IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL.
72, 2023
New Signal Processing-Based Methodology for
Optimal Feature Selection of Corona Discharges
Measurement in HVDC Systems
Gabriel Augusto David , Pedro Oliveira Conceição Junior , Senior Member, IEEE,
Fabio Romano Lofrano Dotto , and Benedito Roberto Dos Santos
Abstract— This article presents a new method based on the
combination of digital signal processing parameters for the
selection of optimal characteristics of corona discharges in
high voltage direct current (HVDC) systems, particularly for
linearization of the discharge model for applications that require
a simplified computational approach. The proposed method
implements a new metric from the coefficient of variation (CV),
CVSTFT , based on the short-time Fourier transform (STFT) and
the Hinkley criterion to measure the spectral variability and
determine the corona discharge profile in different situations.
An experimental analysis was performed by applying voltages
between ±30 and ±100 kV in a conductor, and electrical current
signals proportional to the corona effect were collected through a
data acquisition system. The results indicated that the application
of the new method was successful in quantifying, in a simple way,
the percentage of growth of corona discharges as a function of
the voltage applied within the range of 40–80 kHz. Moreover,
it showed 90%, 91%, 92%, 97%, 89%, 92%, and 93% of
reliability in calculating the root-mean-square deviation (RMSD)
based on approximation by a linear model. The frequency band
resulting from this study proved to be favorable to establishing
a threshold for the percentage of corona discharge growth
according to its profile or condition of application, indicating
this information may be useful in the construction of mobile
devices with low consumption and computational performance,
meeting the demands of Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things.
Index Terms— Corona discharge, high voltage direct current
(HVDC), instrumentation and measurement, signal processing.
I. I NTRODUCTION
H IGH voltage direct current (HVDC) electrical power
systems play an increasingly significant role in electrical
power transmission due to their economic superiority and
Manuscript received 3 November 2022; revised 26 January 2023; accepted
20 February 2023. Date of publication 23 March 2023; date of current
version 4 April 2023. This work was supported in part by the Interli-
gação Elétrica do Madeira S.A. (IE MADEIRA) and in part by the Agên-
cia Nacional de Energia Elétrica [Brazilian Electricity Regulatory Agency
(ANEEL)] under Grant PD-06957-0005/2020. The Associate Editor coor-
dinating the review process was Dr. Yau Chung. (Corresponding author:
Pedro Oliveira Conceição Junior.)
Gabriel Augusto David is with the Department of Electrical Engineering,
São Paulo State University, Bauru, Sao Paulo 17033-360, Brazil (e-mail:
ga.david@unesp.br).
Pedro Oliveira Conceição Junior is with the Escola de Engenharia
de São Carlos, University of São Paulo (EESC-USP), São Carlos,
Sao Paulo 13566-590, Brazil (e-mail: pedro.oliveiracjr@usp.br).
Fabio Romano Lofrano Dotto is with FAROL Pesquisa, Desenvolvi-
mento e Consultoria, Bauru, Sao Paulo 17012-225, Brazil (e-mail:
fabio@farolconsultoria.com.br).
Benedito Roberto Dos Santos is with the Interligação Elétrica do Madeira
S.A., Cuiabá 78080-970, Brazil (e-mail: roberto.santos@iemadeira.com.br).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIM.2023.3260879
1557-9662 © 2023 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See https://www.ieee.org/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
3511309
numerous advantages over high voltage alternating current
(HVAC) systems [1], [2], [3], [4]. In this article, the measure-
ment of the corona discharge current is a fundamental concern
in HVDC systems because of the important information it
provides, such as the occurrence of partial discharges (PDs),
electric current intensity, and characteristics relevant to the
design of transmission lines and equipment [5], [6], [7], [8],
[9]. Corona discharge power losses, on the other hand, can
affect the safe and economical operation of HVDC transmis-
sion lines [10]. HVDC transmission systems work by exceed-
ing the corona start voltage, which can lead to various effects
such as audible noise, radio and television (TV) interference,
power losses and deterioration of insulation systems, and
environmental impacts from ozone formation and biological
problems that have serious negative impacts on the lives and
health of residents in the surroundings [11]. Therefore, it is
essential to predict and monitor corona discharge conditions
to mitigate adverse effects caused by the increased magnitude
of the electric field around HVDC transmission lines.
