transformer bushings. The dielectric response measured under excitation by transient voltage is compared with results from low-voltage dielectric spectroscopy.

Comparison of oil-impregnated papers with SiO 2 and ZnO nanoparticles or high lignin content, for the effect of superimposed impulse voltage on AC surface PD

Surface discharge behavior of modified oil-impregnated paper (OIP) with nanoparticles (NPs), has been investigated under AC voltage with superimposed impulses. Surface Partial Discharges (PD) can develop at an oil-paper interface and lead to its degradation. Modified paper, made from fibers with adsorbed nanoparticles, can affect the partial discharge behavior of a paper in combination with oil at the interface between oil and fibers. Papers with two different concentrations (2 wt% and 6 wt%) of silica (SiO2), and paper with silanized zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles (1 wt%) have been studied. Papers with SiO2 NPs showed lower impulse-induced surface PD activity. However, thorough purification during the production of SiO2 filled papers was necessary to achieve a good performance. With less purification, paper with 2 wt% of SiO2 did not show such significant improvements. Paper with 6 wt% of SiO2 NPs showed a large number of AC surface PDs, but low influence of impulse voltage on subsequent PD. Papers containing 1 wt% of silanized ZnO showed reduced relative permittivity, but no significant difference in surface PD behavior. The effect of high lignin content in Kraft paper has also been studied. Paper with higher lignin content showed better surface PD characteristics under the impulse. Paper with low concentrations of pure SiO2 NPs, and paper with high lignin content thus appear good candidates for further studies to improve the surface PD behavior of OIP.

Dielectric response measurement by impulse stimulus on AC: Measurement considerations, and laboratory testing on a bushing

Dielectric response (DR) measurement is commonly used for condition assessment of insulation systems of power components. A method for measurement of dielectric response using the stimulus of natural transients such as lightning and switching impulses was proposed in earlier work. Its desirable features include the ability to make measurements online over a range of frequencies, without requiring a voltage source. This article presents a laboratory demonstration of the method on a 150 kV service-aged transformer bushing, where the stimulus was a standard lightning impulse voltage superimposed on an AC voltage. Several aspects of the measurement and data processing that affect the results are studied experimentally and numerically. The results are compared with low-voltage frequency domain spectroscopy (FDS). Reasonable accuracy for monitoring changes in DR can be achieved by suitable choice of measurement circuit and data acquisition. The study suggests an approach for online monitoring of dielectric properties of power transformer bushings, and diagnostics of defects that affect the high frequency region of DR, such as moisture content.