Draft, submitted to INSUCON 2006, '10th International Insulation Conference', Birmingham, UK, May 24-26, 2006
NETWORKING PARTIAL DISCHARGE MONITORING OF ROTATING MACHINES
Detlev W. Gross and Markus Söller
Power Diagnostix Systems GmbH, Aachen, Germany
ABSTRACT
The typical epoxy-mica insulation system of rotating
machines is a 'forgiving' insulation system. Due to this
electrical stability, partial discharge activity acts as an
indicator for a variety of defect mechanisms.
On-line partial discharge diagnosis using phase-resolved
partial discharge pattern serves to identify defect types
and their risk potential. Examples of defect types and
their typical partial discharge pattern are discussed.
Adequate application of on-line diagnostic measure-
ments and continuous on-line monitoring including the
operation condition of a machine allows keeping track
of the ongoing degradation of the insulation system and
helps to increase the system availability.
The structure of a partial discharge monitoring system
of a larger utility is given as an example. Here, with
each power plant a local server communicates with the
instruments installed via the local TCP/IP network. The
acquired data is then made available to the monitoring
center using IP forwarding with the utility's WAN. Di-
rect routing allows remote measurements to further
evaluate the machine's condition..
PARTIAL DISCHARGE IN ROTATING MA-
CHINES
The epoxy-mica insulation system, as used with the
majority of high voltage rotating machines tolerates
partial discharge to a certain extend. Mica, a silicate
mineral, has a layer oriented stable tetrahedral crystal
structure, whereas the layers can be relatively easily
detached.
Thus, mostly, even freshly impregnated epoxy-mica
insulation show internal partial discharge activity
with the embedded flat gas-filled pockets between the
mica layers. Moreover, thermal cycling of the insula-
tion, when running the machine, increasingly opens
further areas of delamination between the mica la y-
ers. Ongoing electrical aging of the contributing sur-
faces eventually changes the appearance of the partial
discharge activity. Additionally, for instance, weak-
nesses, contamination, or aging of the field grading
area at the slot exit will cause typical partial dis-
charge activity.
However, because of the high stability against partial
discharge that the composite epoxy-mica insulation
offers, if compared with other technical insulation
systems, often this discharge activity does not pose
an immediate thread for the insulation, but clearly
identifies an upcoming or ongoing problem.
Thus, analyzing the partial discharge activity offers
assessing various electrical, mechanical, thermal, and
environmental problems that affect the integrity of
the insulation system.
Although already considered very early in the techn i-
cal application of the impregnated mica insulation of
rotating machines [1], only further progress con-
cerning the detection and the processing of partial
discharge activity allowed a deeper understanding of
the influence of basic gas-discharge physics on the
observed activity [2, 3].
On the instrumentation side, the use of the phase-
resolved partial discharge pattern or ϕ-q-n pattern
strongly improved the interpretation and correlation
of the partial discharge activities with different defect
mechanism [4, 5, 6, 8] and their simulation [2, 3].
Fig. 1 – PRPD pattern, thermally aged insulation
The ϕ-q-n pattern is a three-dimensional representa-
tion of the count distribution versus phase and am-
plitude. As an example, Fig. 1 shows the ϕ-q-n pat-
tern of a thermally aged rotating machine insulation.
A high number of thermal load cycles has caused the
epoxy-mica insulation to delaminate at a multitude of
locations. The resulting pattern shows symmetrical
count distributions of the typical triangular shape for
both half cycles. This indicates that the delamination
does not affect the conductor or ground wall.
Fig. 2, instead, shows a typical pattern of so-called
slot discharge or ground wall delamination. Here, the
typical triangular pattern is found in the negative half
cycle, only, because of differences in the processes
starting the electron avalanche for both polarities.
The activity shown with Fig. 3 is caused by a pro b -
lem with the field grading at the slot exit [9]. Here,
improper processing and curing of a globally vac-
uum-pressure-impregnated (VPI) large motor caused
Fig. 2 – Motor, slot discharge activity
Fig. 3 – Slot exit defects, initial stage
initially small cracks in the insulation at the slot exit
(Fig. 4). The resulting discharge activity increasingly
widens the gap, while deteriorating the semi-
conductive layer. In the final stage, sparking between
the bar and the pressure finger (Fig. 4) causes high
level discharge (Fig. 5), which punctures the main
insulation and which will subsequently cause a severe
machine failure.