Corona discharges have been the subject of several the-
oretical and experimental investigations in the vast field of
PDs, aiming to obtain more in-depth knowledge and charac-
terization of the phenomenon. In this article, it has become
popular to use digital processing techniques for electrical or
acoustic signals that are measured in the HV system and carry
information from discharges in the form of pulses in the time
domain. Pattern recognition methods or machine learning algo-
rithms are also used for feature extraction. Recent advances
in the scope of separation between PD and noise sources
are reported in [12]. With regard to HVDC systems, studies
that stand out have used finite element methods (FEMs) [13],
fuzzy logic techniques [14], online PD monitoring using
clusters based on time-frequency classification maps [15],
and online source recognition of PD using neural networks
and independent component analysis [16]. The work of [17]
proposes a new wavelet-first pulse (WFP) filtering algorithm
based on the wavelet transform to measure the time of arrival
(TOA) of electromagnetic signals for the localization and
estimation of corona discharge sources in ac and dc systems.
Al-geelani et al. [18] addresses the identification of acous-
tic signals from corona discharges under different levels of
contamination using the wavelet transform. The work of [19]
involves an analysis of the mathematical correlation of the
spectral characteristics of the corona-related electrical current
signal in the frequency band of 5–20 kHz for an ultrahigh
3511309 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 72, 2023
voltage direct current (UHVDC) transmission line through the
use of the external corona cage method. The work of [20]
addresses the study of the theoretical relationships between
the corona current energy spectrum and radio interference (RI)
in UHVDC systems. In addition, the work of [21] addresses
the prediction of RI from HVDC transmission lines based on
corona cage tests, correlations between average corona current,
RI excitation current, and corona current pulse repetition
frequency.
Despite the advances and contributions that have been
made so far, there are still several research gaps in the
field of extraction of corona discharge features, mainly in
HVDC systems, and concerning methods for determining
the corona discharge profile at different voltage levels and
operating conditions. This article contributes by proposing a
new strategy based on techniques for the digital processing
of electric current signals aimed at extracting and selecting
optimal corona discharge characteristics in different situations.
The proposed method involves a new combination of digital
signal processing parameters not yet reported in the literature,
based on time–frequency and signal energy analysis using
the short-time Fourier transform (STFT) and the Hinkley
criterion. The STFT analysis sheds light on the mechanism of
discharges, more representative frequency bands with higher
signal intensity, duration of discharge pulses, and repeating
patterns. The Hinkley criterion is a representative metric
that allows one to determine the start and end points of
discharges based on the energy of signals over time. Thus,
the key innovation of this study is the implementation of
the coefficient of variation (CV) metric from the values of
the STFT magnitude in the most representative frequencies
and in the instants of time in which the corona discharges
occurred, which are determined by the Hinkley criterion. The
new CVSTFT metric enables the distribution in frequency and
intensity to be delivered in percentage only within the time
of occurrence of corona discharges, based on a reference
signal (baseline). The new combination then uses the root-
mean-square deviation (RMSD) metric to determine the best
frequency band that shows the percentage growth of corona
discharge as a function of the voltage applied to the HVDC
conductor.
One of the advantages of this proposal is its simplicity
since it does not involve the use of any other complex noise
separation technique or machine learning algorithm, as it
addresses the problem of quantifying the voltage level through
a model of the linearization problem. Thus, the proposed
approach aims to establish a safe threshold of protection
around transmission lines or to provide useful information
about field measurements of electric current intensity and
voltage, enabling its use in simpler microprocessor systems
and in line with new technologies of boarded systems. In this
work, experimental analysis was performed by applying a
voltage to a conductive metal rod using a high-voltage dc
source (Hipot) that allows the application of different voltages
between ±30 and ±100 kV. The electrical current signals were
measured using an innovative HVDC sensor device developed
by Dotto et al. [22], whose measurement principle is based
on the corona effect and which is equipped with a data
acquisition system. To validate the proposed approach for
a comprehensive situation, experiments were carried out to
detect corona discharges under different conditions by testing
with and without load and varying the position and angle of
the conductive metal rod relative to the voltage source.
