The Online Journal on Power and Energy Engineering (OJPEE)

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Predictive Maintenance Strategy Based on Disturbance Recorders

Dr. Mohamed A. EL-HADIDY Dr. Dalal H. HELMI
dr_alhadidy@hotmail.com dalalhelmi@hotmail.com
Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC), Egypt Abstract-Electric utilities have always relied on maintenance programs to keep their equipment in good working condition as long as it is feasible. In the past, maintenance routines consisted mostly of pre-defined activities carried out at regular intervals (scheduled maintenance). However, such a maintenance policy may be quite inefficient: it may be too costly (in the long run) and may not extend component lifetime as much as possible. In the last ten years, many utilities replaced their fixed-interval maintenance schedules with more flexible programs based on an analysis of needs and priorities, or on a study of information obtained through periodic or continuous condition monitoring (predictive maintenance). This paper presents, in some value event examples, the importance of using Disturbance Recorders as an effective tool for predictive and condition-based maintenance. These cases include actual records from the Egyptian Network that helped, after deep analysis, to determine the need for station equipment maintenance, together with a case from Belgium. The cases presented in this paper are: Circuit breaker mechanism problem Improper operation of pre-insertion resistor in EHV transmission system Circuit Breaker restriking Intermittent fault on a distribution level Fault location on high voltage transmission line Generator shaft tortional stresses Keywords: Condition based maintenance, Disturbance recorders, 1. INTRODUCTION Electric Utilities in the Arab world are undergoing a period of fundamental changes with respect to interconnection, deregulation, and competition to improve their economic efficiency. In addition to the existing interconnections, namely those of the Maghreb, Algeria is already interconnected to Tunisia (4 connections) and to Morocco (2 connections), Spain to Morocco, Libya to Egypt, Egypt to Jordan, and Syria to Jordan and Lebanon, several new interconnection projects are under way linking Morocco to Algeria (third connection), Algeria to Tunisia (fifth connection), Tunisia to Libya, Libya to Egypt, and Syria to Turkey. Concerning the interconnections presently planned between Egypt and Saudi Arabia and that between Egypt and Libya at 220 kV that its voltage is planned to be increased to 400 kV at a later stage. The de-regulated electricity market causes rather quick and drastic changes in the operational conditions. New, unknown load flow patterns show up more frequently for the system operator. Also, the interconnectors are becoming heavily loaded to cross-border power exchanges. Consequently, each outage of an asset (equipment) can have a direct impact on the benefit margins of the revenues as the supply of energy may be interrupted. The purpose of maintenance is to extend equipment lifetime, or at least the mean time to the next failure whose repair may be costly. Furthermore, it is expected that effective maintenance policies can reduce the frequency of service interruptions and many undesirable consequences of such interruptions. Maintenance clearly affects component and system reliability: if too little is done, this may result in an excessive number of costly failures and poor system performance and, therefore, reliability is degraded; if done too often, reliability may improve but the cost of maintenance will sharply increase. In a cost-effective scheme, the two expenditures of maintenance cost and increase reliability due to maintenance must be balanced. Maintenance is just one of the tools for ensuring satisfactory component and system reliability. Others include increasing system capacity, reinforcing redundancy and employing more reliable components. At a time, however, when these approaches are heavily constrained, electric utilities are forced to get the most out of the devices they already own through more effective operating policies, including improved maintenance programs. In fact, maintenance is becoming an important part of what is often called asset management. From a review of present maintenance policies in electric utilities it is concluded that maintenance at fixed intervals is the most frequently used approach, often augmented by additional corrections. Newer as needed methods, such as Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM), are increasingly considered for application in North America[1]. Nowadays, devices are becoming ever more intelligent as manufacturers embed processing capability for optimizing local performance. Coordination with other devices is spreading as communication networks link greater numbers of equipment and systems together. Demand response, substation automation, wide-area measurement & control and predictive maintenance are just some of the application areas that are driving smart operations advancements into the electric system. Disturbance Monitoring Systems (DMS), also known as Digital Fault Recorders (DFR) provide valuable information for the study of electric power system performance and fault analysis, preventing later coming failures or interruptions in electrical circuits. Nowadays, in world-wide electricity utilities, monitoring systems provide detailed information,