This machine was followed over a period of several
years showing the early indications during off-line
testing during an outage, several corrective actions,
and finally keeping it in service with continuous on-
line monitoring until recent replacement.
APPLICABLE DETECTION FR EQUENCIES
The rise time of an electron avalanche [10] under
Nitrogen atmosphere at ambient pressure is about
1ns, while it is about one order of magnitude shorter
under pressurized hydrogen, as it is used with large
generators. Thus, at its origin, a partial discharge im-
pulse has an evenly distributed amplitude spectra up
to several hundred MHz and above.
However, when traveling a real world winding, the
signal integrity suffers from different influences such
as attenuation, dispersion, reflection, and skin effect,
for instance, as machine bars are not designed to
conduct high fr equency signals [11].
One major cause of the increasing attenuation vs.
frequency is due to the semi-conductive layers intro-
Fig. 4 – Slot exit defects of a VPI motor insulation
Fig. 5 – Slot exit defect, final stage, heavy sparking
duced to smoothen the electrical field and to prevent
slot discharge. With increasing frequency, the con-
duction process concentrates on the surfaces and,
hence, turning the insulation above a certain corner
frequency into a stacked, lossy insulation.
The second strong impact is caused by the reflections
found with every impedance change of a conductor.
While in the slot of the core, a generator bar has a
comparably low impedance, as the core turns it into a
shielded, coaxial cable, whereas the bar's impedance
in the overhang is significantly higher, since it is un-
shielded (Fig. 6).
The resulting effect of a positive reflection, when the
signal leaves the slot and a negative, when it re-enters
the slot section strongly attenuates frequency comp o-
nents above a frequency, where the physical length of
the slot comes in the order of magnitude of the
Overhang: Z L > 100Ω
Slot Section: Z L ~ 10-20Ω
Overhang: Z L > 100Ω
Fig. 6 – Modeling a stator winding of a rot. machine
wavelength [12]. For large turbine generators this
effect becomes dominant above few MHz already.
Thus, partial discharge measurements must concen-
trate on a frequency band not exceeding about
10MHz in order to reasonably cover the entire ma-
chine. However, because of the higher attenuation,
elevated frequencies in return offer excellent near-
field detection capabilities to find and locate individ-
ual defects using antennas or near-field probes [7].
OFF-LINE PARTIAL DISCHARGE TESTING
During outages rotating machines become available
for off-line partial discharge testing. In case, a regu -
lar high voltage test set or a variable frequency res o-
nant test set is used to energize the entire winding or
the phase coils individually. Fig. 7 shows such a
setup to test a smaller turbine generator.
Fig. 7 – Off-line testing (ICM ®system), rotor removed
However, since the entire winding or coil is ene r-
gized, this configuration strongly differs from the
normal operation condition of a rotating machine. In
case, the neutral side of the winding is facing the
same voltage as the line end. Thus, areas that not yet
have been electrically aged are exposed to high volt-
age. The discharge pattern of electrically not aged
delaminations, for instance, differ from the pattern
acquired from an identical defect that underwent
electrical aging for a while. The main effect is that
the ongoing partial discharge in such areas corrode
the contributing surfaces, cracks chains of polymeric
material and, hence, offer more starting electrons for
partial discharge activ ity.
Typically, therefore, in most cases off-line tests pro-
duce higher discharge magnitudes than comparable
on-line tests under the normal field distrib ution.
ON-LINE PARTIAL DISCHARGE TES TING
On-line partial discharge testing and monitoring re-
quires permanently installed couplers. Preferably,
coupling capacitors are used as couplers. Besides
Fig. 8 – Capacitive coupler installed at the flex link
providing the partial discharge signals, the coupling
capacitors, if equipped with suitable circuits, offer
the synchronization voltage needed for the partial
discharge measurements as well. Fig. 8 shows such
coupling capacitor installed at the flex link of a mid-
size turbine generator.
Alternatively, high frequency current transformers
can be used for partial discharge coupling, if inserted
in the ground lead of so-called surge capacitors. With
large motors supplied by medium voltage cables, op-
timized Rogowski coils offer a further alte rnative.
Because of the stability of the insulation system,
schedule based on-line partial discharge measure-
ments are an option especially for large machines in
the upper voltage class.