II. S IGNAL P ROCESSING FOR F EATURE E XTRACTION
OF C ORONA D ISCHARGES
A. Time-Frequency Analysis Based on STFT
The STFT can be used to evaluate changes in frequency
content over time in the electrical current signals studied here
to detect relevant information about the time instants of the fre-
quencies at which the occurrence of corona predominates. The
STFT of a signal is obtained by sliding an analysis window of
length M over the signal and calculating the discrete Fourier
transform (DFT) of the signals in each segment. The window
cycles through the entire signal at intervals of R samples. If a
non-zero overlap length L is specified, windowed segment
overlapping compensates for signal attenuation at window
edges. The DFT of each segment is added to a matrix that
contains the magnitude and phase for each instant of time and
frequency. The number of rows in the STFT matrix is equal
to the number of points in the DFT [23], [24]. The number of
columns is given by
 
Nx − L
k= (1)
M−L
where N x is the length of the original signal x(n), and the
symbols ⌊⌋ denote the floor function.
The STFT matrix is given by X( f ) =
[X 1 ( f ) X 2 ( f ) X 3 ( f ) . . . X k ( f )] such that the math element
of this matrix is given by the following equation:
∞
X
Xm( f ) = x(n)g(n − m R)e− j2π f n (2)
n=−∞
where g(n) is a window function of length M; X m ( f ) is
the DFT of the windowed segments centered on time m R;
and R is the size of the jumps (intervals) between successive
DFTs. The square of the magnitude of the STFT produces the
spectrogram representation from the power spectral density
(PSD) function [23], [24]
B. Hinkley Criterion
The Hinkley criterion is an advanced signal processing
technique that characterizes predominant variations in the
frequency content and energy of a random signal, which can
detect a variety of relevant information such as TOA and
changes in the signal behavior pattern over time [25], [26].
The energy criterion S(k) of a discrete signal x is defined
as the cumulative sum of the amplitude values of this signal,
as expressed by
i  
X SN
S(k) = xk2 − (3)
k=1
N
DAVID et al.: NEW SIGNAL PROCESSING-BASED METHODOLOGY FOR OPTIMAL FEATURE SELECTION
where i is the number of samples from a selected part of
the signal, S N represents total energy, and N is the length
of the signal. This metric will be used in the context of the
present study to detect the start and end points of corona
discharges in HVDC systems, which is a difficult task without
this calculation because of the numerous sources of noise
contained in the signals.
C. Proposed Coefficient of Variation-Based Method
The CV is a standardized measure of the dispersion of a
probability distribution or frequency distribution that shows
the ratio between the standard deviation σ of the data and its
mean value µ, i.e., it measures data variability and is defined
as follows:
σ 
CV = . (4)
µ
Thus, a low CV indicates small data variations or scattering
among samples in the data. In the case of electrical current
signals that carry corona discharge information around a
conductor, very different fluctuations in the spectra of the
signals may occur under two or more conditions of operation
or applied voltage. This article, therefore, introduces the CV
for the analysis of several spectral segments in the instants
of time of the occurrence of electrical discharges, measuring
the spectral variability at different voltage levels and operating
conditions to determine different profiles of corona discharge
in HVDC systems. To this end, the proposed method uses the
STFT matrix, X m ( f ), only for the elements m corresponding
to a time window m R between the start (ns) and end (ne)
times of the corona discharge, determined by the Hinkley
criterion, for a given electric current signal. Therefore, the
standard deviation rate for the mean, starting from the SFTF
matrix, is obtained as follows:
3511309
TABLE I
E XPERIMENTAL S ETUP
is expressed as follows:
v
XωF u
u CVSTFT,O (k) − CVSTFT,R (k) 2
 
RMSDCVSTFT = t (8)
CVSTFT,R (k)
2
k=ω1
where CVSTFT,R (k) and CVSTFT,O (k) represent the variability
profiles and distribution of a frequency range from ω1 to ω F ,
in the instants of time of occurrence of a corona discharge to
an electrical current signal taken as reference R and the one
in which greater intensity O is observed.
