DOCUMENT NUMBER 9AKK108466A1909 REV.

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E LE C TR I FI CAT I O N PR OD U C TS

Technical notice
PD measurement and monitoring
systems comparison

Partial Discharge (PD) detection systems are many and very different from each other.

Two of them are the most popular for Medium Voltage (MV) monitoring and diagnostic appli-
cations:

• Electrical measurement according to IEC 60270 using coupling capacitor.

• Electromagnetic measurement using ultra-high frequency (UHF) antenna.

This is a fair comparison of these solutions:

Item Topic Electrical measurement Electromagnetic measure-

1 Detected physical phe-
nomena
2 References
3 Acceptance level in pC
4 Standardized calibration
method
5 Measurement sensitivity
6 External disturbances sen- Higher (noise suppression Lower
sitivity
ment (UHF)
Voltage drop on capacitive Electromagnetic field
coupler due to sudden re- emitted by sudden reloca-
location of charges in de- tion of charges in defect.
fect (compensation cur-
rent).
IEC 60270 Standard1 None1
Defined by IEC 60270 Not defined
Standard
Defined in IEC 60270 Not available, but possible
Standard (apparent chargewith a relative connota-
and QIEC). It requires a tion (deterministic and
small setup. quantitative relation be-
tween defect charge QIEC
and detected UHF signal is
not possible).
Higher (due to the direct Lower (magnitude and
connection with the meas- damping depend on posi-
urement circuit, and the tion of defects with re-
system calibration). spect to the antennas lo-
cation).
methods are used to re-
duce it).

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 T ECHNI CA L NOT ICE

7 Coupling device Discrete capacitor (already Antenna (installed on pur-

used for voltage presence pose inside each panel
indication purposes e.g. compartment). Installation
post insulator, bushing, of antennas inside com-
CTs, etc.). One device per partments needs care with
10 panels is generally respect to insulation dis-
needed. tances, and can be not al-
ways feasible (e.g. for GIS
depends on design). 30
antennas per 10 panels
are required.
8 Acquisition unit One per each coupling de- Generally one per each
vice. panel connected to 3 an-
tennas.
9 Measurements QIEC in pC and Frequency Ratio and Frequency
(number of discharges per (number of discharges per
second). second).
10 Phase-resolved partial dis- Yes (for pattern recogni- No
charge (PRPD) tion e.g. corona, surface,
delamination and voids).
11 Faulty phase discrimina- Yes (for root cause identi- No
tion fication in addition to pat-
tern recognition by PRPD,
after off-line check of af-
fected panel/compart-
ment).
12 Faulty panel/compartment No Yes (localization is possible
localization by adding antennas in
each compartment of in-
terest, and the fault loca-
tion is expected to be
where the strongest UHF
signal is detected or where
the number of discharges
significantly increases).

(1) "IEC TS 62478 - Technical Specification - High voltage test techniques – Measurement of
partial discharges by electromagnetic and acoustic methods" is used as guideline also.

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