Generally, care must be taken when comparing pa r-
tial discharge measurement results. Especially, the
thermal condition and the load situation must be
comparable to allow a comparison of the discharge
pattern and magnitude. Further, especially for dis-
charge activity with the field grading at the slot exit,
monitoring the humidity of the cooling air is needed
to correctly assess the trending information of the
discharge activ ity.
CONTINUOUS ON-LINE PARTIAL DIS -
CHARGE MONITORING
Using permanently installed couplers a multi-channel
partial discharge detector is used to sequentially scan
all input channels for their partial discharge activity.
Fig. 9 shows such an instrument (ICM ®monitor) in a
stand-alone configuration. The unit offers an alarm
relay, which is tripped in case preset levels for dis-
charge magnitude and average discharge current were
exceeded. The instrument stores locally the trending
information. The ICM ® monitor software running on a
notebook computer can be used to download the
trending information locally and to change into ex-
pert mode for the ϕ-q-n pattern acquisition. The same
functionality is offered remotely via modem.
Besides this stand-alone configuration, the instrument
allows various levels of further integration and net -
working.

Fig. 9 – On-Line PD monitoring, stand-alone unit
Hydraulic Pump Storage Plant
Hydro generators in pump storage plants are facing a
severe thermal and mechanical aging because of their
demanding load cycle. Pump storage plants are used
to provide short-term peak power.
Fig. 10 shows the partial discharge couplers installed
at the ring bus of such a generator. Here, six couplers
are install to offer a better coverage of the entire
winding.
Typically, such machines face full load within one
minute after startup from still-stand. Thus, the cold
insulation is facing the mechanical forces of the full
load condition. Mostly, such machines are exposed to
this thermal cycle several times per day. Further,
during the frequent start and stop sequences, critical
parts, such as the overhang often encounter vibration
during the transition phase.
Thus, other than with base-load power plants, partial
discharge monitoring must strongly consider the
overall operation parameters including power, reac-
tive power, and several temperatures, for instance.
Fig. 10 – Couplers installed on a hydro generator
Generators G1 G2
Couplers
ICM ®monitor
TCP/IP Intranet
Local PC:
ICM ®monitor
Software
TCP/IP Intranet
Monitoring Center
ICM ®pilot S/W
Fig. 11 – Structure of a PD monitoring system
Therefore, the ICM ® monitor can be equipped with an
additional analog board accepting four or eight chan-
nels of 4-20mA signals, which are trended along with
the pa rtial discharge activity.
With this example all six generators are equipped
with the ICM ® monitor, while a local computer cycli-
cally connects to the instruments to collect the data
using analog modems and the plant's telephone net -
work.
Simply sharing the drive of this local computer with
the utility's Intranet provides access to the locally
stored data.
Combined Cycle Power Plant (IPP)
The four generators of an independent power pro-
ducer's gas-fired combined cycle power plant have
been equipped in a similar way.
However, here an isolated TCP/IP network was used
to connect the ICM ® monitor units to the local PC,
which provides scanning, storage, and alarm han-
dling.
Multiple Combined Cycle Power Plants
In this case, a larger number of combined cycle
power plants located in different countries are mon i-
tored. With each power plant the local configuration
is identical (Fig. 11).
A local server (Windows Server) runs the
ICM ® monitor software in locked mode as a service
and not as an application (Fig.12). Depending on the
local situation, this server connects to one or up to six
local ICM ® monitor units via a fiber-optic TCP/IP

Fig. 12 – Local server to scan the ICM ®monitor units
network. The software automatically stores the re-
sults and handles the alarm flags.
The overview on the entire system's status is the re-
motely provided at a monitoring center, whereas the
communication uses VPN connections to the local
server units.
Additionally, a connection can be routed to access
directly from the monitoring center one instrument in
expert mode to remotely perform the phase-resolved
or ϕ-q-n pattern acquisition and analysis.
CONCLUSION
Phase resolved partial discharge pattern analysis
(PRPDA) offers identification of a variety of defect
types of epoxy-mica and other insulation systems.
Partial discharge off-line testing and continuous on-line
monitoring allows keeping track of the health of the
insulation system.
Adequate and cost-optimized maintenance actions can
be planned based on the trending results of on-line
monitoring, whereas off-line partial discharge test along
with additional testing serves to determine the needed
repairs.
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Contact information:
Power Diagnostix Systems GmbH
Brüsseler Ring 95a, 52074 Aachen
Tel.: +49 241 74927, Fax: +49 241 79521
Web Site: www.pdix.com