In this study, the reference signal adopted corresponds to
the mildest condition, i.e., the lowest value of applied voltage,
which indicates a little transition between noise and discharge
due to the low intensity of current amplitude. Thus, when
the condition transitions to corona discharge corresponding
to the highest value of applied voltage, the RMSD index is
expected to increase, enabling the selection of a percentage
increase according to the operating conditions and level of
applied voltage. The experimental evaluation is described in
Section III.
III. E XPERIMENTAL E VALUATION
A. Experimental Test Bench
 ne

1 X  An experimental analysis was carried out in a laboratory
µSTFT ( f ) =  X m ( f ) (5)
 
 N m=ns 
v electrical current signals carrying information about corona
u
u1 X ne
σSTFT ( f ) = t (X m ( f ) − µSTFT ( f ))2 (6)
N m=ns
thereby generating the metric CVSTFT , as follows:
σSTFT ( f )
CVSTFT ( f ) = . (7)
µSTFT ( f )
In this case, CVSTFT will be more representative of the
variation of the corona discharge profile in two or more
operating conditions or voltages applied to a narrow frequency
range. To increase the robustness of the proposed method,
we propose to use the RMSD, which is based on the Euclidean
norm, to measure variations between values observed from a
reference. This article introduces the RMSD calculation for the
CVSTFT matrix, aiming to determine the frequency band that
best expresses the percentage of corona discharge growth as a
function of applied voltage (following a linear fit) by adopting
a reference value. The RMSD calculated for the CVSTFT matrix
with a controlled environment and conditions to measure
discharges under different operating conditions in HVDC
systems, thereby validating the proposed method. Testing was
conducted by applying voltages ranging from ±30 to ±100 kV,
using a Baur PGK 110 HB variable dc source with half-
wave rectifier output. The electrical current signal is mea-
sured using an electromechanical HVDC sensor designed
by Dotto et al. [22], which is equipped with a pointed end.
This sensor allows the occurrence of the corona phenomenon
through the effect of the point, which is fixed to a contact
rod that works as a high-voltage conductor. The experiment
was reproduced in different operating conditions to obtain
different corona discharge profiles, i.e., with load and without
load, with a fixed distance of 1.5 m between the positive and
negative electrodes, and at different distances and angles of
the measuring device relative to the source, as described in
Table I.
It should be noted that the voltages applied to the tests
carried out with load did not exceed ±80 kV, due to the con-
structive limits of the resistive divider (safe physical distance
3511309
Fig. 1. (a) Experimental equipment. (b) Schematic of the setup.
of insulation). In other words, ±80 kV is the maximum voltage
supported by the device. In addition, environmental variables
that can exert an influence, such as temperature, atmospheric
humidity, and pressure, were kept constant at 30 ◦ C, 78%,
and 101.6 kPa, respectively. The test bench is illustrated in
Fig. 1(a) and (b) (equipment) and (schematic), respectively.
The HVDC electromechanical measuring system designed
by Dotto et al. [22] (Fig. 1) is equipped with an electronic
measuring system. The data acquisition system is equipped
with an irDA2 infrared communication device (Fig. 1) that
provides an interface through an optical link duly connected
to a PC via USB. The system enabled the authors to auto-
matically acquire data during the tests by adopting variable
gain parameters based on self-tuning algorithms, as well as
sampling rates in the order of 1875 MHz, with a band limited
to 950 kHz by internal filters. Electric current signals were
collected in each of the conditions tested in the experimental
tests described in Table I.
