APPLICATION OF LINEAR PREDICTOR AND WAVELET TRANSFORM

IN PARTIAL DISCHARGE LOCATION IN POWER CABLES

Babak Badrzadeh and S.M.Shahrtash
Department of electrical engineering
Iran University of Science and Technology
Tehran Iran
IRAN

Abstract: Partial discharges are caused by various defects such as voids, shield protrusions, contaminants, advanced
stages of water tree, etc and known the main cause of breakdown in insulation materials. Partial discharge (PD) location
is a powerful and useful tool for the maintenance and operation of electrical power distribution cables. This paper
describes the application of two digital signal-processing techniques (Linear prediction and Discrete Wavelet Transform)
to partial discharge site location. These techniques have been used for both on-line and off-line PD location. Results
show the effectiveness of these algorithms and by applying them to the acquired signal one obtain almost the true shape
of PD signal under noisy conditions.

Key words:- Wavelet transform- linear prediction-detection and location-condition monitoring-partial discharge-cable

1. INTRODUCTION This, of course, means outage cost, a cost, which is

The distribution of power in industrial complexes often
relies in medium voltage shielded power cable systems.
Power outages due to failure of cables or their
accessories during operation could cause the forced
interruption of critical processes, but in the current
climate of electricity de-regulation; it is not acceptable
anymore due to outage cost. It is therefore important to
know the state of health of the cable network (as one of
the asset) in an electricity supply system.
Owing to faulty manufacturing processes or, to aging
after several years of service, shielded high voltage
power cables may develop various defects such as
electrical tree or water tree within their insulation layer
[1]. If the electric stress applied is high enough, these
defects may cause PD. Locating PD sites in underground
power cables is a powerful and useful tool for evaluating
their conditions [2-3]. The incipient defects, which can
lead to failure of the cable in service, are thus located. It
is also possible to identify high-risk sections of circuits in
advance and to replace just the few defective meters [4].
Thus one can prioritize different problem feeders and
replace or repair them in according to asset management
programs [4]. As a result, The reliability of a plant can be
substantially improved if potential cable failure sites
could be identified and corrected after their installation.
On the other hand, if a cable were being monitored, an
outage had to plan because current technology requires
the cable to be taken out of circuit (Off-line testing).
unnecessary if the results of health check, was fine.
Electricity companies would like to be able to do the
health check on-line, thus removing the outage cost.
While evaluating the location of PD, one encounters two
major problems; first, the significant reduction of the of
reflected pulse, as it travels for a long segment of the
cable and broadens (As shown later, for PD location, one
should identify amplitude first and second reflection of
PD pulses form far end of the cable)[5]. The reduction in
the amplitude caused by attenuation often makes it very
difficult to trace the reflected pulse. The distortion of the
pulse worsens with the time, causing a shift of the pulse
maximum. All these lead to a decline in the location
accuracy [5]. The second problem is the external
disturbances such as radio and TV station broadcasting,
corona, PD produced by other high voltage equipment
and… that occur during the on-site measurement [6].
The first problem is not very serious and can be solved by
appropriate selection of sensor’s bandwidth [5], but the
second is very important and one must suppress the noise
for accurate PD Location. As yet, various methods of
noise reduction have been developed and proven
successful in on-line and off-line PD measurements such
as correlation[1], adaptive filtering [2-3], etc. However,
in these techniques, it is necessary to measure the noise
prior to a measurement (Closed-loop noise reduction)
thus computational time increasing dramatically [6].
For implementing on-line measurement it is necessary to
keep computational time as low as possible. For this
purpose, Open-loop noise reduction techniques such as
wavelets has been proposed [6] .It is no need to
determine the reference noise in theses techniques, thus
reducing the computational time to lowest values.
In this paper we focus on two digital filters: Linear
Prediction (LPC) and Discrete Wavelet Transform
(DWT).
2 NOISE REDUCTION
2.1 LINEAR PREDICTION
Linear prediction is a powerful technique for predicting a
signal, which is, in this study, corrupted by noise. This
algorithm predicts the following sample with a certain
probability by valuing the previous samples.Fig.1 shows
the schematic diagram of LPC for PD detection and/or
location. For a signal or a class of signal (s(n)) the
estimated value by linear predictor of order N is[2]:
sp(n)=∑Ni=αis(n-i) (1)
The optimum predictor is the one that minimize the mean
square prediction error [2]:
E=∑e2(n)=? [(s(n)-? Ni=1αis(n-i))]2=min (2)
The coefficients of the predictor αi are to be determined
from degree N so that the expected value of the
prediction fault signal E goes to zero [2]:
∂E/∂αi=0 (3)
This equation leads to calculation of auto-correlation
function of the signal, but description of calculation
procedure would get beyond the scope of this paper.
Fig.1 schematic diagram of PD detection by LPC
2.2 WAVELET TRANSFORM
2.2.1 WAVELET THEORY
Fourier analysis is a mathematical tool for transforming
our view of the signal from time-based to frequency-
based but this technique has a serious drawback. In
transforming to the frequency domain, time information
is lost [7]. This drawback is very important for
nonstationary signals such as PD. In an effort to correct
this deficiency Gabor approved the Short-Time Fourier
Transform (STFT) analysis [7]. The STFT compromise
between time and frequency information, but its
drawback is that once you choose a particular size for the
time window, the window is the same for all frequencies.
Many signals require variable window size to determine
more accurately either time or frequency.
To overcome the limitation of Fourier methods, the
Wavelet analysis is a variable windowing technique and
allows the use of long time intervals where we want more
precise low-frequency information and shorter regions
where we want high frequency components. For digital
implementation of wavelets we use from DWT that is
given by [7]:
DWT(m,n)=∑ (a0m)-0.5f(k)[ψ((n-ka0m)/(a0m))] (4)
Where ψ(k) and f(k) are wavelet function(mother
wavelet) and original signal, a0m and ka0m are scaling and
translation constants, respectively and k,m are integer
variables.
Wavelets are formed using high- and low-pass FIR filters
(Fig.2)[7]. In this figure the arrows denote down-
sampling by 2.
Outputs of these high- and low-pass-filters can
mathematically be expressed by [7]:
yHP[k]=∑ u[m].g[2k-m]
(5)
yLP [k]=∑u[m].h [2k-m]
Where u denotes original signal and g, h denote high- and
low-pass FIR filters, respectively.
DWT permits decomposition into the sum of
approximation (high-scale, low frequency components)
and details (low-scale, high frequency components)
elements. In other words, detail and approximation
elements relate to high- and low-pass filters, respectively.
The Inverse DWT (IDWT) is then used to reconstruct the
signal to the original signal with no loss of information
(Fig.3)[7]. In this figure the arrows denote up-sampling
by 2.Outputs of high- and low-pass filters in
reconstruction stage can be expressed by [7]:
u[m]=∑{yHP(k).g[2k-m]+yLP(k).h[2k-m] (6)