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alerting employees not just that something is wrong, but exactly what is wrong. This paper present, in some actual study cases, Disturbance Recorders as an available tool that can help the utility to determine the need for station equipment maintenance based on the records that obtained from DMS, and also prevent possible cascaded failures. 2. MAINTENANCE PRACTICES When we discuss maintenance, we consider several types of maintenance as follows[2]: Replacement: Restoration wherein a device is removed and one in better condition is put in its place; if the device is failed, it is replaced by a working one. It is often assumed that the device so installed is new. Repair: Restoration wherein a failed device is returned to operable condition. (Note: It is common to use the term corrective maintenance for both replacement and repair). Maintenance: Restoration wherein an unfailed device has, from time to time, its deterioration arrested, reduced or eliminated. Scheduled Maintenance carried out at regular Maintenance: intervals (rigid schedule). (Note: Another term often used for this activity is preventive maintenance). Predictive A maintenance carried out when it is Maintenance: deemed necessary, based on means of condition monitoring. Emergency A predictive maintenance that must be Maintenance: carried out immediately, or with the shortest delay possible, after condition monitoring detects a danger of imminent failure. Corrective Maintenance actions carried out to Maintenance: restore a defective item to a specified condition using tests, measurements, and adjustments made to remove or correct a fault or faulty equipment. As mentioned above, definitions are given of a few fundamental concepts discussed in this paper. In the past, maintenance was done based on pre-defined schedules, i.e, on fixed periods of time "scheduled maintenance". Significant changes in the power utility industry are driving the requirement for change in this previously common practice. Another factor is that there are many real life examples in which errors that occur during this preventive maintenance caused significant system or equipment problems. Consequently, the concept saying "If it is not broken, don't fix it" is raised up. But it was found that the delay for maintenance for long time following this concept may lead to catastrophic failures. Now, the new concept for improving the traditional maintenance is based on the idea" If it doesn't tell you, don't fix it". What this means is that different monitoring and

analysis tools inside the disturbance monitoring devices can "predict" the need for maintenance of monitored equipment, and also, after detailed analysis, help to "correct" the faulty part. By this way we may get the point where maintenance is not scheduled, it is done when monitoring says it needs to be done. Predictive Maintenance has so many advantages: Increased component operational life/availability Allows for on-time corrective actions Decrease in equipment or process downtime Decrease in costs for parts and labor Improved worker and environmental safety Improved worker morale Energy Savings Substantial savings over preventive maintenance programs. Eliminates most tear-down events. Provides information to perform a root cause analysis. Predicative Maintenance leads to costs savings as follows: Reduction in maintenance costs. Elimination of breakdowns. Reduction in downtime. Decreased spare parts inventory. 3. DISTURBANCE MONITORING SYSTEMS AS A TOOL FOR CONDITION-BASED MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT Disturbance Recorders can play vital role in the maintenance management of any utility. They are scattered and permanently connected through out the power system. The main goal of using these recorders was traditionally as follows [3]: Determining the performance of system components Analysis of the nature and cause of a disturbance. Identifying equipment misoperations Identifying causes of power system oscillations Analysis and correction of protection system and control deficiencies Reducing the risk of recurring misoperations Gathering of modelling data to verify the relevant characteristics of the models and para-meters used in simulation programs, It is obvious, from the above mentioned objectives that data captured by these recorders enable full analysis of the system component performance and identification of equipment miss operation. This means that they represent a very useful tool for predictive maintenance analysis. The recorded values and waveforms of voltages and currents can identify the behaviour of the system components. Consequently their operative status and performance can be fully analyzed. Two main requirements have to be fulfilled in order to fully run the required analysis:

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1 Additional Software capable of handling the captured data for the purpose of identifying the incorrect performance of the specified equipment. 2 Accumulated expertise capable of reading the hidden information given by this data and analysis software outcomes. Data analysis and diagnostics may be completely farmed out. In the next few years [1] utilities may not be willing to regularly upgrade their diagnostics software, and will probably hire monitoring vendors to process the data from their substations. As concluded from this, we have to get started to train a qualified staff that will be responsible to analyze and correlate the valuable data obtained from these devices. In the following sections, we will give some actual examples that prove the importance of Disturbance Monitoring Devices as a predictive and corrective maintenance management tool. Also, some cases that use the obtained records as a basic input for analysis will be discussed. These include local Egyptian and world wide cases covering the majority of power system components, e.g. circuit breaker, insulators and generator shaft. 4. CIRCUIT BREAKER CONDITION MONITORING Periodic maintenance of circuit breaker is done to ensure that the trip circuit and mechanism operate correctly and also that the interrupting capability has not been compromised due to previous fault interruptions. Generally, such maintenance is based on a fixed time interval, or a fixed number of fault current interruptions. These methods of monitoring circuit breaker condition give a rough guide only, and can lead to excessive maintenance. Using the monitoring systems, the CB maintenance can be conditionally bases on the following two criteria: The calculation of the number of operations in circuit breaker for three phases or for each phase under fault condition can be done and recorded in the database of such breaker. Also elongation of time till the second maintenance by using the per-phase consideration for decision of breaker maintenance may be achieved. Suitable setting of maintenance may be chosen to start maintain the breaker at due time based on this information. I2t can be calculated via the information of the fault records, for each breaker, and stored in the data bases of such breaker. A condition-based maintenance could be started when this value exceeds the manufacturer specified setting. 4.1 Cases of Improper Operation of CB Mechanism The need of CB operating mechanism to be maintained can be predicted as shown in the following three recorded cases for the Egyptian 500kV circuit breakers. Figure 1 shows a DFR record for a CB switching-on to energize a 500 kV transmission line [4]. The result of this

process shows that the CB switching-on is fulfilled successfully, as it could be noticed from the end of the record since it shows three phase balanced voltages and currents but the first 4.75 cycles shows that the CB operating mechanism needs to be maintained as quickly as possible because the closing of phase A has delayed for about 95ms. Fig. 2 shows another non satisfactory performance of the preinsertion resistor operation of phase B lasts about 7 cycles(140ms), which leads to subjecting the TL to high transient voltage values, and this, of course, has its bad effect on the TL insulators which may lead to decreasing their lifetime or performance. The first 6 cycles (120 ms) at the beginning of the record in Fig. 3 include very important information which could never be noticed without seeing this record. This record gather the phenomena found in the above two cases. The first few cycles show that the CB operating mechanism need to be maintained as quickly as possible because the closing of phase B has delayed for about 1 cycle (20ms), while phase C is delayed for about 2.5 cycles (50 ms). The same record indicates non satisfactory performance of the pre-insertion resistor operation for phases A and C. As a result, the TL is subjected to transient voltage values which reach about double the rated voltage.

Figure (1) Case of Improper Operation of CB Mechanism of phase

Figure (2) Case of improper operation of pre-insertion resistor of phase B

Figure (3) A Case of Improper Operation of CB Mechanism

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In the above mentioned three cases, corrective maintenance was done as soon as possible based on the predictive information obtained from the Disturbance Recorders. 4.2 Circuit Breaker Restriking Circuit breaker is designed to interrupt the fault current by mechanical opening of its contacts inside sufficient isolating medium. For some reasons, this insulation may become weak and insufficient resulting in restriking of the electric arc of the short circuit current. Although the breaker is mechanically totally open, it does no longer achieve the interruption of the fault current. This is clear in Figure (4-a), where phases R and S are successfully opened and interrupted the load currents, but the fault current in phase T still flowing and restriked after interruption as shown inside the highlighted circles. This damage is shown in the next photographs of the damaged pole as shown in Figs (4-b) and (4-c) . The two photographs give an overview of how the moving and the fixed contacts are seriously damaged as burning occurred due to the internal arcing on the moving and fixed contact [5]. From the fault described above, it can clearly be seen protection plan can be a basic input for maintenance that an in-depth fault analysis, making use of records and so improve the overall reliability of the network coming from DFRs, together with a well-known