B. Proposed Method-Based Feature Extraction and Selection
The proposed method for extracting and selecting charac-
teristics related to corona discharges consists of implementing
the CVSTFT metric defined in Section II, which depends on
the calculation of the STFT and the use of the Hinkley
criterion. Thus, all the electric current signals collected in
the different operating conditions tested here, as described in
Table I, were subjected to digital processing using MATLAB
software. In this context, it should be noted that the time
domain signals are periodic due to the characteristics of the
dc source used in the experiments (half-wave rectifier output).
According to the sampling frequency, each collected signal
has a duration of 80 ms and comprises 150 000 samples.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 72, 2023
Fig. 2. Framework of the proposed methodology-based feature extraction
and selection.
First, in order to perform a time-frequency analysis using
spectrograms, an algorithm was implemented to calculate the
STFT in pure signals, using blocks varying from 1024 to
8192 samples, and a Kaiser window function with a Beta
parameter equal to 5, in order to obtain optimal parameters that
would enable a viable resolution in frequency and time scales.
Digital Butterworth filters were used to refine the analysis
and eliminate undesirable frequencies, such as noise, and
those above the region of interest in the corona phenomenon.
The proposed method was implemented according to the
framework illustrated in Fig. 2.
Concomitantly (see Fig. 2) an algorithm was implemented
to calculate the Hinkley criterion in pure signals to determine
the time instants, in milliseconds, of the start and end of
corona discharges based on the signal energy and TOA. The
parameters obtained from the STFT and Hinkley criterion
served as a basis for the subsequent implementation of the
algorithm for calculating the new CVSTFT metric to study the
frequency distribution and variability and only during the time
of occurrence of corona discharges to determine the different
corona discharge profiles. As specified in Section II, the study
was aided by the calculation of the RMSD metric from the
CVSTFT matrix to determine the best frequency band that
indicates the percentage of discharge variability at each voltage
level that was applied in the experiments. The electrical
current signals corresponding to ±30 kV served as a reference
(baseline) for the observations and calculations, while the
RMSD metric (CVSTFT ) was calculated for different frequency
bands and sub-bands within the range obtained by the CVSTFT .
The most suitable frequency band was chosen according to the
tendency, considering linear adjustment and the R-square (R 2 )
function. The results are described in Section IV.
IV. R ESULTS AND D ISCUSSION
A. Time-Frequency Analysis Based on STFT
The results of the time–frequency analysis using the STFT
are depicted in the spectrograms in Figs. 3 and 4. These
spectrograms reveal the time-localized frequency information
for situations in which frequency components related to corona
discharges vary over time. A color scale represents the magni-
tude in dB of the PSD. Although the STFT has been calculated
for all applied voltage levels, this section shows only the
two most representative conditions that summarize the entire
behavior, i.e., the electrical current signals of ±30 kV (milder
DAVID et al.: NEW SIGNAL PROCESSING-BASED METHODOLOGY FOR OPTIMAL FEATURE SELECTION
Fig. 3. STFT spectrograms of the #h60g0s test.
condition—reference) and the signals in the most severe
condition of ±100 kV (no-load tests) or ±80 kV (loaded). The
frequency axis, in this case, was designed to display frequen-
cies of up to 800 kHz, albeit focusing on the bands of greatest
interest, in which the energies related to corona discharges are
concentrated (below 600 kHz). Fig. 3 presents the results of
the #h30g90s and #h30g0c tests. As can be seen from Fig. 3,
the electrical current signals generally differ between positive
and negative voltages in both the #h30g90s and #h30g0c tests.
In this case, for negative voltages (−30, −80, or −100 kV),
the magnitudes of the signals are more uniform throughout the
entire time scale and in the frequency range of approximately
up to 600 kHz, when compared to those of the positive
voltages (+30, +80, or +100 kV). In the signals, note the
occurrence of five discharge pulses lasting approximately 5 ms
at different moments in time throughout the total duration of
80 ms.