Fig.2 Dyadic wavelet decomposition
Fig.3 Dyadic wavelet reconstruction
The type of wavelet used is determined by the
decomposition filters. Any type of mother wavelet can be
used in the wavelet analysis, but we have experimentally
chosen to use db9 in all the transformations.Fig.4 shows
the db9 mother wavelets.
Fig.4 db9 mother wavelet
2.2.2 WAVELET DE-NOISING
The general de-noising procedure involves three steps.
The basic version of the procedure follows the steps
described below:
1.decompose
Choose a wavelet, choose a level N (2-10), and compute
the wavelet decomposition of the signal at level N.
2.Threshold detail coefficients
For each level from 1 to N, select a threshold and apply
soft thresholding to the detail coefficients.
3.Reconstruct
Compute wavelet reconstruction using the original
approximation coefficients of the level N and the
modified (after thresholding) detail coefficients of levels
from 1 to N.Two points must be addressed: how to
choose threshold, and how to perform thresholding.Let λ
denote threshold. The hard threshold signal is [8]:
If |x(t)|>λ; then δλH=x(t) ; else δλH=0 (7)
And the soft threshold signal is [8]:
If |x(t)|>λ then; δλS=SGN(x(t)(x(t)-λ));else δλS=0 (8)
Where SGN denotes sign function. The hard procedure
creates discontinuities at x=± λ , while the soft procedure
dose not, as a result, it is advisable to use soft
thresholding for de-noising.
In this method the key is the step two: numerical choice
of the threshold λ. The choice is critical, if the threshold
is to small or to large. Either the result of de-noising is
dissatisfied or the large distortion can be caused. There
are four selection rules that are as follows [10]:
• rigsure : adaptive threshold selection using
principle of Stein’s Unbiased Risk Estimate (SURE)
• heursure: heuristic variant of the first option
• sqtwolog: universal threshold
• minimaxi: minimax threshold
but by using these rules,the noise is not completely
removed and for best performance, it would better to
select the thresholds manually.
3. PD LOCATION PROCEDURE
Energize the cable with an appropriate excitation voltage
and increase the voltage level until a PD is detected or
the maximum pre-established is reached. Reduce the
voltage to zero after a very short dwell time. reader is
referred to [11] for further information.
3.1 OFF-LINE PD LOCATION
This is explained by means of Fig.5. Assume that PD
occurs at a point C along a cable AB. The PD pulse splits
into two identical pulses that travel in opposite directions.
The pulse traveling left reaches the near end, A, and is
recorded as the first pulse on the figure. The pulse
travelling in the opposite direction is entirely reflected at
point B and travels back to point A where it is recorded
as the second pulse on the figure. The pulse that had
reached point A first is reflected at A, then at B and
returns back to A after having traveled one round trip
along the cable. It is recorded on the figure as the third
pulse. The unknown distance AC can be given by the
following equation [11].
AC=(t1/t2) AB (9)