between their occurrences do not permit the appropriate protection to operate, or even to sense them. However, disturbance recorders can capture these types of faults as shown. Once this phenomenon has discovered, the maintenance crew can make some investigations and/or tests to find the place where the insulation is deteriorated and take the appropriate corrective maintenance action before a short circuit occurs causing insulation or equipment damage. This case study proves the capabilities of Disturbance Recorders as a maintenance tool since it gives early detection before serious consequences occur due to insulation deterioration

Figure (5) Intermittent fault on a 22kV feeder Phase B 5.2 Fault Location Fault location has two issues[6]. The first is an operating issue, in which the system should be isolated to prevent further occurrences. The other is a maintenance issue, as to what equipment needs checking or repaired in order to return it to service as soon as possible. Modern Disturbance Recorders have an integral fault locator that uses information from the high scanned voltage and current inputs to provide a distance to fault calculation at the cursor location. Figure 6 shows an actual record that used for calculating the fault location on a high voltage transmission line with high accuracy (one span only). This accuracy in fault location saves maintenance time and money since the crew can arrive at the specified location to take the corrective maintenance actions which lead to improve the reliability of the system by reducing the outage time.

(a) Case of breaker restrike on phase T

(b) Burned Fixed contact (c) Burned Moving contact Figure (4) 5. INSULATION MAINTENANCE 5.1 Intermittent Fault The phenomenon of intermittent faults, indicate insulation deterioration. It causes high current spikes as shown in Fig. 5. This record was captured at one of the Egyptian 66/22kV substation. The duration of these current spikes and the pause Figure (6) Fault Record that used in calculation of fault location

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6. MONITORING SYSTEM FOR GENERATOR SHAFT TORSIONAL STRESSES A growing study phenomenon is the failure of generator shafts and their auxiliary parts caused by high currents at frequencies below system frequency [7]. Auxiliary parts can include the retaining rings, the shaft itself, and the connection of the blades to the shaft. These failures are often catastrophic to date, can occur with little or no warning. They are often transient and short in duration and are mostly caused by fast changes in the load, causing a sub or interharmonic high current. Generally speaking, the subharmonic current causes a twist in the generator shaft which affects the integrity of the shaft and its rigid components. The sources of torsional current can be any number of mechanisms to be found in a typical load profile of an electricity customer: motor starts high current switching interaction with HVDC interaction with series capacitor compensated transmission interaction with arc furnaces These are just a few examples of the sources of the torsional current. These mechanisms can cause phase imbalance, negative sequence currents and power swings. In addition, some individual transients also lead to mechanical stresses which are short in duration but very great in strength. Examples of this include: incorrect synchronization when the generator is brought onto load short-circuits close to power stations The number of occurrences, the length of time, and the produced transients are all functions that can cause the deterioration of the generator faster than anticipated.

To date, most solutions have taken a physical approach to the problem, e.g. the installation of vibration dampers, feedback circuits, etc. Little has been done in the area of monitoring the electrical components.
The purpose of the study is to introduce a disturbance monitoring system that measures the subharmonic current and provides the data used to make decisions about the maintenance of the generator with the aim of preventing catastrophic damage. High sample rate of up to 30 kHz can be used for these cases to show the transient stresses, as shown in figure 7. By chronologically correlating the data saved using the long-term recording method to action on the network, it is possible to identify at which stage in the production process the greatest strain is placed on the generator, or, to ascertain which load results in the greatest strain on the generator. Using the maximum values, it is also possible to find out if and when permissible limit values have been exceeded.

Figure (7) Transient fault record with 30 kHz sample rate Figure 8 shows the current flow during a normal Steel Mill activity as rms-envelope. Figs 9, 10 show the results which could be obtained from the harmonic analysis of the current waveforms. Analysis of the transient faults and the maximum values of current are performed. This data provides a highresolution record of network activity, making it possible to carry out accurate fault analysis. The shown 6th and 20th subharmonics, help in taking decisions about the maintenance before catastrophic damage occurrence.