Fig. 3 also reveals differences between the corona discharge
profiles in the no-load test signals (#h30g90s) and those in the
loaded test (#h30g0c). In the case of the reference signal at
positive voltages +30 kV, note that the behavior was similar
in both the #h30g90s and #h30g0c tests. Conversely, a more
marked difference is visible in the severe conditions of each
test at positive voltages, i.e., +100 and +80 kV, respectively.
However, the most significant difference between the no-load
tests (#h30g90s, −30 kV, and −100 kV) and loaded tests
(#h30g0s, −30 kV, and −80 kV) appears in the graphs of
the electrical current signals at the negative voltages.
3511309
Fig. 4. STFT spectrograms of the #h30g0c test.
Fig. 4 presents the results of the #h60g0s and #h60g90s
tests. Like the previous no-load test (Fig. 3—#h30g90s),
but unlike the loaded test, the signals of the #h60g0s test
indicate little differentiation of the corona discharge pulses
at positive voltages, lack of uniformity in the milder condi-
tion (+30 kV), and occurrence of several intermediate peaks
between pulses corresponding to negative voltage discharges
(especially at −100 kV). The subtle difference between the
results shown in Fig. 4 and those of the previous no-load test
(Fig. 3—#h30g90s) is achieved by varying the sensor angle
and distance from the source (0◦ versus 90◦ and 30 versus
60 cm). It is also worth noting, in Fig. 4, that the result of the
negative voltage in the most severe condition, i.e., −100 kV,
highlights a particular feature of the negative half-cycle sine
wave of the dc source used in the experiments (in no-load
testing).
Fig. 4 shows that, in general, the electrical current signals
differ between positive and negative voltages in both the
#h30g90s and #h30g0c tests. At negative voltages (−30, −80,
or −100 kV), throughout the entire time scale and in the
frequency range of up to approximately 600 kHz, the magni-
tudes of the signals are more uniform than at positive voltages
(+30, +80, or +100 kV). The signals reveal the occurrence
of five corona discharge pulses lasting approximately 5 ms at
different moments through the duration of 80 ms. In Fig. 3,
note the differences in corona discharge profiles between the
no-load (#h30g90s) test signals and those of the loaded test
(#h30g0c). As can be seen, the behavior of the reference
3511309
Fig. 5. Hinkley criterion applied to the #h30g90s and #h30g0c tests.
signal at the positive voltage of +30 kV was similar in
both the #h30g90s and #h30g0c tests. On the other hand,
a more marked difference is visible at positive voltages in
the severe conditions of each test, i.e., +100 and +80 kV,
respectively. The most significant difference, however, appears
in the graphs of the electrical current signals at the nega-
tive voltages between the no-load (#h30g90s, −30 kV, and
−100 kV) and loaded (#h30g0c, −30 kV, and −80 kV)
tests. The parameters obtained from the STFT served as a
basis for the subsequent implementation of the algorithm for
calculating the new CVSTFT metric to study further information
regarding the corona discharges. The Hinkley criterion results
are described in Section IV-B.
B. Hinkley Criterion
This section presents the results obtained by applying the
Hinkley criterion to the electric current signals collected
during the experimental tests carried out in this work. These
results are depicted in Figs. 5 and 6.
It is important to note that the values shown in all the
graphs were normalized between 0 and 1 (positive voltages)
and 0 and −1 (negative voltages), given that the magnitudes
of the electrical current signals and the Hinkley criterion have
different proportions. Likewise, it should be emphasized that
only the results obtained in more representative conditions are
presented, i.e., mild (±30 kV) and severe (±80 or ±100 kV),
since the same result was found for other conditions. Fig. 5
illustrates the results of the #h30g90s and #h30g0c tests.