Fig.5 Principle of PD location by reflectometry
3.2 ON-LINE PD LOCATION
The principle of Reflectometry can be readily applied if
both cable ends are disconnected from the system and if
the cable section has no branching. The arrival time PD
location method illustrated in Fig.6 can be applied even
when the cable ends are not disconnected from the
system and whenever the cable is branched.
Capacitate or inductive sensors, installed at both ends,
detect the arrival times, t1and t2, of the PD pulse.
Knowing the total cable length, L, and the propagation
velocity, v, the location, x, of the PD site can be
determined as follows [11]:
x=1/2[v(t1-t2)+L]
Fig.6 Principle of PD location by arrival time method
4. SIMULATION RESULTS
4.1. OFF-LINE PD LOCATION
In this case, PD signals are recorded from 6 and 10 kV
cables [1]. Figs.7, 8 show these signals respectively. Both
cables have the length of 600 meters. The real PDs are
located 160 and 110 meters from near end of the 10 and
6kV cables, respectively. We first apply LPC technique
to extract actual PD signals from these raw signals.
Figs.9, 10 show de-noised signals. For the best
performance of LPC, the prediction order (N) is set
experimentally to 34. According to Figs.9, 10 and by
using (9), PD locations can be determined 165.3 and
107.3 meters from near end of 10,6 kV cables,
respectively.In wavelet de-noising method, the signals
are first decomposed into eight levels using db9 wavelet
(Figs 11,12). In these figures a8 ,d1-d8 denote
approximate and detail coefficients at different levels.
The first five scales are omitted as they contain mostly
noise, thus, wavelets coefficients are set to zero for these
scales. Soft thresholding are performed on scales 6,7 and
8 since the PD pulses are prominent in those scales (We
don’t use from a8 in threshoding).
After soft threshing process, the signals are reconstructed
using IDWT with the results as illustrated in Figs. 13,14.
In these cases calculation show that the PDs are located
165.8 and 107.6 meters from near end of the cables.
4.2 ON-LINE PD LOCATION
In this case, data are recorded from both ends of the cable
(say end A, B) during in-service PD measurements of a
1.4-km, 11 kV cable [12]. The velocity of propagation
and sampling rate are 168 m/µsec and 50
sample/µsec.The real PD site is located 1110 meters from
near end of the cable. Fig. 15 shows the signal that
recorded from end A of cable.
Wavelet de-noising procedure is similar to previous and
we don’t repeat it. Figs. 16,17 show the de-noised signals
of end A and end B of the cable, respectively.
By applying (10) to these signals,PD location has been
(10) determined 113.08 meters from near end of the cable.
Fig.7 PD signal from 10 kV cable Without LPC filtering
Fig.8 PD signal from 6 kVcable Without LPC filtering
Fig.9 PD signal from 10 kV cable With LPC filtering Fig.13 PD signal from 10 kV cable
With wavelet de-noising

Fig.10 PD signal from 6 kVcable With LPC filtering

Fig.14 PD signal from 6 kV cable
With wavelet de-noising

Fig.11 Decomposition of PD signal of

Fig.15. PD signal of end A of a 11 kV cable
Fig.7 into Eight levels
Without wavelet de-noising

Fig.12 Decomposition of PD signal of

Fig.16. PD signal of end A of a 11 kV cable
Fig.8 into Eight levels
With wavelet de-noising

Fig.17. PD signal of end B of a 11 kV cable
With wavelet de-noising
6. CONCLUSION
This paper has presented two methods for PD location in
cable networks. In off-line PD location, PDs has located
by TDR principle (One end measurement) and noise
suppressed by LPC and DWT. Results show the
effectiveness of both algorithms, while in on-line PD
location, PDs located by arrival time (Two end
measurement) method and results shoe the effectiveness
of DWT noise suppression (LPC isn’t an effective
technique in on-line PD location).
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