Figure (8) RMS value for current flow during normal steel mill activity

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Figure (9) The duration distribution graph of the positive sequence component for 20Hz. The x-axis shows the time (100% means total generator on time) and the y axis shows the fraction of the pos. sequence component.

Figure (10) The slow fluctuation of the 6Hz component and its average and peak values within one hour. 7. OTHER FIELDS OF APPLICATIONS A wide horizon for the applications using Disturbance Monitoring Devices exists. Electric Utilities make efforts to be proactive, rather than reactive, and, Predictive Maintenance is considered as the best solution trying to prevent cascading and/or catastrophic failure of equipment. Large power transformers are a class of very expensive and vital components in electric power systems, so it is very important to minimize the duration of unwanted outages. There are some other fields of applications that DMS can add a value in the predictive maintenance operation of the transformer. Monitoring of the transformer on-load tap changer's motor current Correlate Dissolved Gas Analysis (DGA) with fault information (fault energy) can avoid transformer failure by scheduling proper predictive maintenance. And much more 8. CONCLUSIONS Today, the electric power industry's long-term vision comes to end the traditional periodic maintenance, and three things are contributing to breakup: The expansion of condition monitoring The need to cut costs, and The desire to get the most out of existing equipment This paper has introduced local and world-wide value event examples that prove the capabilities of Disturbance Monitoring Systems as a tool for improving the overall performance of the power grid by using them as an essential tool for maintenance management operations. The advanced monitoring, recording and analysis gives the user and electric utility valuable tools for improving the efficiency, reliability and reducing the cost of maintenance in electric power system. Another important factor for improving the reliability and reducing the cost is the predictive capability of such equipment, which gives early alarming for a problem to be solved correctively before serious consequences. Actual examples for: Improper operation of CB mechanism and/or preinsertion resistor in EHV transmission system Circuit Breaker restriking Intermittent fault on a distribution level Fault location on high voltage transmission line Tortional stresses in Generator shaft have proved the capabilities of DMS as a maintenance management tool from all its directions: predictive and emergency. Also, prove how these devices increase the reliability by helping to take

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corrective actions (corrective maintenance). It worth mentioned that the predictive maintenance is considered as main topic for increasing the reliability, availability and optimising the assets in the new trend of the Smart power grid by minimizing the operational and maintenance cost. 9. REFERENCES [1] Electrical World, November/December 2000. [2] A Report of the IEEE/PES Task Force on Impact of Maintenance Strategy on Reliability of the Reliability, Risk and Probability Applications Subcommittee, "The Present Status of Maintenance Strategies and the Impact of Maintenance on Reliability," IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, Vol. 16, No. 4, November, 2001 [3] Alexander Bykhovsky, Joe H. Chow, "Dynamic Data Recording in The New England Power System and an Event Analyzer For The Northfield Monitor," IX SEPOPE symposium, May-23 To 27-2004, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.

[4] Samir E. El-Arab, Mohamed A. El-Hadidy, Dalal H. Mostafa, "Role of The Monitoring Systems In Improving the Performance and Capabilities of Interconnected Electrical Networks, Arab League Seminar, April 2005, Cairo, Egypt. [5] Patrick De Cuyper, "Fault Analysis As A Basic Input for Maintenance Management to Improve the Overall Reliability of the Belgian Transmission Grid", 2004 Fault And Disturbance Conference Atlanta, April 27 28, 2004 Georgia, USA [6] Alexander Apostolov, Rick Taylor, "Predictive Maintenance Based on Protective Relays Data", 2000 Fault And Disturbance Conference Atlanta, Georgia, USA [7] Michael Jesinghausen , Guy Wasfy, " Torsional Monitoring System to Detect Torsional Currents for Corrective Action", 2006 Fault And Disturbance Conference Atlanta, Georgia, USA

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