In Fig. 5, note that the behavior of the signal of the
Hinkley criterion (orange) follows the tendency of the original
signal (blue) over time. This indicates that the energy crite-
rion curves decay periodically to a local minimum point for
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 72, 2023
Fig. 6. Hinkley criterion applied to the #h60g0s and #h60g90c tests.
each discharge pulse (blue signal), representing the onset of
corona discharges, thereafter, increasing to a maximum point
corresponding to the energy of each corona discharge pulse,
representing the end of the event. Fig. 6 presents the results of
the #h60g0s and #h60g90c tests. As can be seen, the Hinkley
criterion is robust for the detection of transients at the begin-
ning and end of corona discharges, in the different operating
conditions tested in this study, including the discharge profile
in the no-load and loaded tests, variations in distance and
angle, and negative and positive voltages. In Figs. 5 and 6,
one can detect the beginning and end of the signals even in
the mildest condition of ±30 kV, with a low signal-to-noise
ratio (SNR) and low transition of corona discharge events due
to the low intensity of the electrical current.
C. Coefficient of Variation-Based Optimal Feature Selection
This section discusses the results obtained by applying
the CVSTFT metric to the electric current signals described
in this article. Based on the results obtained previously by
the STFT spectrograms, a frequency range was chosen that
proved to be more representative, from 20 to 500 kHz, for
the analysis of several spectral segments in the instants of
time of occurrence of the discharges from the matrix of STFT
magnitudes. The application of CVSTFT to the various spectral
segments from 20 to 500 kHz in each corona discharge section
yields the result shown in Fig. 7. Each graph in Fig. 7
represents a type of test conducted, and each one contains
a resulting vector that expresses the spectral variability and
compares it with the different applied voltage levels. Note
that the ±30 kV reference signals always present a lower
CV along the spectrum in all the conditions due to the low
DAVID et al.: NEW SIGNAL PROCESSING-BASED METHODOLOGY FOR OPTIMAL FEATURE SELECTION 3511309

TABLE II
M OST R EPRESENTATIVE F EATURES

SNR and low transition activity between discharge and noise.

Thus, it is clear that the variability of the corona discharge
profile is low in this condition. Similar results are visible in
the corona discharges of the next voltage levels, i.e., ±40
and ±50 kV, which, notwithstanding a subtle increase in CV
compared to ±30 kV, present an average profile of variability
along the spectrum, due to the low intensity of the electric
current. A transition begins to appear starting from the PDs
at ±60 kV, followed by the conditions in which the corona
discharge profile is more intense, i.e., at ±70, ±80, ±90, and
±100 kV (for no-load tests—#h30g90s and #h60g0s), or at
±70 and ±80 kV (for loaded tests—#h30g0c and #h60g90c).
Thus, the CVSTFT metric indicates that corona discharges have
significant spectral variability at voltages of or higher than
±60 kV when compared to that of the reference profile of
±30 kV.
In order to determine the frequency band that best expresses
the percent increase of corona discharges as a function of
applied voltage within the variability profile shown in Fig. 8,
the RMSD was calculated for the CVSTFT matrix, taking as ref-
erence (baseline) corona discharges at voltages of ±30 kV, and
varying sub-bands within the 20–500 kHz range of the CVSTFT
matrix. As a result, it was found that the 40–80 kHz frequency
Fig. 7. Spectral variability profile of corona discharges under different
band proved to be the most suitable one for representing the conditions.
corona discharge profile to express its percent increase as
a function of the level of applied voltage, as illustrated in in embedded electronic devices, given that the acquisition
Fig. 8. The criterion for choosing the best frequency band rate for the selected band and the use of a simple RMSD
was based on the values of the coefficient of determination metric would suffice to quantify the applied voltage. Table II
R 2 , i.e., when the increasing trend of the RMSD index best describes the most representative features. It should be noted
adjusted to a linear fit (45◦ ). This information is relevant that the confidence level in the 40–80 kHz frequency band
because the use of this technique facilitates the identification exceeded 90% in most tests, except for two cases that showed
of a band wherein the problem can be treated with a linear confidence levels of 89% (#h30g90s—negative voltages) and
approach. The chosen band proved feasible for implementation 82% (# h60g90c—negative voltages).
3511309 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 72, 2023
TABLE III
C OMPARATIVE A NALYSIS
Fig. 8. Percent increase in corona discharges.
As can be seen in Table II, corona discharges generally
increased by more than 10% after reaching ±50 kV in the con-
ditions of #h30g90s, #h30g0c, and #h60g0s (positive voltages).
In the conditions of #h60g0s (positive voltages) and #h60g90c,
the threshold of a 10% increase in corona discharges was
established starting from ±40 kV, while from ±50 kV the
percent increases were 36.52%, 40.42%, and 16.28%, for
example. The results indicate the feasibility of the new method
proposed here to simply quantify the percentage of frequency
variability of corona discharge profiles at different voltage
levels and operating conditions in HVDC systems. Thus, it was
possible to establish a threshold for the percent increase in
a corona discharge according to its profile by applying a
linearization approach to the problem. This information may
be useful in the surroundings of transmission lines or to
provide information about field measurements of the intensity
of electric current and voltage.
D. Comparative Analysis With Other Literature Approaches
In order to highlight the main contribution of the present
research work, Table III lists the comparison and sum-
marizes the key aspects that distinguish the proposed
approach from some of the main approaches described in the
literature.
V. C ONCLUSION
This work investigated the use of a new combination of
signal processing parameters based on the STFT and the
Hinkley criterion. A new metric was implemented based on
the CV, CVSTFT , for the analysis of several spectral segments
in the instants of time of occurrence of electrical discharges.
The spectral variability was measured at different applied volt-
age levels and in experimentally tested operating conditions
(loaded tests, no-load tests, and variations in distance and
angle of the measurement point), determining different corona
discharge profiles in HVDC systems. The results indicate
the feasibility of the newly proposed method based on the
selection of the optimal frequency band in the range of
40–80 kHz, demonstrating reliability levels of 90%, 91%,
92%, 97%, 89%, 92%, 93%, and 82%, by calculating the
RMSD in the CVSTFT matrix. Thus, although corona discharge
models present a non-linear response, the problem clearly
begins to exhibit a linear behavior after the band of interest
has been extracted, allowing their implementation in low-cost
embedded electronic systems, in line with the application of
new technologies for the Internet of Things and Industry 4.0.
The proposed method can be further investigated in future
research to validate its effectiveness for a wider range of
corona characteristics, including current pulse amplitude, rise
time, half-wave time, repetition frequency, as well as RI
excitation current prediction from corona cage tests in HVDC
lines.
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Gabriel Augusto David received the bachelor’s
degree in electrical engineering from Paulista
University (UNIP), São Paulo, Brazil, in 2018.
He is currently pursuing the master’s degree in
electrical engineering with São Paulo State Univer-
sity (UNESP), Bauru, Brazil.
He is currently a Researcher with the Laboratory
of Data Acquisition and Signal Processing, UNESP.
He has experience in the field of digital signal
processing and the Internet of Things (IoT) systems.
Pedro Oliveira Conceição Junior (Senior Member,
IEEE) received the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in
electrical engineering from São Paulo State Uni-
versity (UNESP), Bauru, Brazil, in 2016 and 2020,
respectively.
He is currently an Assistant Professor with the
University of São Paulo, São Carlos, Brazil, where
he works in the areas of sensor systems and indus-
trial automation.
Dr. Junior is an Associate Editor of the IEEE
S ENSORS J OURNAL.
Fabio Romano Lofrano Dotto received the bache-
lor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engi-
neering from São Paulo State University (UNESP),
Bauru, Brazil, in 2001, 2004, and 2019, respectively.
He is currently the Director of FAROL Pesquisa,
Desenvolvimento e Consultoria, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
He has experience in the field of digital signal
processing and industrial automation.
Benedito Roberto Dos Santos was born in Taubaté,
São Paulo, Brazil, in 1967. He received the bache-
lor’s degree in electrical engineering from the Uni-
versity of Taubaté (UNITAU), Taubaté, in 1995.
He is currently an Electrical Engineer with Interli-
gação Elétrica do Madeira S.A., Cuiabá, Brazil.
He has experience in the field of electrical main-
tenance and operation of high voltage direct current
(HVDC) transmission lines.